As long as I’ve been listening to trunked systems I’ve never experienced simulcast distortion... guess I’m just fortunate. I think there is still confusion as to determining if simulcast is the problem or it’s something else. There have been reports from people with issues with multi-site trunked systems that were not related to simulcast yet blamed on simulcast. I have forgotten what those types of systems are called, hopefully someone here can refresh my memory. What I DO experience is a delay when receiving the same signal on two separate scanners. There are times I will forget to turn off my SDS100 portable when I jump in the truck and turn on my SDS200. I’ve noticed varying amounts of delay from hardly noticeable to the time it takes to pronounce a multi-syllable word. I’ve discounted the antennas used on each radio as the cause of the problem because I’ve been told simulcast is a matter of distance (it takes the signal longer to travel a greater distance) between the multiple sites heard and the receiver but both my receivers are but a yard separated. In my case, the SDS200 has the better antenna, a mobile gain antenna, but both the 100 and 200 hear the transmission clearly, and since the difference in distance between the xmit site and both receivers is so slight (about 1 yard) I shouldn’t be hearing one signal delayed, creating an echo, but I do. I thought I was receiving the same transmission from the same site. But the only logical explanation I can imagine is that the two scanners are receiving the same transmission but from different sites. So I get this delay. It’s not distorted like some of the descriptions I’ve read regarding simulcast... the transmissions are all loud and clear, just separated by a delay which creates an echo of sorts.
