time to upgrade..erie county

[Thruwayman]

i think its time to retire this radio shack pro-94, Im from the Buffalo ny area and most places are going digital and im not sure what to get to replace this dinosaur?
whistler trx-1? or the sds100? not sure if anyone in the erie county area can chime in?

 

[NYAirOne]

i think its time to retire this radio shack pro-94, Im from the Buffalo ny area and most places are going digital and im not sure what to get to replace this dinosaur?
whistler trx-1? or the sds100? not sure if anyone in the erie county area can chime in?

Alot analog stuff still. All FD are still able to be heard. I use the Uniden 996XT models. I'd look at the 996P2 model. It's the newest version.

 

[Thruwayman]

thanks, i know amherst and buffalo went digital and i can longer pick them up on my pro-94

 

[BITT211]

unication g2 - 400-470 mhz with the best simulcast fix ever . for the price of a sds100, for little more $ ,get the unication , commerical radio , build like a tank , even decodes ecsd. noting there is very little> low/ high / 700/800 mhz around. your paying for in a scanner , not needed. also make note , this is a commerical pager , which scans , check Rays Pagers site , my 2 cents

 

[Saint]

Get the SDS100 scanner and spend a little more and get a lot more for the future
Steve

 

[sallen07]

unication g2 - 400-470 mhz with the best simulcast fix ever . for the price of a sds100, for little more $ ,get the unication , commerical radio , build like a tank , even decodes ecsd. noting there is very little> low/ high / 700/800 mhz around. your paying for in a scanner , not needed. also make note , this is a commerical pager , which scans , check Rays Pagers site , my 2 cents

"Even decodes ecsd"? You mean the P25 Erie County Sheriff dispatch?

I totally disagree with your recommendation. The fact that a number of Erie County law enforcement agencies have gone digital in the past year or two very strongly suggests that there is no trunking system planned for Erie County in the near future, so not only no 700/800 MHZ, but no simulcast either. There *are*, however, a number of agencies using NXDN, which the Unication will not decode. I know that Unication is working on new firmware to make the G4 and G5 more "scanner like", but AFAIK that firmware is not in the works for the G2, and at the end of the day the G2 is a *pager*, and lacks a lot of scanner features.

To the OP, if you can afford the SDS100, I would say get one; if a 700/700 MHz simulcast system gets stood up in the next few years you should still be in good shape. On the other hand, if you want to save some $$, get a BCD325P2 instead. Either way, if you want to listen to DMR or NXDN you will have to pay for upgrades, but a 325P2 plus both upgrades will still be less than a TRX-1.

The TRX-1 will probably work for you too, but one disadvantage is that the Whistlers don't actually trunk-track DMR or NXDN, so if you want to listen to a particular talk group or groups on a busy DMR or NXDN trunking system you may not be able to do so. (The Uniden upgrade fees cover the licenses required to trunk-track those protocols.) SaiaNet is a busy and growing DMR system that you may want to monitor but only listen to certain TGs.

 

[ak716]

^ what they said! TRS in Erie County for Public Safety?! Nah! Unless some miracle comes down and pays for the whole system from site equipment to subscriber units, its not gonna happen. Too many sandboxes that have different ideas and different plans. I think the closest anything would come is maybe, just maybe an agency or two would switch to SaiaNet instead of fronting the cost themselves, just hop on theirs and not worry about maintenance. SDS100, BCD436HP, BCD325P2 are your best bests if you're trying to stay as a portable scanner.

 

[k2hz]

I would suggest you avoid the SDS100 unless the use will be primarily P25 simulcast. It has many issues, especially with analog performance.

I have both a 436 and 100 and the BCD436HP is an outstanding scanner for everything except P25 simulcast. With the 2 scanners side by side with identical antennas the 100 has broken up, or even no, reception on many signals, due to intermod and desense, that are received fine on the 436. The 436 is outstanding on NXDN, DMR and non-simulcast P25 as well as analog NFM and aircraft AM. The 436 is actually not too bad on P25 simulcast in some situations, compared to other scanners, but the 100 gives flawless reception of local simulcast. Adjacent county simulcast on the 100 sometimes is marginal due to the desense issues but the only alternative is the Unication.

 

[Trbogeek]

"Even decodes ecsd"? You mean the P25 Erie County Sheriff dispatch?

"The fact that a number of Erie County law enforcement agencies have gone digital in the past year or two very strongly suggests that there is no trunking system planned for Erie County in the near future, so not only no 700/800 MHZ, but no simulcast either. "

Erie Co already is simulcast, for many of their services. IF they ever go trunking, would still be UHF, as they have many licenses, and would not need the 700-900 spectrum, and no need to clear with Canada.

 

[jonwienke]

I would suggest you avoid the SDS100 unless the use will be primarily P25 simulcast. It has many issues, especially with analog performance.

Actually, you can't have digital performance without analog performance, as all digital signals are encoded using analog RF signals. Digital performance can't be any better than the analog performance needed to get the analog signal to the digital decoder.

SDS overload can usually be dealt with by using filter settings.

 

[ak716]

Erie Co already is simulcast, for many of their services. IF they ever go trunking, would still be UHF, as they have many licenses, and would not need the 700-900 spectrum, and no need to clear with Canada.

Just a guess, but I’d think they are probably half way capable of doing a P25 TRS based off all the APX been floating around at county agencies, so their sky high figure one of them told me last year is probably dwindling down. Tons of capable subscriber units, lots of county owned towers, and I think they just upgraded the microwave system (I know absolutely nothing about that stuff). Maybe some flash upgrades, site equipment upgrades and boom.... but I could be way wrong too

 

[k2hz]

Actually, you can't have digital performance without analog performance, as all digital signals are encoded using analog RF signals. Digital performance can't be any better than the analog performance needed to get the analog signal to the digital decoder.

SDS overload can usually be dealt with by using filter settings.

Yes, the SDS100 is equally bad on both analog and digital signals if you are anywhere near FM or TV stations or strong in-band signals. This is typical of any SDR. Yes, you can tweak filter and attenuator settings to mitigate problems for a particular situation. That is how I find it works great for monitoring the local P25 simulcast system. For other digital systems, the 436 can get excellent reception on systems that are broken up or inaudible on the 100 due to overload and intermod.

No, I don't have a defective unit. The SDS100 has excellent (maybe too good) sensitivity on signal generator bench tests. AM aircraft reception is particularly bad with poor SNR and the speaker audio quality is inferior to the 436.

If you live in an area well away from FM and TV transmitters and strong in-band signals the SDS100 is OK but similar in performance to much cheaper scanners. The only plus for the 100 is excellent ability to handle P25 simulcast.