SDS200 Silent

firebal

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Need some help troubleshooting my friends SDS200.

The radio is silent. Cannot even pick up NOAA Weather Radio. (I know its transmitting because I am receiving on other receivers.)
I've restored all options and updated the firmware and database. Is the antenna provided that bad? Or could we be having other issues?
 

hiegtx

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Need some help troubleshooting my friends SDS200.

The radio is silent. Cannot even pick up NOAA Weather Radio. (I know its transmitting because I am receiving on other receivers.)
I've restored all options and updated the firmware and database. Is the antenna provided that bad? Or could we be having other issues?
Try an antenna from another scanner that you, or your friend, owns. See if that helps. Make sure that the center pin from the old antenna has not broken off in the BNC connector on the back of the scanner.

Has anyone keyed up a portable radio & transmitted close to this scanner or it's antenna?

The SDS200, as you know, is a database scanner. For all database scanners from Uniden, Whistler, whoever, one of the first things to check is the memory card. Skim through dozens of old threads regarding various problems with any of the models. A very significant percentage of those reported issues are solved either with a replacement of the memory card, or by formatting it, then reloading everything.

Use this formatting app, recommended by Uniden & a number of others:
SD Card Formatter - SD Association

After formatting the card, use the 'Clear User Data' under the drop=down Scanner menu in Sentinel. This sets the card up with the folders needed for the database & Favorites lists. (If you are using Clear User Data either when setting up a new card, or formatting an existing card, you may need to select "Show all drives" so that Sentinel will recognize the card since it has been cleared of all scanner specific files.

After doing that, then reload all the Favorites lists & database updates through Sentinel's Write to Scanner link.

No guarantee that this may cure any issues, but more than a few have been corrected via these steps. Besides, other than a few minutes of your time, this procedure costs nothing but a few minutes of your time.
 

firebal

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Try an antenna from another scanner that you, or your friend, owns. See if that helps. Make sure that the center pin from the old antenna has not broken off in the BNC connector on the back of the scanner.

Has anyone keyed up a portable radio & transmitted close to this scanner or it's antenna?

The SDS200, as you know, is a database scanner. For all database scanners from Uniden, Whistler, whoever, one of the first things to check is the memory card. Skim through dozens of old threads regarding various problems with any of the models. A very significant percentage of those reported issues are solved either with a replacement of the memory card, or by formatting it, then reloading everything.

Use this formatting app, recommended by Uniden & a number of others:
SD Card Formatter - SD Association

After formatting the card, use the 'Clear User Data' under the drop=down Scanner menu in Sentinel. This sets the card up with the folders needed for the database & Favorites lists. (If you are using Clear User Data either when setting up a new card, or formatting an existing card, you may need to select "Show all drives" so that Sentinel will recognize the card since it has been cleared of all scanner specific files.

After doing that, then reload all the Favorites lists & database updates through Sentinel's Write to Scanner link.

No guarantee that this may cure any issues, but more than a few have been corrected via these steps. Besides, other than a few minutes of your time, this procedure costs nothing but a few minutes of your time.
No luck. Even with the new antenna.
 

n2pqq

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Make sure you don’t have all service types off
 

Mogley

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Try to manually input a frequency. Then use a handheld and transmit right next to it. Also as others said, look at the squelch settings.
 

W5ATX

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lots of good info here, if you can't figure it out ship it to me, i'll diagnose it. if i can fix it i'll make a youtube video and send it back. if it's toast, i'll give you $100, i need a parts sds200 donor ;)
 

Ubbe

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Not stupid. I've also learned that the hard way. Its set to 1
It should unmute and produce noise in the speaker with that squelch setting and when set the scanner manually to a NOAA frequency. So the speaker or audio amplifier are dead, he gets no noise with the squelch set to 1 or 0 when entering a frequency directly on the keypad, Channel+frequency+Channel? Then keep the squelch at 0 and insert a connector that fits the speaker output jack, it could need to be excersised to make it work again. Also try the headphone jack.

If he gets noise then set to the strongest NOAA channel and fiddle with the antenna connector to see if the noise changes. I believe there's a coax inside the scanner from the antenna connector and then there's a tiny connector at the other end of the coax that goes to the circuit board that could have come loose.

/Ubbe
 

ten13

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The radio is silent. Cannot even pick up NOAA Weather Radio.

I had the same problem with a BCD996. I'm not a 'novice,' so I tried just about everything I could think of, including things mentioned above. I eventually sent it to Uniden. After an almost a three month wait, I sent them an email asking what happened. After ANOTHER month's wait for a reply, they said it "couldn't be repaired." I saw no reason to get the "broken" radio back, and didn't want to buy a replacement from them at the price they were charging.

Since they couldn't...or didn't want to...repair it, they only charged me $60.

But it probably shows where Uniden gets their crop of "remanufactured" radios from, which they sell for several hundred dollars each.

Good business plan if I do say so myself.....
 

Ubbe

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Additional questions: Does he see any signal strength on the NOAA channel? He has power cycled the scanner? Does he use any remote control software like ProScan or virtual scanner in ARC or other programs?

I had problem with my UBC780 that a remote control software sometimes set it to audio mute and it didn't clear even after a power cycle. I had to send a command to it using the serial port to command it to unmute, MUA or something like that, or it would be silent whatever I tried.

/Ubbe
 

firebal

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Try to manually input a frequency. Then use a handheld and transmit right next to it. Also as others said, look at the squelch settings.
Tried. No luck. Also changed out the antenna. Could there be a soldering issue?
 

firebal

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Additional questions: Does he see any signal strength on the NOAA channel? He has power cycled the scanner? Does he use any remote control software like ProScan or virtual scanner in ARC or other programs?

I had problem with my UBC780 that a remote control software sometimes set it to audio mute and it didn't clear even after a power cycle. I had to send a command to it using the serial port to command it to unmute, MUA or something like that, or it would be silent whatever I tried.

/Ubbe
No signal strength. No remote heads. If by power cycle you mean turn it off and back on again then yes. Appreciate you all trying to troubleshoot this with me.
 

KevinC

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If he gets noise then set to the strongest NOAA channel and fiddle with the antenna connector to see if the noise changes. I believe there's a coax inside the scanner from the antenna connector and then there's a tiny connector at the other end of the coax that goes to the circuit board that could have come loose.

/Ubbe
I second checking this connector.
 
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