SDS100/SDS200: Uniden SDS100 Programming Strategy

[pingdew]

Hello,

Awaiting an SDS100 scanner. I'm looking for advice on the best programming strategy for everyday scenarios.

1. Live in - Van Buren County, Michigan (MI) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
2. Drive to and from work every day to - Kalamazoo County, Michigan (MI) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
3. Michigan is MPSCS P25 (says Phase II but overwhelmingly they are not - Phase I) https://www.radioreference.com/db/sid/100
4, Note: Kalamazoo County (work and often visited county) is nearly 100% encrypted for Law Enforcement
5. Note: Van Buren (home county) is a lot less encrypted

My question is this:
How would you choose to program the SDS100 for everyday driving around these two counties? Primarily to and from work but also a fair amount of daily errand running. I've done a lot of studying on the SDS100 but I'm not sure how to handle this situation.

A. Should I use Autolocate? I can't find a clear statement that says the scanner will Autolocate as you drive or Autolocate is only a one-shot deal and doesn't expect that you will be driving.
B. Should I just put into a favorite list ALL the stuff that interests me in my typical travel area between these two counties and expect the fact that it will needlessly scan stuff that is many times too far away to be of concern?
C. Should I create 3 favorites? 1) My home area 2) An overlap area between the 2 counties 3) My work county. And then as I move from home to work I can turn Off / On the various Favorite Lists depending upon where I am?; i.e., FL1) Home area, FL2) Overlap - In between, Work / Errand running County, FL3 - In Work / Errand County.

I enjoy listening to Polic / Fire / EMS the most (my daughter is a Police dispatcher / 911 Operator in Van Buren County) but Kzoo County has wrecked that so I need to expand my horizons.

With all that in mind, can you recommend a strategy for how you'd program the scanner? I'm pretty tech savvy so programming something complex shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[eaf1956]

I would use GPS along with doing a FAV list specifically for that which I wanted to hear with location ON

 

[ofd8001]

A. Should I use Autolocate? I can't find a clear statement that says the scanner will Autolocate as you drive or Autolocate is only a one-shot deal and doesn't expect that you will be driving.
B. Should I just put into a favorite list ALL the stuff that interests me in my typical travel area between these two counties and expect the fact that it will needlessly scan stuff that is many times too far away to be of concern?
C. Should I create 3 favorites? 1) My home area 2) An overlap area between the 2 counties 3) My work county. And then as I move from home to work I can turn Off / On the various Favorite Lists depending upon where I am?; i.e., FL1) Home area, FL2) Overlap - In between, Work / Errand running County, FL3 - In Work / Errand County.

A. No. Autolocate is a guide to where the receiving transmitter is located.
B. I would and use Department Quick Keys to turn on those Sites and Departments applicable to where you are at a point in time. DQK1 would be for the Home Area, DQK2 would be for the In Work/Errand County. If you are in between, leave them both on. (Then assign all others to a third DQK for use if you go elsewhere.
C. No. You might end up "listening" to a given site multiple times. That is inefficient and can lead to missed calls.

The DQK method is the most efficient, but it requires a few more button presses. The FLQK method is easier from the standpoint of fewer button presses, but you got that inefficient potential.

 

[drdispatch]

I live in Calhoun County, and I also frequent Kalamazoo County. Here's what I do:
I have a Favorites List for Calhoun. I have a Favorites List for Kalamazoo. I turn on the Kalamazoo FL before crossing the county line, and after I cross over, I turn Calhoun off. The drawback is that while I have both lists on, I am scanning a couple of sites twice, but that is only for a few minutes.
My work situation is a little different though, since where I work is right on the line; so I created a FL that contains a little of each county and the 3 closest MPSCS sites to listen to when I am in the office.

 

[antennaman]

B. I would and use Department Quick Keys to turn on those Sites and Departments applicable to where you are at a point in time. DQK1 would be for the Home Area, DQK2 would be for the In Work/Errand County. If you are in between, leave them both on. (Then assign all others to a third DQK for use if you go elsewhere.

The DQK method is the most efficient, but it requires a few more button presses. The FLQK method is easier from the standpoint of fewer button presses, but you got that inefficient potential.

