SURECOM SF401 Plus Frequency Counter for Radio Transceiver CTCCSS/DCS Decoder

SURECOM SF401 Plus Frequency Counter works great out of the box. It comes with a charger. I tested it with a few ham radios, a GMRS radio, and Motorola. The operating system may seem old for some, like DOS back in the day, but that makes it work well. Very easy to use and straight to the point. If all you need is a frequency counter, I recommend SURECOM SF401 Plus Frequency Counter—no need for adapters or extra cables. Keep in mind that is very sensitive, so the closer the SURECOM SF401 Plus Frequency Counter is to the radio, the better.

You do really have to be close to the device you are looking to scan sometimes. By close, I mean nearly touching, but if you are simply just trying to find what frequency something is set to (that doesn't provide the information natively and isn't digital), then it typically works quite well for us. We use it at times during some of our benchmarks and it has been useful a number of times since we added it to our collection of tools and devices. It will not give you any results (usable results) of course if the device your are scanning is digital/encrypted.

Just what I wanted, price was good. Shipping was another story, but that is just where I live!!!!! The USPS in Kalispell Mt. Sucks!!!!!!!!!

I can now use my own radio for work. This way I know it's clean, charged and working right. Used the finder to get the freq and ctoss numbers. Was told it was a hidden channel and can't give it out. Now to steal the bad guys freq at local airsoft games, will come in handy. Just have to make a list of channels, or figure out how to set radio up now.

Returned. Woefully inaccurate and really really poor sensitivity. Not usable for anything I can think of at all, and I'm a hobbyist (extra licensed ham and EE) who tinkers with R/C and ham radio equipment etc... I love gadgets, even if they have limited use- but if it's not accurate, it's useless. Considering it has to be nearly touching the source and still reports the wrong freq, a different one each time, it's a waste of my time. Skip the cheap stuff and go with actual professional grade test and verification equipment. Back it went after 4 minutes of testing

Handy tool

This product had some pretty polar opposite reviews so I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy it, but I did, and this is what I found. I have tested it on Motorola VHF 5-watt and UHF 4-watt portable radios with known frequencies and TPL/DPL codes. The readings were dead-on accurate including the tones. However, sometimes if the radio and counter were too close, the readings were way off....like 900 MHz on a VHF radio. So, if you know generally what kind of radio you have and you get a wacky reading like that, simply moving the radio farther away should give you an accurate reading. The instruction manual does mention this as well. I also tested Motorola DMR MotoTrbo digital radios and for this, I could not get an accurate reading at all no matter what I did. Not even close. It has an analog/digital toggle which I set to digital for the test. But still no good. So if you need something for digital, I don't think this is for you. All in all I'm happy with my purchase for my needs but they should really stop promoting it for digital since it simply does not work in that mode.

Works OK with analog frequencies. Does not work at all with digital frequencies. Very disappointed. Will be sending it back.