So I bought the Uniden SDS100 hardware scanner, and I love it.   But it cost $700, and then I added DMR decoding for $60, and NXDN decoding for $50.  So I’m into this in a big way.  The SDS100 is POWERFUL.  It is not a toy by any stretch of the imagination.  It comes with free control software called Sentinel (yeah the download is hard to find on that page).  Sentinel is adequate for managing favorites and reading and writing to the scanner and it is all you NEED.

However I stumbled across this hunk of software called Proscan which looked interesting but it also costs $50.  Where does the cost with this scanner end?  Well, like most programs Proscan has a 30 day trial version so I gave it a shot.  After playing with it for like an hour I knew it was worth the cost so I bought it.  It does NOT disappoint.

The first thing you notice after connecting your software and launching Proscan is that it gives you an awesome virtual interface.  Hell, that alone is worth the price of admission, especially when you are 55 years old and need cheater glasses to see your cheater glasses.

 

Look at the upper right hand corner of the pic above.  It has the ability to input frequency easily.  Not many folks know this but the SDS100 is basically a Software Defined Radio (SDR).  It has a magnificent frequency range however there are some gaps, most notably around the US cellular frequencies.

Punch in 89.3 (or whatever your local FM station is) and BOOM, you got a $700 FM radio.  It sadly does not do AM radio as I believe the frequency range starts around 25 MHz for the SDS100.  Anyway with the easy input you can EVER SO EASILY type in a radio station, the NOAA weather channel, analog police, whatever.  Yes you can manually input it on the radio but I found out that is cumbersome and not very intuitive to do.  This is WAY easier.  Cool feature.

While I didn’t capture a screenshot you can also stream the output of your scanner to a streaming service such as Broadcastify. I don’t do that because I have a Raspberry Pi that does that already.  But make no mistake, that is a COOL feature.

What I do make use of is the Web Server.  That’s right, Proscan has a built in web server.

 

Of course you can customize this and set passwords but you can listen to your scanner from anywhere on the web.  Proscan is looking more and more and more like it is worth $50.  The web server page is below.  Has an audio feed (that you must click “Play” on) , the virtual interface, some server info, and the file directory where the log files are stored so you can look at them.  Winning!

 

Also you can set your audio stream.  Right at the moment I do it with the internal microphone. That’s not ideal at all.  You could pump the audio into a virtual cable program and serve the audio that way.   It should be noted though that the web server has about a 25 second delay from real time on my set up.  Not perfect, but better than not listening at all.  Now I can listen at work to my scanner at home without dragging a $700 scanner around that someone can knock off the desk or ever worse, steal.

Here’s the audio stream configuration page for the web server.

 

Another neat feature is a Google Maps plug in that shows you tower locations, addresses, GPS coordinates, etc.  Super interesting to know where the tower is or why you might be in a dead spot.

 

Lastly (for this blog……Proscan DOES SO MUCH MORE) it does what Sentinel does.  Has a database and allows you to save your favorites and read and write to the scanner.

 

This has just been an overview of Proscan and only some of its capabilities.  This is not a deep dive.  I find Proscan to be worth every bit of $50 if for no other reason than I was taking my scanner back and forth to work with me every day.  The web server feature allows me to NOT have to do that.   The SDS100 doesn’t stand up that great on its own and it’s really just a matter of time before someone knocks it to the ground (probably me) or it grows legs and walks away.

Throw in super easy frequency input and the ability to stream to Broadcastify and you have a winning hunk of software.

Here’s a quick video on the Proscan web server.