I've been a radio engineer my entire working life, am very, very technical, and well acquainted with the MPSCS from the inside out. That said, I am still BAFFLED by the concept of properly programming quick keys. I have both SDS 100 and 200s, and realize that I'm truly missing something here by my ignorance of this feature. I've tried the "easy" programming guide, but it really doesn't follow the "this is what this feature does, how it works, and how to do it" line of thinking. Can anyone recommend a thread, discussion, or tutorial that will help me "get my arms around" this feature? TIA.......

 

[pingdew]

The scanner arrived. I'm quite impressed. The trunking discovery is a fantastic feature. I decided to build Favorite List F0 for when I am home.
Each Department within that list allows me to turn on/off whatever I'd like to scan. Usually, it's only Law, Fire, and EMS but I can add and subtract Weather, CB, Ham Radio, DNR, Utilities (during down-powered lines), etc. It's still a work in progress. I then created another Favorite List for Kzoo County but I think I might give GPS scanning a try in the future for when I'm driving.

antennaman,

I couldn't image owning both those scanners and not using the F/D/S quick keys. They essentially allow you to build a menu system. The following is just one example of how you could apply it. It really is limited to your imagination.

Favorite 0 - Your Home
(within F0)
System 0 - MPSCS
(within S0 the appropriate Sites and the following)
Department 0 - Police, Department 1 - EMS/Fire, Department 2 - DNR, Department 3 - Weather / Skywarn, etc.
(within each D0, D1, D2, D3, etc.)
All the Talk Groups that apply to that department

System 1 - Conventional Analog
(within S1 )
Department 0 - Police, Department 1 - EMS/Fire, Department 2 - DNR, Department 3 - Weather / Skywarn, etc.
(within each D0, D1, D2, D3, etc.)
All the Channels that apply to that department
.
.
.

Favorite 1 - Your Cottage 210 miles away
(within F1)
System 0 - MPSCS
(within S0 the appropriate Sites and the following)
Department 0 - Police, Department 1 - EMS/Fire, Department 2 - DNR, Department 3 - Weather / Skywarn, etc.
(within each D0, D1, D2, D3, etc.)
All the Talk Groups that apply to that department

System 1 - Conventional Analog
(within S1 )
Department 0 - Police, Department 1 - EMS/Fire, Department 2 - DNR, Department 3 - Weather / Skywarn, etc.
(within each D0, D1, D2, D3, etc.)
All the Channels that apply to that department
.
.
.

With this setup, you could turn off F1 whenever you're at home, and all those channels and talk groups (possibly hundreds) wouldn't be unnecessarily scanned because they're 210 miles away. And then vice-versa, when you're at your cottage you can turn off F0 and only turn on F1.

And you take it down to the System and Department level as well. As an example, I have the National Weather Service channels programmed into a Department but if I left that Department ON it would stop on my local 162.XXX channel EVERY time it went through the scan. But if I'm interested in what the weather is going to be for the week I can toggle it ON, listen to the broadcast loop and then toggle it right back off.

I believe I discovered scanning around 1982-1983 as a child and this same structure of enabling / disabling groups and groups within groups was used at that time as well.

 

[drdispatch]

I've been a radio engineer my entire working life, am very, very technical, and well acquainted with the MPSCS from the inside out. That said, I am still BAFFLED by the concept of properly programming quick keys. I have both SDS 100 and 200s, and realize that I'm truly missing something here by my ignorance of this feature. I've tried the "easy" programming guide, but it really doesn't follow the "this is what this feature does, how it works, and how to do it" line of thinking. Can anyone recommend a thread, discussion, or tutorial that will help me "get my arms around" this feature? TIA.......

I sent you a PM.

 

[antennaman]

Thanks to both of you for the replies; it's a lot clearer now. I'm going to have to experiment.

Is there a way, that when at a known location like home, and with quick keys, to preprogram (deprogam?) or 'turn off' the scanning of MPSCS sites that I KNOW, from my radio experience, are simply not covering where I'm at? I know how to do that temporarily (or permanently, but don't want that), but it's difficult to 'catch' the site, avoid it temporarily, etc. And, it's all lost on the next reboot. The 'range' setting, even when set to zero, still is scanning sites well out of range.........and we all just KNOW I'm missing stuff while the scanner is looking, even for a brief period, at 'nothing'. Here at my home there are 3 sites that everything comes from; the scanner, even when set to zero, looks at 7. (I went into the master database and avoided the 'cells on wheels' as it was formerly even worse).

