SDS100/SDS200: Uniden SDS100 no reception

[fxdscon]

Have just done. Nothing changed there.

When you tried your local NOAA weather frequency, was there a strong signal then?

 

[a417]

You should be asking about this system in your states forum as something may have changed with the system. Ask users there to confirm normal operations with the system.

Nothing has changed in the system recently.

not just police, I listen to everything on the channel. The trunk group has multiple TGs patch into it. NOTHING comes in as of this morning. I don’t suspect full encryption as my local PD is encrypted and it only mutes the audio. There’s a constant signal bar that shows on the display. That is completely gone. So Police, fire, EMS, public works all that no longer comes in. However, just this one intersection. Elm and south street in my local town I got a signal for like 10 secs with audio then I blanked out again as I drove away. Other systems come in and no there’s no static

Ok...this gets brought up by Bidde-folk every couple of weeks. You are more than a few miles out side of the system footprint, you have disadvantageous geography between the two closest sites and your recieving locations, and you're likely using the stock antenna which is straight trash on 800.


See that graph on the top left? You don't need much between you at the closest tower to you to completely attenuate the signal. The dark gray is landmass. RF doesn't penetrate landmass at that frequency. The geography between you and Cash's Corner is even worse, so I didn't map that one. I used Elm & Spring (the papa john's parking lot to be precise) as the Bidde address, so you can see why your reception there is hit and miss.

You need more HAAT at your recieving end to get by it. An 800 signal at that range will be hit or miss, and as you can see.. you're mostly missing it.

 

[Atlanta97]

So and so. It fluctuates on all my radios but yeah it comes in decently

 

[Atlanta97]

Nothing has changed in the system recently.


Ok...this gets brought up by Bidde-folk every couple of weeks. You are more than a few miles out side of the system footprint, you have disadvantageous geography between the two closest sites and your recieving locations, and you're likely using the stock antenna which is straight trash on 800.

View attachment 154368
See that graph on the top left? You don't need much between you at the closest tower to you to completely attenuate the signal. The dark gray is landmass. RF doesn't penetrate landmass at that frequency. The geography between you and Cash's Corner is even worse, so I didn't map that one. I used Elm & Spring (the papa john's parking lot to be precise) as the Bidde address, so you can see why your reception there is hit and miss.

You need more HAAT at your recieving end to get by it. An 800 signal at that range will be hit or miss, and as you can see.. you're mostly missing it.

I understand that. But it was originally working flawlessly and only hit a dead spot by the high school - dead and hit and a miss. Hit/miss by 7/11 and a hit/miss out route 111 Now it’s a constant dead. I could even get it to work in Sanford from time to time. Other than that as long as it was being held up in a way, not necessarily holding out a window, but holding it up it worked pretty good. Sometimes I can put it down and it still picked up. I usually keep it in the door when I’m in the car

 

[a417]

I understand that. But it was originally working flawlessly and only hit a dead spot by the high school - dead and hit and a miss. Hit/miss by 7/11 and a hit/miss out route 111 Now it’s a constant dead. I could even get it to work in Sanford from time to time. Other than that as long as it was being held up in a way, not necessarily holding out a window, but holding it up it worked pretty good. Sometimes I can put it down and it still picked up. I usually keep it in the door when I’m in the car

Put an antenna on it that does better on 800 and see if that helps?

 

[Atlanta97]

Put an antenna on it that does better on 800 and see if that helps?

No. I’ve been using stock. In fact, it’s working perfectly fine again.

 

[n1chu]

I believe you said you were receiving other agencies. If true, your issue probably lies with the system you aren’t receiving. And that means your scanner is not malfunctioning. They are probably doing an upgrade or had a problem with the current system and they are using alternate channels/frequencies until they return to normal. You can check state, regional for pool frequencies. But the suggestion to check out your state’s forum is where this question might get a definitive answer quickly.

 

[a417]

I believe you said you were receiving other agencies. If true, your issue probably lies with the system you aren’t receiving. And that means your scanner is not malfunctioning. They are probably doing an upgrade or had a problem with the current system and they are using alternate channels/frequencies until they return to normal. You can check state, regional for pool frequencies. But the suggestion to check out your state’s forum is where this question might get a definitive answer quickly.

The system is functionally at baseline. There have been no recent changes.

 

[scanfreqer]

Now is the perfect time to download the Waterfall/Bandscope for your SDS-100. A lot of people argue about it but I think it's fantastic. Once you learn how to use it, it's fun to play with and possibly find new frequencies.