Radio Scanners

[The War Wagon]

I'm curious to hear how effective you are at understanding the traffic, particularly when driving and competing noises are present.

It can be tough at times - highway speeds are worse. And there's that "skip" every five seconds, and that doesn't help. But you get used to it.

I haven't set mine to "close call" yet, but I think that would be MUCH more advantageous. With the hills around here, you get a LOTTA faint signals from far away, when on a ridge.

[SB1942]

Hey everyone, I received delivery of my Uniden SDS 100 about two weeks ago.

I purchased from Bearcat Warehouse. The order arrived complete and a little ahead of the projected delivery date.

One thing that was a little curious was a phone call from Bearcat Warehouse the Saturday after I placed the order, asking if I was really sure I didn't want to pay for them to program the unit for me. I had declined such services when placing the order, and politely did so again. Clearly they make a bit of money off of that service and promote it aggressively. This is the only negative point regarding Bearcat warehouse's service, they were professional and efficient.

Everything unpacked fine, no damage or issues. Following directions the first thing I did was download the "Sentinel" software onto my desk top computer. This software is used to manage the scanner, updating firmware and services databases. The services database includes a *ton* of radio services for the United States and Canada, and is a core piece of information the scanner uses to operate. Sentinel is also used to manage Favorites, which I have discovered is an important step in maximizing the scanners usefulness. One minor hiccup when installing the Sentinel software, it requires an earlier version of the .NET framework to be installed on your computer. I assumed having the latest version of .NET framework would be backwards compatible, this was incorrect and Sentinel would not work. After downloading and installing the earlier version of .NET framework the software has so far worked flawlessly.

After ensuring the firmware and the services database was updated the next thing I did was set my location via zip code. This is quite straightforward using the organic menus on the scanner, and literally set the unit to work within 15-ish minutes of unboxing (including rest room breaks and a run to the refrigerator for beer... ). The user manual is... good for what it does. It catalogs all the functions of the scanner, but has no tutorials. This is akin to reading a manual for a car, which describes how the angular orientation of the forward wheels can be modified through manipulation of the steering wheel. Factual and helpful as far as it goes, but it does not teach you how to drive.

I am very happy with the quality of audio from the scanner, it is noticeably better than what can be heard via the online scanners (at least in my experience). Perhaps the Simulcast issues are at play in this improved performance, impossible for me to really say. One thing is for sure, I need to develop my "radio ear", as people speak pretty fast and a lot of terminology is used (e.g. "10" codes, unit identifiers, and personnel descriptions like "WMA" which means White Male Adult).

The scanner is hugely flexible in how you set it up. For example you can select the types of services you wish to scan via the organic menus. Aircraft communications, EMS, etc. You can also set the range from your location for which the scanner will include in the scan operations.

Even with the scanner set to my (approximate) location, the range set to the default 10 miles, and a focus on EMS / Law enforcement services, there are a lot of services for the unit to cycle through. This is fine if your object is to listen to a lot of diverse traffic. The downside is that it takes longer to cycle through that list, and the odds of missing a transmission or catching something in the later stages of transmission are fairly high.

The Sentinel Software allows you to pick and choose services from the main database and create lists of Favorites. You chose the name of the favorites list, and what that list contains. I'm not aware of any practical limit on the number of favorites list you can make. These Favorites can then be uploaded to your scanner where you can use the organic menu to select them for use. Just today I created my first favorites list, yielding much greater agility over a focused range of services. I chose to include EBRCS of course (East Bay Regional Communication Service) which includes EMS, Alameda County Sheriff, my city's police, etc. I also threw in some FRS frequencies on the odd chance any civil unrest perps might use such to coordinate. I'll likely make more favorites list in the coming months, and edit this one as I decide what makes the most sense for my purpose. There are some tutorials online, this one I found particularly helpful on learning how to use Sentinel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiEEhiIfM5A

Overall, after just two weeks of tinkering with the unit I'm quite happy with the purchase. It's working well, delivering as advertised and if you leverage the online tutorials, it's reasonably easy to customize to your intended use.

Great review!

Glad you're enjoying it!

[SkyHawk]

Listening via the online services, I've noticed occasions when they switch to a "Tac" channel. Presumably those are encrypted, not sure.

Tac channels are used when an incident is expected to go on for awhile or require a lot of comms, so as not to tie up the main dispatch channels with a single incident. Unlike main/dispatch channels which are bounced off a repeater and can be picked up over a wide area, Tac channels are often simplex operation (direct radio to radio) and low power. So any scanner is going to need to be near the scene of the incident in order to hear the comms. That makes it hard for a streaming scanner to provide tac coverage on simplex frequencies.

