Uniden SDS200 True I/Q™ TrunkTracker X Base/Mobile Digital Scanner. Incredible Digital Performance. TrunkTracker X Technology Provides The Best Digital Decode Performance in The Scanner Industry.

I have owned many scanners over the years. All have been either the Realistic brand that was sold by Radio Shack or Uniden. Yes, this radio is expensive. But this radio offers a lot of capability for that investment. This is probably the best scanning receiver I have ever owned. The receiver in this radio is pulling in signals I could not hear before without being overwhelmed by stronger signals on adjacent frequencies. The scan speed is impressive. The setup can be as easy or as difficult as you wish to make it. In my experience, the Sentinel software is needed to maximize the value of the scanner. Taking time to learn the software will greatly enhance your scanning experience. If the idea of working with Sentinel intimidates you, there are lots of videos on the tubes of you that can teach you about Sentinel. There are some things I do not like. I do not like how Uniden chose to implement WX features. I find it to be awkward and clunky. I do not like the fact that some of the functions that are required to make certain digital services work are considered optional and must be purchased separately from the Uniden website. Geez...I just paid $700 for a radio and you're telling me I gotta spend another $150 for software licenses to actually listen to digital radio?! I'm not real happy with Uniden for that one. For $700, those licenses should be included. The network port is pretty worthless unless you plan to remote control the radio. And putting on the font panel ... WTH? I would much prefer a built-in bluetooth capability. AND, if you use that LAN port, it interferes with access to the micro USB port that you will use frequently when programming or upgrading your radio with Sentinel. The micro SD card is difficult to remove and insert, and it is limited to 32GB. I'm not sure why Uniden chose to put a female USB A port on the front of the unit. It's an odd choice and an odd location for that odd choice. Fundamentally, this is a very good receiver with some very nice capabilities. Unfortunately, some of the design and marketing choices make this a very good radio as opposed to an excellent radio.

After another ham told me about this, I went into research mode. I tried the RTL SDR dongles and were ok with them. I want to hear my local FD. After I put my location in, it was scanning EVERYTHING. I installed the sentinel software and made favorites and turned off what I didn’t want. This was an awesome purchase. Connectivity is easy, setup took no time. For a small unit, it does a great job. The audio isn’t bad and at no point did it garble. The unit is VERY LIGHT! Double side tape it down! Use the front usb to connect to the computer. There are tons of YouTube videos on it.

Let me start by saying I'm a bit of a Uniden fanboy when it comes to scanners. I have been a scanner enthusiast for 40+ years and have used them professionally for around 15 years. My first scanner was a hand-me-down Radioshack (brand) from my grandfather. It used crystals in order to program the frequencies and I have had several in between. I have had many different brands, including Whistler, Radioshack and GRE. Uniden Seems to be the only company attempting to keep up with newer technology and attempting to keep the ease of use of its scanners. While this scanner is not for the faint of heart and the absolute beginner, It is certainly easier to use than the Whistler TRX series. If you are an absolute beginner I would highly suggest having one of the scanner specializing companies (Scanner masters, Zip Scanners, ect.) program a program a SD card for you. However, with that being said, it's not impossible to learn, nor is it really difficult. A little time and patience will pay off greatly for you. The nice thing about this is the SDS series (100/200) is forgiving when you make mistakes. The SDS 200 Is the most advanced, user friendly (compared to other similarly featured scanners) on the market. The best thing that Uniden has ever done is the software driven scanners BCD 4/536 series and SDS's. Using the Sentinel software (included) is Fairly easy with with a little bit of use. There are a couple of different aftermarket software packages that make it even easier to program these scanners If that's the route you wanna go. The SDS200 Itself is the greatest scanner that I have ever used. The highly customizable color screen, the alpha tagging feature, which has been standard on most scanners for a few years now is very crisp and easy to read. What this scanner brings to the table is that it properly decodes simulcast. For those of you who have a simulcast system near you know the frustration of the choppy audio that you would get on a BCD 4/536 when listening to simulcast. Of course, this scanner has all the easy to use features such as Close Call and zip code scanning. The scanner has upgrades to DMR, Pro voice (EDACS), NXDN And a waterfall if you need those upgrades for your area. Is this the best scanner for all applications? Probably not This scanner is optimized to listen to trunk and digital systems. If you're lucky enough to have analog systems predominating your area this may be a little overkill. The thing that I would say about this, is that it will let you grow in to it when your area turns into a fully digital area, which at some point will happen. Be aware that you cannot listen to encrypted communications with this scanner. Here in Colorado most but not all law enforcement agencies are using encrypted communications. So if listening to law enforcement, is your goal, check your local Law enforcement agencies (On radioreference.com) to find out if they are using encrypted communications before making such a large investment. However it should be noted that most fire agencies and surprisingly a lot of military are not encrypted. It is a rather large investment However, scanner radios are very valuable when emergencies or disasters strike.

