WS1080: Can anyone tell me how they like the WS1080?

Hello, I have seen a few well priced WS1080's on ebay, and I was wondering how good they are. I plan on mostly listening to Analog conventional VHF, both near and far, so I was wondering how well the 1080 does on distant frequencies compared to other scanners. I also want to monitor VHF P25 conventional that is kind of distant but am still able to receive the emissions on my other scanner. Thank you

-Bill

WS1080 - good luck

My first impressions at the WS1080. WHAT THE ****!? THIS is all the progress they've made in 11-12 years with scanners?! my Pro96 from 2004 was better in many ways for VHF/UHF and P25 reception. The WS1080 now sits at home hooked up to a Yagi, never leaves the house as mobile reception and "volume" are awful. I bought a Unication G5 Pager and couldn't be more happy. Feel free to click my profile, select all my past posts about the WS1080 and read the complaints and problems we encountered on the way from 2014 on.

As much as I like Whistler I would not get the WS1080. For about the same price you can pick up a Uniden 396XT - A solid workhorse that has a numeric keypad and holds it own in VHF/UHF and P25.

I would not recommend the Unication G4/G5 unless you have terrible simulcast distortion issues. The Unication G5 is a pager and very limited in it's scanner capabilities. There has been many request's to add some simple features that would make the Unication more user friendly and two years later that are no minor changes that would benefit average scanner user.

I like my WS1080 and 1095. Luckily I do not have any issues in my location listening to P25 Phase I and II. I don't really listen to any analog conventional in my area anymore. A Unification Pager would not even come close to meeting my listening needs, the 2 P25 systems I monitor are far to busy with many TG's. I would need multiple pagers to even come close to not missing things. Even with my PSR 500 and my 2 Whistler scanners I miss some things as the systems are far to busy most of the time with things going on at the same time. If i was using a G4/5 I would be missing more then what I am now.

I have 2 WS1080 and have no problems, and I listen to P25 Phase I and II

BillH1 said:

...I have seen a few well priced WS1080's on ebay...

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If you decide to purchase a Whistler WS1080 you might want to also keep an eye out for a Radio Shack PRO-668 (check your local Goodwill and/or pawn shops in addition to eBay) which is essentially the same scanner and is usually priced much lower than a WS1080. The main difference between the two is that the WS1080 CPU/DSP firmware can be updated for free via download to receive DMR/MotoTRBO while you would have to send the PRO-668 to Whistler to add "official" DMR capabilities at a cost of $59.99 (plus inbound shipping cost).

If you happen to locate a non-working PRO-668 at a low bargain-basement price, Whistler will repair the scanner to working order AND do the DMR upgrade at the same time for a flat price of $120 (plus inbound shipping cost). Here's the link explaining the Whistler DMR upgrade and repair process for the PRO-668 (which BTW also includes the Radio Shack PRO-18 and GRE PSR-800): https://whistlergroup.com/products/upgrade

I have the GRE and RS equivalents of the 1080 with the Whistler upgrade, and they are both good radios. The 396XT mentioned is a much older model and cannot do P25 phase 2, DMR, or NXDN, and the Pro 96 is even older and basically obsolete for modern systems although it was good in its day. I live in a difficult simulcast area and get very good results in my reception.

tumegpc said:

As much as I like Whistler I would not get the WS1080. For about the same price you can pick up a Uniden 396XT - A solid workhorse that has a numeric keypad and holds it own in VHF/UHF and P25.

I would not recommend the Unication G4/G5 unless you have terrible simulcast distortion issues. The Unication G5 is a pager and very limited in it's scanner capabilities. There has been many request's to add some simple features that would make the Unication more user friendly and two years later that are no minor changes that would benefit average scanner user.

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I have been thinking about getting a 396, but I wanted the DMR and P2 capability. As of now there is only one phase 2 system in my county, but I never really would listen to it anyway. I also wanted the P2 capability to listen to Las Vegas Metro PD, but they're encrypted now so forget that, and there are a couple DMR control channels popping up around here, but I can do without. I have seen Whistler 1040's brand new on Amazon for $239 how are they compared to the 396xt?

BillH1 said:

I have been thinking about getting a 396, but I wanted the DMR and P2 capability. As of now there is only one phase 2 system in my county, but I never really would listen to it anyway. I also wanted the P2 capability to listen to Las Vegas Metro PD, but they're encrypted now so forget that, and there are a couple DMR control channels popping up around here, but I can do without. I have seen Whistler 1040's brand new on Amazon for $239 how are they compared to the 396xt?

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The pro's for the WS1040 is louder audio, plenty of keys for direct access to features,multi-color alert LED, and longer battery life with 4 AA's . The 396XT is better at rejecting intermod. Multicolor display with alert , Close Call with DND, WFM broadcast , compact form with rubber grip sides, multi search limits and better software support .

i own the GRE-800 did the up grade to the WS1080 i use it as a mobile Scanner in my Ford Escape works great

I have owned a WS1080 for 4 years and I use it everyday in the car. It works great on my state and local P25 systems, solid on UHF/VHF conventional. It still has the same LSM issues as with every other scanner, fortunately I only have one of those systems in my area. I thought the audio was weak also when I first bought it, but if you enable the audio boost option in EZScan it makes a huge difference. At first, not having a keypad is a little cumbersome, but after a bit I got used to it and learned the menu settings pretty quickly. The 1080 is great radio and has served me well, no regrets.