Trunked systems however have Tac channels on the repeater usually. And frequently tac channels are not encrypted even when the main channel may be. Sometimes they might hold out one Tac channel for encryption and it is used for very sensitive ops.

However, online scanner streamers usually don't have their radios scanning a ton of channels or talk groups, because it becomes near worthless. Since there is no way for anyone listening to a stream to stop the scanning and hold the channel/group of interest, it can be very hard to follow what is happening if a scanner is set to scan many busy channels.

In a perfect world, there would be a scanner streaming a single channel or talk group only, and there would be enough of these scanners all streaming different channels to provide complete coverage of a given area. Then the stream listener could select only the channel or channels they want, and not miss anything.

[The War Wagon]

it can be very hard to follow what is happening if a scanner is set to scan many busy channels.

I can vouch for that, living in a busy metro area (4 miles from downtown Pittsburgh). That's why I wanna enable the "close call" feature on my scanner eventually - that way, being in the South Hills, I'm not listening to calls all OVER the city, while missing local action.

DEFINITELY get a scanner with the "close call" feature. It saves a lotta frustration over distant, uninteresting calls, overriding what's happening up the street from you.

[Experimentalist]

Thanks for the info guys, hugely helpful to hear from people who have practical experience.

The Uniden SDS100 does allow you to specify the radius (in miles) from which you receive transmissions, which may help in reducing traffic. Each transmitter identifies itself digitally, and the scanner is able to determine those that are within the specified radius of your location.

I appreciate the challenges of online scanners and figuring out which service is communicating. Having my own scanner I can look at the screen and see who it is, which is nice.

Interesting to see how technology has advanced from the '90s when I used my analog Yupiteru. Modern scanners are so much more capable, and even more useable if you can find the right tutorials.

[Featureless]

I can vouch for that, living in a busy metro area (4 miles from downtown Pittsburgh). That's why I wanna enable the "close call" feature on my scanner eventually - that way, being in the South Hills, I'm not listening to calls all OVER the city, while missing local action.

DEFINITELY get a scanner with the "close call" feature. It saves a lotta frustration over distant, uninteresting calls, overriding what's happening up the street from you.

[axel4488]

Bearcat Trunktracker III. I run one in each of my trucks. Buy a 6 mos. subscription to Radio Reference, and computer program 'em. It'll be worth the trouble you save.

That is the one our tow trucks are equipped with. I love it and want one in my personal, but I need to find an external speaker for it. Better yet, find a way to put it into my speakers in the truck and mute the music when a call comes through, just like how the cruisers are.

I personally have a handheld Bearcat I bout for 70 bucks. works great, just needs a better antenna.

[Experimentalist]

Hey everyone. Just a little validation today on potential usefulness of scanning FRS frequencies during a riot.

I was at a local shooting range today, and observed another set of shooters, one of whom was wearing a BLM T-shirt. All three were using headphones with two way radios built in. I should remember the brand but it's been a long day. I don't think this is the actual brand, but what I saw was somewhat similar to this: https://www.earplugstore.com/3m-pelt...s-headset.html According to the website they use FRS frequencies.

Hope this is helpful.

[WoodTurner]

Question on the SDS100. I see they offer things like GPS modules as well as unlock keys for DMR and such. Any of these addons strongly recommended and could they be added later on by the user?
Sounds like the SDS100 can scan based on location, I assume without the GPS, you just go off of a zip code. Is the GPS module just so it automagically updates your location?

[Experimentalist]

I believe you are correct as to the function of the GPS option. Instead of using a rough approximation of your location (the centroid of a zip code) it would use your actual location.

As for the other options, I'm pretty sure they'll be happy to take your money later should you decide to offer it.

I chose to activate most of the optional encodings for radio traffic as I do travel a fair bit and being able to receive all traffic wherever I may be is useful to me. Your own choices may be different.

One thing I would suggest you decline is to have them program the unit for you. There is a powerful mechanism available for you to do it on your own (via the Sentinal software described earlier in this thread). Your interests will likely shift depending on what you're doing (e.g. attending a sporting event vs monitoring riots, etc.) so you'll want to have a number of "favorites" lists on hand, enabling you to adapt to your circumstances.

Hope this helps.

[WoodTurner]

Thanks, definitely helps. I'll just have to do a bit of research on radio reference to see which options I would need for my areas.

[gorn5150]

The upgrades can be purchased after you buy the radio. So can the GPS. I have a Homepatrol 1 with the GPS. It works great for road trips. Without the GPS you just punch in the zip code. Don't have the company program freqs for you. The scanner software downloads the radio reference database and lets you choose which channels you want to listen to.