You can try all types of testing. You can stand on your roof holding a coat hanger on your left arm while your right touches the chimney, you can wrap yourself in RG58 antenna cable and hold a garbage can lid, or, if there are any issues at all with simulcast, and if you want to be prepared for the future, then an SDS 100 or 200, in my opinion, would cause you the least worry and assure you good service for many years. For me the answer was simple. I had so much simulcast interference here neither my 436 nor 536 would work. The SDS 100 broke thru all that. I have a good scanner now that will not shut up. I had to turn some QK's off today as it was information overload. Thats my recommendation. IMHO. FWIW. Your mileage may vary. Greg
SDS200 vs. BCD996P2
- Thread starter Greg43545
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I answered you on that other thread. Now that you re posted I'll try again. Please try to not double post as you lose information at times.
You can try all types of testing. You can stand on your roof holding a coat hanger on your left arm while your right touches the chimney, you can wrap yourself in RG58 antenna cable and hold a garbage can lid, or, if there are any issues at all with simulcast, and if you want to be prepared for the future, then an SDS 100 or 200, in my opinion, would cause you the least worry and assure you good service for many years. For me the answer was simple. I had so much simulcast interference here neither my 436 nor 536 would work. The SDS 100 broke thru all that. I have a good scanner now that will not shut up. I had to turn some QK's off today as it was information overload. Thats my recommendation. IMHO. FWIW. Your mileage may vary. Gre
You can try all types of testing. You can stand on your roof holding a coat hanger on your left arm while your right touches the chimney, you can wrap yourself in RG58 antenna cable and hold a garbage can lid, or, if there are any issues at all with simulcast, and if you want to be prepared for the future, then an SDS 100 or 200, in my opinion, would cause you the least worry and assure you good service for many years. For me the answer was simple. I had so much simulcast interference here neither my 436 nor 536 would work. The SDS 100 broke thru all that. I have a good scanner now that will not shut up. I had to turn some QK's off today as it was information overload. Thats my recommendation. IMHO. FWIW. Your mileage may vary. Gre
Could you elaborate on this more? Are you able to fully understand 1/2 of the calls or are all calls 1/2 messed up and you can't make sense of it? Or is it all a mess or is it 80% and you're just frustrated? I'm thinking of buying one. If it's half price but I can hear half the calls then maybe that's ok (for my wallet).
ad5kl
Member
I don't know if the 996P2 stores more talkgroups now. The original 996XT that I have has a limited number of talkgroup (I think 20) categories that I can store per system. My SDS100 has no such limitation. I have all the clear talkgroups in Arkansas programmed with no limitations. Plus it handles the simulcast (which we now have in our area) a lot better.
Buy it from a reputable dealer. If the price seems to good to be true..don't buy it. Amazon has always been my choice; no hassle return if there is something wrong. Its as easy as it can be. Have fun. I'm jealous. GregThank you all for the information - It looks like if the Remtronix 830B antenna doesn't resolve my HP-2 issue I'll be selling it and buying an SDS200 ...
Actually, for the 996XT, you have a maximum of 20 groups, not talkgroups, per system. Maximum talkgroups per trunked system is 500.
For the 996P2, the limit on groups is still 20 per system, but you can have up to 500 TGIDs per group.
With the stock antenna, I got complete silence; with a Yagi, I could pick up about 60% on a good day but there were lots of missed transmissions that made it hard to follow anything.
ad5kl
Member
I didn't say 20 talkgroups, I said 20 talkgroup categories. I've had the scanner for 10 years & I believe I know the difference.
Sorry, I had already ordered the Remtronix 830B antenna before I saw your post about ordering it from Amazon
I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best as far as solving my reception issue.
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