SDS100/SDS200: Sds200 simulcast scanning
- Thread starter mippolito
- Start date
Do all 5 sites carry unique traffic?
There's no way to "speed up" scanning on an SDS200 (or any scanner) without scanning less at a time, whether it be fewer sites, fewer departments, channels, etc. If you don't want to miss traffic on any of the sites then RTL dongles with SDRTrunk would be a more suitable option.
Copy every site's frequency map then paste them into this calculator to determine how many RTL dongles you'd need to cover all 5 sites at the same time
Copy every site's frequency map then paste them into this calculator to determine how many RTL dongles you'd need to cover all 5 sites at the same time
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
Did you check the things discussed in these threads - from our FAQ
wiki.radioreference.com
Mike
SDS100 and SDS200 FAQ Page - The RadioReference Wiki
Mike
no matter what you do with the SDS200, it is only going to lock on 1 frequency (site) at a time. It only has 1 receiver in it.
To "speed" things up, you need more receivers or your 1 scanner needs to scan less sites/frequencies.
I'll also jump in....
There is a saying here : "The more you scan, the less you will hear".
Sorry if this 'old info'. With trunking, your scanner tunes to a site's control channel then 'listens' for any channel grants. If there is one, it tunes to the voice channel and you hear the transmission. If there is no channel grant, it moves to the next site.
The key here is that it takes X milliseconds to 'listen' to each control channel. Now, multiply that X ms by the number of sites you have the radio programmed to scan. Yes, they add up and if too many, you miss stuff. It is just the nature of how trunking and these (single tuner) radios work.
The reason why RTL dongles (and SDRTrunk) were recommended is that each dongle can 'listen' to multiple control channels within it's bandwidth and SDRTrunk can also decode multiple voice channels simultaneously. Giving you the ability to have one transmission on your right speaker and another on your left. And, if more than 2 happen at the same time, you can assign priorities to them so the more important one(s) are the ones decoded.
Make more sense?
There is a saying here : "The more you scan, the less you will hear".
Sorry if this 'old info'. With trunking, your scanner tunes to a site's control channel then 'listens' for any channel grants. If there is one, it tunes to the voice channel and you hear the transmission. If there is no channel grant, it moves to the next site.
The key here is that it takes X milliseconds to 'listen' to each control channel. Now, multiply that X ms by the number of sites you have the radio programmed to scan. Yes, they add up and if too many, you miss stuff. It is just the nature of how trunking and these (single tuner) radios work.
The reason why RTL dongles (and SDRTrunk) were recommended is that each dongle can 'listen' to multiple control channels within it's bandwidth and SDRTrunk can also decode multiple voice channels simultaneously. Giving you the ability to have one transmission on your right speaker and another on your left. And, if more than 2 happen at the same time, you can assign priorities to them so the more important one(s) are the ones decoded.
Make more sense?
Last edited:
Hit_Factor
Member
5 sites equals 5 monitor/scanners, maybe more if you listen to lots of services.
Similar threads
- Question
SDS100/SDS200:
I'm trying to convince my manager to buy 2 SDS200 scanners.
BCD436HP/BCD536HP:
Help Needed - BCD436HP & Sentinel Questions
