Uniden SDS100 First Impression, Specs, Guide and Video Review
Mon 12th Nov 2018, 12:45pm
The SDS100 arrived today, and we've had a chance to play with it. Here's our initial first impression.
SIMULCAST WORKS AS ADVERTISED.
Monitoring local simulcast systems, I'm not getting any choppy stuttering on any site. I used to be able to receive one site of the Vance County system reasonably well, but the other was pretty much unusable in remote areas of the county. The SDS100 picks up both with no issues. The SDS-100 does far better job at pulling in weak signals with clarity compared to other Digital Scanners.
Faster scanning. Roughyl 25-50% faster plowing through conventional channels, or 100-120 channels/second vs 80 for the x36.
The screen is much brighter and crisper than the displays of the x36 scanners. MUCH CLEARER. And it's color, and customizable. Did I mention it's clearer and quite nice on the eyes at night as well.
It will charge and run simultaneously, although you have to turn on an option in the battery menu first. You can only charge the scanner with the USB-mini port. The USB-micro port does not charge the scanner.
The speaker is slightly better than that of the 436, but not something audiophiles are likely to go crazy over.
The SDS gets noticeably warmer than the 436. It draws about 1400mA from the USB port when charging, about 800mA just scanning with the screen on, and about 750mA with the screen off. That's almost exactly 4x the power consumption of the 436, and why AAs are not a practical option.
It's slightly shorter than the 436, narrower (especially with the taper at the bottom), and significantly thicker. It has a kind of hand grip molded into the bottom half. It the rubber trim around the handgrip area feels slightly slicker than the rubber trim around the 436.
Sensitivity seems quite good. The SDS100 has picked up a few things on analog FM that my 536 completely missed, even when I manually held on the channel and turned the squelch all the way down to 0.
The only negative compared to the 436 is battery life. But overall, it's worth the price, despite that. 4.5 Stars.
Feature List from Uniden
- Customizable Color Display
Trunktracker X - APCO P25 Phase I and II
- Motorola, EDACS, and LTR Trunking
- MotoTRBO Capacity + and Connect +*
- DMR Tier III*
- Hytera XPT*
- Single-Channel DMR*
- NXDN 4800 and 9600*
- EDACS ProVoice*
- Location-Based Scanning
- USA/Canada Radio Database
- ZIP Code Selection for Easy Setup
- Close Call™ RF Capture with Do Not Disturb
- 8 GB microSD
- Soft Keys for Intelligent UI
- Recording, Playback, and Replay
- Temporary Avoid
- Fire Tone-Out Alert
- System Analysis and Discovery
- CTCSS/DCS/NAC/RAN/Color Code Decoding
- S.A.M.E. Weather Alert
- Enhanced Dynamic Memory
- Preemptive Trunking Priority
- Multi-Site System Scanning
- Fully Customizable Scanning with your own Favorites Lists
- Backlit Keypad
- Channel Volume Offset
- PC Programming and Control
- USB Connectivity and Charging
- Weekly Database Updates
- Free Sentinel Software keeps the SDS100 database and memory up to date
- Li-Ion Battery
- Frequency Coverage:
- 25-512 MHz
- 758-824 MHz
- 849-869 MHz
- 895-960 MHz
- 1240-1300 MHz
* Paid upgrades required for DMR, NXDN, and ProVoice monitoring
