Which new scanner has the best sensitivity SDS200E, TRX-2, IC-R30, BCT15X?

[kamilkamien]

Hello!
I browsed this forum and found a lot of valuable information about scanners and related topics. I come to you today because I want to buy a new scanner.
I currently have a Uniden 125XLT and a Discone Sirio antenna.
I listen to the analog aviation band and the analog service band in the range of 100 to 175 MHz. My scanner works very well, but I am looking for something newer that will be able to replace it and will be more advanced.
So I bought uniden 3600 with dmr. While the DMR worked fantastically, the analog part worked very, very poorly. What I heard on my U125XLT on "two lines" was legible, clean and understandable, but my new 3600 stops at this frequency and cannot understand anything. The reception is noisy, buzzing and crackling. Was very disappointed.

What can I get today to have a sensitive analog receiver but to expand the scanner with interesting functions?

I was thinking about SDS 100E but I read here on the forum that it is not a very sensitive scanner, although it already has digital options and everything that would satisfy me.
the second one is SDS200e. This scanner is stationary, costs the most, and records conversations on an SD card. It has cider modes, including DMR, which is very popular in my country. Unfortunately, I talked to its user and he said that it is very overrated due to its price.
If we are talking about Uniden, the last model from this brand that I looked at was BCT15X - it does not have digital modes, it does not record on a memory card, but it is very sensitive and apparently works perfectly well. An SDS200e user recommended this model to me for analog applications.

The last item is WHISTLER TRX-2. Digital design, calls recorded on an SD card. The question is how about tenderness? Has anyone dealt with him? How does this one compare to all those gathered here?

The last option is the Icom ic-r30 scanner with a digital band but without DMR. There is a record of correspondence. An interesting option is to scan two frequencies at once. The question is, how is the sensitivity of this model compared to others?

Tables and numbers showing sensitivity are one thing, I am interested in your opinion on this subject. Maybe someone had a direct comparison of these devices?

 

[Ubbe]

Tables and numbers showing sensitivity are one thing, I am interested in your opinion on this subject.

A scanner can be very sensitive, most of Icoms receivers are super sensitive, but measuring at the lab bench are one thing and a totally different matter when connected to an outside antenna. If you have no interfering RF sources like nearby transmitters or even FM and TV brodcast transmitters at a much longer distance, then the Icom would probably receive the best. But in a normal RF environment it depends of where those offending transmitters are in the frequency band that interfere, as one scanner might perform better than another and will depend of where in the frequency band you listen.

So it's usually impossible to tell what scanner that will perform best for you with your unique circumstances. If it where one scanner that where the best one all the time in all locations with all types of antennas then that would be the only scanner sold.

I have Icom, AOR, Uniden, Whistler and GRE scanners and sometimes one performs best and other times it's another scanner, depending of what are received and what antenna they are connected to and what the weather are at that day and if it's winter or summer.

/Ubbe

 

[kamilkamien]

A scanner can be very sensitive, most of Icoms receivers are super sensitive, but measuring at the lab bench are one thing and a totally different matter when connected to an outside antenna. If you have no interfering RF sources like nearby transmitters or even FM and TV brodcast transmitters at a much longer distance, then the Icom would probably receive the best. But in a normal RF environment it depends of where those offending transmitters are in the frequency band that interfere, as one scanner might perform better than another and will depend of where in the frequency band you listen.

So it's usually impossible to tell what scanner that will perform best for you with your unique circumstances. If it where one scanner that where the best one all the time in all locations with all types of antennas then that would be the only scanner sold.

I have Icom, AOR, Uniden, Whistler and GRE scanners and sometimes one performs best and other times it's another scanner, depending of what are received and what antenna they are connected to and what the weather are at that day and if it's winter or summer.

/Ubbe

Will using a filter installed on the cable for the commercial band help much? The nearest TVBT transmitter is located in the town where the repeater I wrote about earlier is located. Its TV broadcasting frequency is 198.5 MHz, which is below what I would like to hear at home.

 

[Ubbe]

Will using a filter installed on the cable for the commercial band help much? The nearest TVBT transmitter is located in the town where the repeater I wrote about earlier is located. Its TV broadcasting frequency is 198.5 MHz, which is below what I would like to hear at home.

Filters in a scanner are not very sharp and will pass other frequencies but attenuated, but if it is a 100.000W broadcast transmitter its signal that pass thru the filter can still be too high. A TRX-2 scanner has a 200MHz-405Mhz filter for that band so a 198MHz signal will pass without any attenuation if you listen to 405MHz. It has another filter for the 405-660MHz range that will reduce signal much more but it's not sure that it will be enough.

Other scanners have different ranges designed to their filters and Uniden BCD536 uses three filters, 137-225, 225-320 and 320-510MHz. If you listen to 510MHz then Unidens filter goes lower in frequency and closer to the 198MHz frequency that might pass a higher signal level than TRX-2, but then TRX-2's receiver performance are not as good as that in a BCD536.

Those FM broadcast filters for 88-108MHz doesn't cost much so there's no reason to not use one.

/Ubbe

 

[kamilkamien]

I thought about the choice for a long time and finally chose SDS200e. I got it at an attractive price and until the launch I was very curious how it would behave in my specific location. I have quoted many threads and topics here and opinions are very divided.
I unpacked it, connected it and I am very surprised with the "plus" reception effect.
I entered a frequency that I could hear well on the U125xlt and which I could not hear on the U3600. My new SDS200e received this frequency at full power. This is what the small signal meter in the main right corner showed. Everything worked better than I expected.
I thought to myself that this was a poor comparison between a handheld radio and a stationary radio. I thought that the stationary radio was better prepared for an external antenna.
Now I need to get used to the different filter options I got in the SDS200e.
The difference is that I receive various other frequencies on the SDS200e in the 148-150Mhz range, which I could not receive on the 125xlt.
The AIR band behaves in a very specific way, but I still need to check it with various other settings.