sds200 signal bars come and go every couple seconds

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dfw1193

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Menu, Manage Favorites,select your favorites list, review/edit system,select system,edit system option,set hold time, change from 0 to 10.
 

Ubbe

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The hold time are used when the scanner loads a site and then waits there for anyone to start using the site during the hold time period. When it times out it goes to the next site in the system and starts a new hold time. Personally I would use 2 sec hold time and instead use a longer delay on all the talk groups, something like 5-10 sec to be able to follow a conversation to the end. As soon as someone uses a site the hold time will be ignored and with the default delay time for TG's the scanner moves on after 2 sec of silence, just short of hearing the reply on some systems and not enough time to move my arm and hit the channel button to hold on to the conversation.

/Ubbe
 

racing1

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The hold time are used when the scanner loads a site and then waits there for anyone to start using the site during the hold time period. When it times out it goes to the next site in the system and starts a new hold time. Personally I would use 2 sec hold time and instead use a longer delay on all the talk groups, something like 5-10 sec to be able to follow a conversation to the end. As soon as someone uses a site the hold time will be ignored and with the default delay time for TG's the scanner moves on after 2 sec of silence, just short of hearing the reply on some systems and not enough time to move my arm and hit the channel button to hold on to the conversation.

/Ubbe
So your saying,we should be using a talkgroup delay INSTEAD of a longer system hold time?
 

werinshades

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The hold time are used when the scanner loads a site and then waits there for anyone to start using the site during the hold time period. When it times out it goes to the next site in the system and starts a new hold time. Personally I would use 2 sec hold time and instead use a longer delay on all the talk groups, something like 5-10 sec to be able to follow a conversation to the end. As soon as someone uses a site the hold time will be ignored and with the default delay time for TG's the scanner moves on after 2 sec of silence, just short of hearing the reply on some systems and not enough time to move my arm and hit the channel button to hold on to the conversation.

/Ubbe
So your saying,we should be using a talkgroup delay INSTEAD of a longer system hold time?


I've been using this method since the 436/536. It doesn't "hold" on your system too long if their isn't any activity but will "delay" a talkgroup or conventional system as long as you desire.
 
D

DaveNF2G

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I tried this because it is very hard to figure out system parameters when everything is blinking. A 5-second hold time on a local P25P2 system seems adequate here.
 

sparklehorse

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I've been setting all my systems up with a 2 or 3 second hold time since this 'housekeeping' issue was first brought to light a couple years ago. It does seem to reduce missed transmissions as the radio appears to spend a greater percentage of its time monitoring the control channel and relatively smaller percentage of time doing the 'housekeeping' sweep. Whether or not that is actually true I can't say. If you're monitoring a large number of systems this does increase your scan cycle so it's a trade off. If you're only monitoring a couple of systems the increase in scan cycle isn't bad. All that said, the blinking of the signal bars on the SDS200 seems much more pronounced than it does on the 436 or 536, as though the SDS spends a quarter second doing its sweep vs. a tenth second or less for the older radios. That may just be the way its displayed and not actually indicative of an increase in sweep time, but it sure got my attention. But I'd have to say I don't really notice the SDS200 missing things. I haven't compared side by side with my 536 yet but I will do that when I have some time.
.
 

hosehead88

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My SDS100 does the same thing and my 436 did too. I thought it was supposed to do it. Neither unit ever missed any traffic though.

Same here. Not missing traffic and seeing the signal indicator disappear for just a blip every several seconds. Not concerned as the 100 is working head and shoulders above anything else I own.
 

dfw1193

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Very interesting I looked closely at my 436 tonight and the 5 signal bars never waver or disappear, they are there all the time while I am scanning or holding on something. Dont know why its different from the sds series guess I will look at the 536 tonight and watch it, they all are setup the same way with favorites. They all seem to receive and not miss any transmissions except for the sds100 which I returned today since it had issues.
 

Dafe1er

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Off in a far away place, far from u.......
Very interesting I looked closely at my 436 tonight and the 5 signal bars never waver or disappear, they are there all the time while I am scanning or holding on something. Dont know why its different from the sds series guess I will look at the 536 tonight and watch it, they all are setup the same way with favorites. They all seem to receive and not miss any transmissions except for the sds100 which I returned today since it had issues.
My 436 doesn't do this either but my Sds100 does too much for my liking. I played with the delay and set it up to 10 with it still doing the bouncing of the signal bars.

This is the only problem I really found so far with this unit but still grab calls without issues for the most part.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

teknishun

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Very interesting I looked closely at my 436 tonight and the 5 signal bars never waver or disappear, they are there all the time while I am scanning or holding on something. Dont know why its different from the sds series guess I will look at the 536 tonight and watch it, they all are setup the same way with favorites. They all seem to receive and not miss any transmissions except for the sds100 which I returned today since it had issues.

The SDS100 and SDS200 are a whole new breed of radios. They are SDR radios. Comparing them to the 436HP and 536HP
is like comparing apples and oranges.
 

scanmanmi

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Are you saying the SDS100 receives simulcast the same as the others and the SDS200 is worse?

Something is up for sure with my SDS200, not sure exactly what yet - after a week of operation. Comparing with SDS100, several 536s, a G5, and a 436, the management of area simulcast is about on par with the HP1 and HP2. It’s especially noticeable when locked onto a particular TG “channel” - for me IMPD Metro North in Indy.

The SDS100, 536s, 436, and G5 are picking up fine. My SDS200 is missing greater than 50% - about the same as the HP1/2 in my location. Even when locked onto a specific TG with full scale signal. It sometimes will have the full bar indication and zero audio while the other devices are squawking away.

Haven’t had time to jump into any detailed tweaking yet and frankly didn’t anticipate needing to as these other devices haven’t needed the extra attention to perform.


-cognetic
 

cognetic

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Are you saying the SDS100 receives simulcast the same as the others and the SDS200 is worse?

Thanks for acknowledging, scanmanmi.

Yes.. sorta’... basically my SD100 is superior, followed by workhorse 536s running 365/24/7... but that wasn’t my point... more so my SDS200 is suspect...

I’m my case, my first thought is that it is a flawed unit. And it’s got “The Hum”...



-cognetic
 

teknishun

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I have an observation, my sds200 with the Mansfield site programmed and all other systems avoided permanently from the fw regional system except the mansfield tx site shows scanning and signal bars but the signal bars disappear every second or so then come back again....(snip)......

Go into the scanner (or Sentinel) and edit the System Name from a hold time of zero (the default) to a positive
number value such as 5 seconds or 7 seconds, etc. This will greatly reduce the bouncing signal bars issue which
is caused by housekeeping routines between scans of the control channel. In simplest terms what that value does
is tell the scanner to hold onto the control channel that number of seconds before releasing it and scanning the
next cc, or that same cc again if there is only one. It works!
 
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