what to expect with my new SDS100?

[maxxkatt]

I have a SDS100 coming next tue. I will have a Tram 1411 Broad Band Discone/Scanner Base Antenna in the Attic of my two story home, 50 foot of

Wilson Electronics 50 ft. Black WILSON-400 Ultra Low Loss Coax Cable. Mobile will be a WILSON 305-38 300-Watt Little Wil Magnet Mount Antenna CB antenna to receive truckers on CB bands.

Looking through the SDS100 manual and the "easier" manual the SDS100 appears quite complex especially compared to my Regency 100 scanner of many, many years ago.

So I am basically a total newbie to the digital world of scanners. Any other recent newbies to the SDS100 and digital scanning have some advice or let me now how they handled what I expect will be a steep learning curve?

 

[Saint]

Go to Google Type in SDS 100 scanner YouTube you'll find a lot of information that will be helpful
Steve

 

[jtwalker]

You should buy my book, "What to Expect When You Are Expecting ... a New Uniden SDS Scanner".

A CB antenna in your car will be good for receiving CB frequencies, but not much else. Is that your intent?

The discone should be fairly good at home and the LMR400 cable was a good choice.

Zip code programming will get you something to listen to day 1, but you will need to learn how to set up your favorites lists.

 

[ka3jjz]

This will likely help...

SDS100 and SDS200 FAQ Page - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Mike

 

[WX4JCW]

for the SDS series a Austin Spectra really does a good job, I have had one on my semi for years

 

[maxxkatt]

You should buy my book, "What to Expect When You Are Expecting ... a New Uniden SDS Scanner".

A CB antenna in your car will be good for receiving CB frequencies, but not much else. Is that your intent?

The discone should be fairly good at home and the LMR400 cable was a good choice.

Zip code programming will get you something to listen to day 1, but you will need to learn how to set up your favorites lists.

Yes, main reason for mobile is on trips on Interstate Highways listen to truckers for road information and they can be entertaining.
Yes I did about 2 weeks research on this forum and learned about the low loss cable is worth the investment. Funny thing is I just estimated how much I would need from attic in a two story house, down along the back side (hidden from street) under the craw space to my home office on the first floor. Guess what? I ended up with about 2 feet too much. Usually, I would end up on a project with 2 feet too short. send me a private message on where to buy your book and how much.

John

 

[jtwalker]

Agreed, 2 feet too much is way better than 2 feet too little.

send me a private message on where to buy your book and how much.

Just joking about a book.

 

[maxxkatt]

Agreed, 2 feet too much is way better than 2 feet too little.



Just joking about a book.

If I lived where you lived, I would not have given up on my other hobby, metal detecting. The Minelab Equinox 800 metal detector was like the SDS100. Came out in spring 2018, and was and is still the top selling metal detector. It uses a microprocessors and very sophisticated signal processing software. Not much different than scanners. Trying to find good targets among the mineralization noise in the ground amid lots of junk metal. Same with scanners. Trying to pull out quiet signals from background noise. In fact the chief engineer responsible for the 800 at Minelab was an engineer with deep roots in the signal processing business. Metal detectors can only go so deep due to physics. But the chief engineer Bruce Candy took another approach he made the 800 very sensitivity but adjustable so you could quiet it down and hear the good targets better. So similar in my opinion to scanning. Took me six months to learn the Equinox 800 metal detector. May be the same way with the SDS100. But I believe in buying good equipment and learning how to get the most out of it.

 

[tvengr]

Here is a link to Sentinel, the free programming software provided by Uniden. Go ahead and install it on your computer. You can get familiar with the software while waiting for your scanner. BCDx36HPSentinel < UnidenMan4 < TWiki

 

[gmclam]

I have a SDS100 coming next tue. ...

Looking through the SDS100 manual and the "easier" manual the SDS100 appears quite complex especially compared to my Regency 100 scanner of many, many years ago.

So I am basically a total newbie to the digital world of scanners. Any other recent newbies to the SDS100 and digital scanning have some advice or let me now how they handled what I expect will be a steep learning curve?

I am a scanner guru and it took me longer to get this scanner up and running to my satisfaction more than any other. Yes, when you get it you can enter your zip code (follow screen prompt) and be up and running; but that is not good enough for me. I want(ed) to match the programming in my other radios.....

For me it meant downloading, installing, running, learning Sentinel. Once in Sentinel I programmed Favorties (as they're called). The structure is Favorites lists organized by list.System.Department.Channel. I already knew how I wanted things to work, so it was a matter of learning the lingo and programming. If you don't know how you want stuff, it will be either a) trial and error or b) accept what you initially end up with.

I might add that I had already "programmed" this thing in Excel and just had to cut and paste into Sentinel. Oh if was only that simple.