Next, is there a way to set up a quick key to just look at ONE MPSCS site? I'm standing and watching the fire....the site is a mile away.....even if the odd responder's radio has associated with another tower site, the rest of the response group is associated with the local site. I can do a 'site hold' (again, a 'hit the button at just the right time' sort of challenge), but it would be great if a quick key for my 3 mile radius stomping ground (I'm so close that if the local MPSCS tower fell my house would get paint chips on it) just locked that site in and no others.

Questions, questions. These are WONDERFUL machines, and with such great power take much experience and knowledge to master.

Thank you!

 

[werinshades]

Thanks to both of you for the replies; it's a lot clearer now. I'm going to have to experiment.

Is there a way, that when at a known location like home, and with quick keys, to preprogram (deprogam?) or 'turn off' the scanning of MPSCS sites that I KNOW, from my radio experience, are simply not covering where I'm at? I know how to do that temporarily (or permanently, but don't want that), but it's difficult to 'catch' the site, avoid it temporarily, etc. And, it's all lost on the next reboot. The 'range' setting, even when set to zero, still is scanning sites well out of range.........and we all just KNOW I'm missing stuff while the scanner is looking, even for a brief period, at 'nothing'. Here at my home there are 3 sites that everything comes from; the scanner, even when set to zero, looks at 7. (I went into the master database and avoided the 'cells on wheels' as it was formerly even worse).

Next, is there a way to set up a quick key to just look at ONE MPSCS site? I'm standing and watching the fire....the site is a mile away.....even if the odd responder's radio has associated with another tower site, the rest of the response group is associated with the local site. I can do a 'site hold' (again, a 'hit the button at just the right time' sort of challenge), but it would be great if a quick key for my 3 mile radius stomping ground (I'm so close that if the local MPSCS tower fell my house would get paint chips on it) just locked that site in and no others.

Questions, questions. These are WONDERFUL machines, and with such great power take much experience and knowledge to master.

Thank you!

As others have mentioned, you can perform all these tasks, but will need to create favorite lists, and shy away from zip code or database uploads. Since you have a good working knowledge of MPSCS, that will be very helpful. A retired friend of mine lives in Allegan County, and is close enough to Barry County and can receive both county sites which I set up for him. When he's home, he runs the scanner in ID Scan mode so only the programmed talkgroups are received, which sounds similar to what you're looking to do.

I frequently post a link to this You Tube video as it's as close to how I program via Sentinel. I'm comfortable diving in, making mistakes and being able to correct any program brain farts I have. Here's the link:

 

[drdispatch]

....Next, is there a way to set up a quick key to just look at ONE MPSCS site?....

Thank you!

Yes.
Assign Quick Keys to your sites. That way you can toggle sites on and off through the keypad. (Sites are at the same level as Departments.)
I assign Sites to Department Quick Keys in the 80's and 90's, as all my Departments are in the lower numbers. This allows a little more flexibility in turning things on and off, although the downside is that it's more to remember. I can turn off a Site without losing any of the Departments, and vice-versa.

 

[gmclam]

Quick keys can be assigned to Favorites.Systems.Departments. I consider Departments to be like a "group avoid" function. If you have a small list (that you can remember) or a cheat sheet you can look back at, I guess any method will work. But I want to be able to see the System (or ideally Department) name that I am toggling on/off. Therefore, I've limited my use of Departments because I can see Favorites and Systems from the menu.

I do assign Sites (of trunked systems) to Department keys. There are usually just a few and I am able to number them from 90 to 99. Yeah no way to see their names in the menu, but it does give me control over what's being scanned.

 

[hruskacha]

Here's my quick key setup for West Michigan.
The Quick Keys are configured so multiples of 10 (0,10,20...) are the sites for each county. Then the next 9 quick keys are for that county, example #1 (1,11,21,31...) are common / interop. #2 (2,12,22,32...) are always fire, etc. This pattern essentially allows me to quickly mix and match between sites and groups.

This allows me to quickly add different services by just typing in "..2" to add Police to the mix for example.

I especially like how If I go from Muskegon County to Ottawa County, I would be listening to Muskegon Fire Dispatch, but when I lose the signal to Muskegon County Simucast, I just gotta enter "..10" and "..0" to switch between sites and I'll still get the Muskegon Fire Dispatch.