Recently purchase an SDS200 and it seems to me that it's scanning slow as a turtle. I have just one system on and have avoided all but 7 channels to see if that would help but it still seems to be very slow. It doesn't even seem to get back around in the scan to catch the beginning of another conversation. I'm wondering if there is something I can adjust or do? Any advice is appreciated.
Slow Scan Speed?
- Thread starter Rick6975
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,474
You could be scanning too many unnecessary sites. It is a relatively slow scanning radio but you want to limit the sites you listen to, to just what you need oh, maybe one or two. If you are rolling through a lot of sites it'll take a long time to catch up. Does not matter how many talk groups are activated. If it's only one system and you don't have any conventional frequencies programmed on that favorites list it shouldn't be a problem.
What is your county and State, what is the system you're having the slow scanning on?
What is the best settings for the Filters for optimal scanning??
Walworth County in Wisconsin. I have everything avoided except 2 police channels, 2 UW police channels and our fire/ems. I'm in Whitewater.
This all dependant on where the interfering frequency is. The filter shifts the center frequency of the receiver window above (Normal) or below (Invert) the monitored frequencies. This will vary by location as well. On a particular 700 system I monitor at home I can turn the filter off, at work because of LTE interference I use Wide-Invert
Double check your filter settings and make sure none of them are set to auto.
I do have only one system ativated and everything but 5 channels.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,474
Can we assume that you are trying to listen to WISCOM? If so, there are many many sites in that system. You would want to pare it down to specifically what you need to pick up what you need, it does not matter how many talk groups you have activated.
As far as filters go, let's pin down what system you're trying to hear and I assume it is as above and once you get the few sites that you want then we can look at the proper method to apply the appropriate filter to those specific sites. You will use Global filters in settings to determine that and then return Global to normal as Global filters affect every object on the radio. Once the proper filter is determined and you apply it to the specific sites that you need. No other objects on the radio will be compromised by using the global setting which will remain on normal which is by default.
Filters are for troubleshooting poor reception and you use reception indicators to determine the best filter if you're not having any difficulty with receiving what you want you can just leave filters alone and they will be on normal which is default for a reason. As has been mentioned you always want to avoid Auto filters as they slow scanning way down as they sample each filter.
So are we talking about WISCOM?
As far as filters go, let's pin down what system you're trying to hear and I assume it is as above and once you get the few sites that you want then we can look at the proper method to apply the appropriate filter to those specific sites. You will use Global filters in settings to determine that and then return Global to normal as Global filters affect every object on the radio. Once the proper filter is determined and you apply it to the specific sites that you need. No other objects on the radio will be compromised by using the global setting which will remain on normal which is by default.
Filters are for troubleshooting poor reception and you use reception indicators to determine the best filter if you're not having any difficulty with receiving what you want you can just leave filters alone and they will be on normal which is default for a reason. As has been mentioned you always want to avoid Auto filters as they slow scanning way down as they sample each filter.
So are we talking about WISCOM?
GTO_04
Member
Walworth County has it's own system separate from WISCOM. They have an 800 MHz analog system for law enforcement and UHF for fire.
GTO_04
Walworth County, Wisconsin (WI) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Walworth County, Wisconsin (WI)
www.radioreference.com
GTO_04
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,474
Thank you very much, after all those years with the old database I have to admit I am having some difficulty with this new format. I should have probably paid attention to the beta thread LOL.Walworth County has it's own system separate from WISCOM. They have an 800 MHz analog system for law enforcement and UHF for fire.
Walworth County, Wisconsin (WI) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Walworth County, Wisconsin (WI)www.radioreference.com
GTO_04
Definitely need more information here to determine the problem of slow scanning. Need more specifics.
Thanks again!
GTO_04
Member
The reception on my SDS-200 is phenomenal, so at first, I wanted to monitor all law enforcement in central Indiana. Bad idea lol. It was scanning so many systems and frequencies I was missing a lot of local traffic. Just monitoring IMPD will cause you to miss a lot of ISP an suburban traffic. So I pared down my favorites list and local scanning is much better. I still need to pare it down a bit more. Too much of a good thing lol.
IME Walworth county has a weak radio system with a lot of static. While visiting the area, I was monitoring it with a 396XT which was more than capable. It was easier to pick up surrounding counties on VHF than the Walworth system.
GTO_04
IME Walworth county has a weak radio system with a lot of static. While visiting the area, I was monitoring it with a 396XT which was more than capable. It was easier to pick up surrounding counties on VHF than the Walworth system.
GTO_04
Make sure you have the telemetry channel ( 453.72500, MDT) turned off or just remove it.
What is your squelch setting? 2 should be fine.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,474
I hear you, I'm retired now but in my Newsroom we had one reporter who used to like to put on all the different counties in our catchment area, it was a large 7 day a week regional daily with three Editions. I said no... let's just put relatively local stuff on that we can respond quickly to. I don't want to niss a bank robbery down the street because I'm listening to a car stop in the next County. Regular tipsters and cop checks will take care of the less covered counties.
The old saying is, the less you scan, the more you hear.
To the original poster I would recommend going to the Wisconsin State forum and reading everything you can about whatever it is you're trying to listen to. I've been looking over that forum and it's a pretty good one..
Not sure exactly what you're trying to listen to whether the county or your hometown, it appears that your hometown has some conventional digital frequencies that have NAC's? Good luck to you!
Also a take off all Att. on digital conventional channel and see how far you can lower your digital threshold levels with out causing issues. I can run mine at 0 ms and have no problem,but that doesn't mean it will work for your system(s).
Ubbe
Member
There's no threshold setting in SDS scanners but there's a Digital Waiting Time. Its purpose are to mute the speaker audio and have no impact on the decoding process.
/Ubbe
Ubbe
Member
Compared to what other scanner? If it is your first digital trunked scanner then those scanners need to stay 1,5sec on each site you are scanning, and where the scanner can receive the control channel signal, to be able to decode it properly. If you scan 4 sites within coverage and one conversation ends at site 1, then it will take at least 6 sec until the scanning are back at site 1 again and monitors the next call.
/Ubbe
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 6,474
First of all we have not heard back from the original poster so we really don't know what we're talking about here as far as what he is trying to listen to. I appreciate your comment about an appreciable system hold time. It starts at 2 seconds. That was a change Paul made early on to make 1.5 default. 2 seconds, that is an appreciable change.
We really don't know what the original poster is trying to listen to but my guess is the 800 and 400 MHz frequencies with PL tones. That includes one police dispatch frequency that is a conventional digital with an NAC. County is different and if you want to listen to State Patrol then he has to go on to WISCOM with multiple multiple sites that would certainly slow scanning down.
I would certainly like to know more about all of this but I kind of threw my hands up this afternoon. If there's anything you can do to help the guy. I back you up.
After I took mine off auto, it was scanning very fast again.
- Status