Set up was fairly straightforward and I had it working within minutes of opening the box. I do wish the documentation made a bit better use of illustrations when setting up, instead of largely only text. The broad sea of buttons with small print on them was a bit intimidating the first 90 seconds or so. In terms of first impressions... this is a truly wonderous device. I see why many proclaim this "the best high end scanner you can buy." You can literally get lost in the seemingly endless list of functionality available. The more I learn and use this scanner, the less guilty I feel about spending $700. If this purchase doesn't blow up your credit card, you won't be sorry for taking the plunge with this one. FYI, I swapped the included antenna with an inexpensive ($8) T-shape antennae that I could mount (somewhat inconspicuously) at the top corner of in an 9 foot window. My guess is the included antennae would be fine, but for the price, I threw it in as an option to try. I am slowly building a Ham shack at home, so long term, this little jewel of a scanner will likely get integrated into the mix and stretch it's reach with an even beefier antennae at some point. Final thought: I'm very pleased... and feel as if this was an excellent purchase.

My local agencies use P-25 Phase II Simulcast. This unit is the best at receiving that system. Voice clarity is studio-like with total silence in the background during broadcasts. My range, using a PCTEL 800mhz mobile antenna as an indoor base antenna, is excellent. I live at the very northern end of the D.C. Metro area and I can hear for at least a 70 mile range clearly. I downloaded the free Sentinel Software several days before the radio arrived and practiced programming the system I wanted for the unit. There are several “how to” videos on Youtube. I recommend watching several of them. Each give a slightly different insight. I have very little experience programming these complicated scanners but was able to correctly program the SDS200 on my first try. On the initial download of this software it may appear to you that this software is only for the BCD436HP & BCD536HP. This IS, in fact, the correct software. When you choose your scanner during programming, the SDS100 & SDS200 are options that can be chosen. Sentinel simply hasn’t renamed the updated software. During the programming, you have the option to edit the display and choose from “simple display” or “detail display”. I very much prefer the simple display. The detail display is just far to “busy” for me and makes it more difficult to identify the agency broadcasting. The simple display is very clear to read while still having all of the information you need for programming including Talk Group I.D. numbers you can use to match from Radio Reference. I also have a much older Whistler WS1080 which does a pretty good job on the same systems (all P-25 Phase II Simulcast) but the SDS200 does a better job not dropping transmissions and the voice clarity is noticeably better. One of the talk groups on both radios is “decoded” on the SDS200 on every transmission while the vocal is dropped on the Whistler about two-thirds of the time. Is it worth twice the cost … hmmm? I believe I’ll listen to it enough to justify the extra cost. I’ve seen a review that complained that the volume on individual talkgroups varies greatly with some coming in very loud and others that can barely be heard and there is not way to tweak the individual talkgroups in the programming process. I don’t believe that is actually the issue. The voice clarity is so clear on this unit that the individual voice inflections (including loud vs. quiet voice users) are simply much more noticeable. COST: I completely realize that there are fewer and fewer radio enthusiasts purchasing these units and therefore prices cannot be brought down through mass sales. Only a select few people will buy this radio so there is very little room for Uniden to make a profit from those few sales. That being said, the price still seems too high when you consider that you can buy a high end cell phone for that same amount of money. RECOMMEND? If you enjoy this hobby enough, and want the very best equipment to listen to sophisticated P-25 Phase II Simulcast, then I recommend this radio.

As a former manager of RadioShack store in Providence, I can now say that this is the best scanner that I have ever seen. I believe that the price might be a little high, but I’m gonna tell you you’ll have this scanner a long time and it’ll be well worth it. It’s very easy to program and the content is so clear when it comes out that I just have never seen anything like it.