So if I wanted to listen to a conventional VHF repeater about 25 miles away, and a VHF p25 repeater a little farther away, how would the 1080 do? I am able to pick these up with other scanners. I have read a couple of posts elsewhere that the 1080 doesn't open squelch on weak frequencies while scanning, but you can hear whats on that frequency if you manually stop, is that true? Right now i'm a little stuck, because I wanted to have the P2 and DMR capability, but I know the 396xt is a great radio, and I have heard good things about the 1040 also. Most of my listening is on Conventional VHF, VHF P25, UHF, and a Phase 1 system, as well as a couple other trunked analog systems, some local, some not. I'm not worried about simulcast issiues, because none of the systems I listen to are simulcast.

For what you are doing I think I'd go with a WS-1040 or a 396xt. You don't need p.2 for a conventional P25 system, that's only a player on trunked systems. I have 2 1040s (upgraded from, respectively, a Pro-18 and -668) and they work well with the statewide TSYS and some other trunked and DMR stuff. They are only so-so on VHF conventional (no conventional P25 around here). I have also a Pro-651, the RS equivalent of the 1040, and it is a much better performer for VHF.

I don't own a 396 but I've programmed a few for local folks and it impressed me as a great scanner, maybe not quite as sensitive as the 651 but also a tad bit more selective. P25 decode isn't quite as crisp but traffic is easily understandable, your ear become accustomed to it.

BillH1, sometimes when I'm trying to make a difficult decision I get a piece of paper and list the most important features that I feel are necessary and put a check under that scanner or whatever it may be. See which one ranks the highest with most checks and remove the lowest from the equation.

Do this again and this time look at how each scanner operates. BNC vs SMA , analog squelch vs digital, menu driven frequency input vs direct frequency input. In scanner charging - USB vs AC adapter, Stationary belt clip vs rotating. Look at programming - USB vs proprietary cable ( Uniden has the USB-1 that simplifies the connectivity)

Good luck with your decision !

Thanks for the input. I'll probably go with the 396xt for now. I had a Uniden Br330t before, and it was one of the best scanners i'v ever had. If I decide I need Phase 2 and DMR I can upgrade to a newer scanner later on since i'll never really listen to the only P2 system in my county, and there is not much DMR around me yet.

You'll be very happy with the 396XT. I use 396XT more than the 436HP .

Agreed it has issues, but I'll state what I consider a "pro". I found it very easy to "one-hand". Best simulcast reception among scanners (just my experience), BCD436HP, then Pro-106 / PSR-500. However, those two feel cheap, and the 396XT was so well made and still works pretty well so it's a good choice. The performance as a scanner of the GRE / Whistler "box" handhelds leaves much to be desired. I see them for $130-$150 all the time on CL and Offer Up, and if I can get them to sell for $100 I buy and resell them, so I've "owned" a bunch of them (for a short period of time).

I would just get a 436HP or TRX-1 but I don't have that kind of money to spend on a scanner right now unfortunately so I have to keep it low priced. I have also been looking at BCD325P2's for about $350, does anyone know how they perform? I know they use the same memory architecture as the 396XT.

BillH1 said:

I would just get a 436HP or TRX-1 but I don't have that kind of money to spend on a scanner right now unfortunately so I have to keep it low priced. I have also been looking at BCD325P2's for about $350, does anyone know how they perform? I know they use the same memory architecture as the 396XT.

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The BCD325P2 price is about $300.00-325.00 (used) not including the 60.00 for DMR upgrade . At this range I would look at the Whistler WS1088 - DMR included - Audio recording - Numeric Keypad and Database on micro SD. Basically just like the TRX-1 without NXDN and a little front end tweaks. HRO was recently selling them for around 319.00.

The TRX-1 is my "flagship scanner"

Hey, I thought this was a Whistler thread, not Uniden?

Hey everybody,

I know I'm still relatively new here, but I wanted to chime in, since Bill was trying to decide about a Whistler vs. Uniden scanner. I know price is an object, as it was for me. So what I did was to buy a really cheap PSR-800 (the Grecom version of the WS1080). IIRC, I got it on eBay for under $200, in late 2016. I didn't quite know what to do with it since GRE went under, but when I found the news about the Whistler upgrade on RR, I leaped at it. It took only a week for Whistler to return my PSR-800/WS1080 to me.Since I've had it, I've used it a lot, and so far it's a nice handheld scanner.

I live in the Houston suburbs, and have it programmed to my local PD/FD, county sheriff and nearby cities, plus the local airport. For what I paid for this scanner, to get Phase 1 and 2, and now DMR, it's a total steal.

I do have a couple of gripes, that the speaker could be louder, and their documentation leaves a lot to be desired. However, for a low cost alternative, you can't beat finding a low-cost PSR-800/Pro-668 and paying Whistler to upgrade it for $60. Sure, it doesn't have a numeric keypad, but EZ Scan + the RR database makes it a snap to program and listen.

The Uniden HP scanners are nice too (but expensive), but if you can find a cheap PSR-800/Pro-668, I'd recommend that route for you.