SDS100

Husband loves his anniversary gift thank you

Love the scanner, it performs way better than the 325P2 or 996P2. My only issue so far is this thing is a battery hog. I go through 3 batteries a day easily, so if you're an avid listener, you may want to have 4 batteries on hand. Thank you Uniden for coming out with this.

My desire to scan comes and goes like sporadic E propagation. My first scanner was a BC346XT purchased upon my entry into the hobby in 2013 and it served me well in a major Midwest metropolis for emergency service and HAM repeater scanning. After a move to the outskirts of a large Southern city it was packed away until a recent power outage during a major thunderstorm reawakened the impulse to "listen in."

The analog chatter was noticeably less than four years back and I decided it was time to upgrade to a digital scanner. Much research of the RR forums pointed me to another Uniden - the SDS100 - and in the time I've used it scanning has become fun again. In particular it was a treat to get started immediately by inputting my zip code and scanning the full database.

There are some recurring themes regarding this scanner, and I'll add my input:

Battery life - this scanner with its big, bright colorful display (and what I assume is some heavier computation) is a tad hungry, so I purchased the extra battery with charger. As a result I've experienced no downtime outside of the occasional swap if away from my desk for a long period. Scanning while charging has worked well.

Scan speed/amount of traffic - while the zip code + full DB can get you going immediately, I found it worthwhile to build favorites lists with the RR DB and program the scanner via ProScan. My "hit rate" went up considerably.

"It's bad on VHF!" - I ran the SDS100 next to the BC346XT, an FT60R and VX6R. It wasn't scientific - they all had different (but competent) antennae attached - but I noticed that the SDS100 was noisier on fringe VHF/UHF transmissions than the BC346XT, which I'd previously noticed was noisier than the Yaesus. Transmissions weren't missed, but they were less pleasant on the ears.

Waterfall worth it? - It's understood that a laptop with some SDRs attached or a top-dollar transceiver will have bigger, more useful waterfall displays, but my use-case has always been "on the move with no electricity," and for my purposes this $20 upgrade is useful while trying to learn the local RF flora and fauna.

In summary: while a new SDS with extras and upgrades may be pricy, I think it does its job well and is fun to use.