Ownership of this amazing piece of equipment seems to bring out the best and worst in people. I was hesitant to purchase this unit because of cost and sporadic low reviews. I use to use broadcastify to monitor my local activity for well over a year, but then the stream provider just vanished one day, causing the loss of five or six local streams leaving me out in the cold. They just went dark with no explanation or warning. Since my location uses P25 Phase 1 trunking, my analog scanners were useless. I took the plunge and bought this unit because I didn't want to get caught again depending on 3rd party's for a feed. After setting the receiver up, I realized it was not just an old fashioned scanner, but a complex sophisticated piece of equipment. There are quick setups available, but I wanted to learn how to set up this radio manually. After several days of studying and exploring this equipment, I can say with total confidence, this radio "blew me away". Its options from filter settings, to search and find abilities blew away my expectations. There are massive "Easter eggs" inside the software and hardware that make this a fantastic investment. Channel activity alerts, filter settings, individual channel volume fine tuning, custom display changes INCLUDING redefining display definitions, digital noise and error variables you can display, etc. If you don't want to mess it the complex options on your own, you can quickly set up a complete channel programming by entering your zip code, or using the optional GPS system. Some of the major complaints I've seen causing low reviews seem to be due to the complexity of the unit. Its not going to be something you can master in a day, but many of the complaints I see do have adjustments within the unit (one channel being too loud or quiet, etc). If you have a problem with reception, there is probably a setting to help, you just have to learn how to use it. With that said, I was so impressed with the device that I upgraded the unit with all options, taught myself the functions of the unit, and have become a massive fan of the sds200! The price of the unit is well worth the cost in my opinion, just beware of sellers inflating it beyond the manufacturers recommended price. You can buy the upgrades from other vendors, but its less expensive to purchase them directly from uniden. This is not your fathers police scanner. Its a complex scanning beast. You just have to get to know it. I give it an A+, and have absolutely zero regrets. In my opinion, the best trunk scanning receiver on the market.

Tried it and it fails to work properly. The only thing that seemed to work was re-flashing the firmware to it's 2018 version! When I did the reception got a slightly better. Warning: The firmware has not had an update since April of 2019. It seems Uniden is lost on how to fix this since the engineer left the company. He will be sadly missed. The AGC on this unit needs work. With the squelch on 2 you barely get stations. On 3 it scans past everything. The unit has 2 LAN jacks and 2 USB ports that do NOTHING. There is no mention of them doing anything either. What are they for? The optional working version? If you accidentally put a lan cable into the front of this radio, make sure you have a pocket screwdriver handy to get it back out. The tab on the cable gets stuck behind the volume knob. The large (Cheap Plastic) chrome looking knob on the left of the radio comes loose and ready to fall off from the factory. Many people experience hum from this radio. If you call Uniden they will send you out a piece of brass so you can void your warranty by opening up the radio and wedging it in between the case and display! If you do it wrong you will crack your display. Really? Maybe they could have soldered a jumper on. They only had 3 years now to get it right. The least they could have done is thrown a penny in the box so you could do the repair if it bothered you. The one thing that frosts me the most is spending over 850.00 +tax to get the radio and optional NXDN/PROVOICE/DMR upgrades then finding out you have a bad radio within 30 days. The keys are non transferable and non refundable. This forces you to send the radio back to Uniden instead of the customary 30 day warranty from sellers on amazon. Uniden has a really quick turn around time of 3-4 weeks! So if/when you finally get your shiny box back that does nothing but look like it's doing something magical, it still does nothing. You could do so much better with a $30.00 SDR radio and free software which is what this really is but not everyone is computer savvy. Uniden has been around a long time however, this particular radio needs to be pulled from the line until it's finished. You can buy two of any other radio on the market and get better results. Check out Radio Reference forums on how the new Product Manager at Uniden is making a list of all the issues/complaints with this radio so the company can start figuring out how to address them. Don't buy this radio.

El nuevo Scan 200 totalmente digital, para USA viene configurado para sus cuerpos de seguridad, para México se requiere introducir datos desde cero, una vez hecho lo anterior viene la maravilla del equipo, una gran sensibilidad para escuchar. Excelente renovación del scan. Recomendable 100%.

Excellent full featured scanner! Very happy with my purchase!

J’ai acheté le SDS 200 je le recommande meilleur radio qu’on peut avoir pour scanner je m’attendais pas à ça mais ça m’a impressionné malgré que j’avais d’autres radios scan Je le recommande

Product showed up on time in good condition

Utilisation personnelle en loisir pour mon temps personnel ! F3