Legacy Upgrade PSR 800 to Whistler DMR

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jaspence

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Absolutely! I have both my PSR 800 and RS Pro 18 upgraded. They even work well in my simulcast area, but that varies with each individual location. The DMR feature works very well, and with the upgrade comes an agreement that Whistler will accept you radio if future repairs are needed.
 

DJ11DLN

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I don't own a PSR-800 but I do have a Pro-18 and a Pro-668. The upgrade did wonders for both of them, especially the 668. It's about the best $60 you'll spend to give your orphan scanner a new lease on life.
 

marine61301

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I upgraded my PSR800 specifically because I was experiencing issues with simulcast distortion and it didn't help my particular issue.
 

fredva

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Don't count on the upgrade to improve simulcast reception if the PSR-800 isn't working OK on simulcast already. Simulcast improvement isn't what the upgrade is for. If your PSR-800 already receives Phase 2, then the main benefit will be the ability to receive DMR.
 

jaspence

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Fredva, one of the radios (RS Pro-18) improved after the upgrade. My Pro 800 already did well on the local simulcast system before the upgrade and now the RS and GRE both do the job well.
 

fredva

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Fredva, one of the radios (RS Pro-18) improved after the upgrade. My Pro 800 already did well on the local simulcast system before the upgrade and now the RS and GRE both do the job well.

I'm glad it helped you. But my PRO-18 didn't get any better reception on simulcast after I upgraded it. I was able to get new Phase 2 talkgroups on those systems after the upgrade (sometimes), but a lot of transmissions were missed and garbled. And I've personally never seen Whistler advertise simulcast improvement with the upgrade. So for me, the new capability was DMR and being able to hear some Phase 2 transmissions that I couldn't get at all before.
 

IAmSixNine

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Software will help a tad bit but ultimately the device hardware is not designed for simulcast distortion aka LSM.
If you have a scanner with these issues location is your best option, meaning move it around or use a directional antenna.
 

menkes

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Besides DMR the one thing that stands out for me is battery life.
Before, the upgrade I was lucky to get three/four hours.
Now I get 10/12 hours!
 

RaleighGuy

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Upgraded my PRO-668 and it worked a lot better than before. Used to be a desk drawer scanner, sitting around until I needed a backup or extra ears, but after the upgrade reception improved and it's one of the scanners I use most. The ability to get to updates to the firmware is also a big plus.
 

fredva

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Besides DMR the one thing that stands out for me is battery life.
Before, the upgrade I was lucky to get three/four hours.
Now I get 10/12 hours!

Oh yeah - I forgot how short the battery life was on my PRO-18 before the upgrade. That's definitely an advantage to the upgrade.
 

rfking123

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Hello Folks...

Ive had a Grecom PSR 800 for years...

Noticed today that Whistler are offering a legacy upgrade to their software etc.

Is it worth it? Any benefits? Has anyone done it?

would love to hear some feedback before I do it.

Upgrade Your Pro-18, Pro-668 or PSR-800 Scanner
Sent my Pro 668 in 2 1/5 months ago. And for the 668, it made a big difference in simulcast and all around performance....
 

DJ11DLN

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I don't have simulcast here (thankfully) but the improvement across the board on the 668 was unbelievable. I thought I'd bought a dud and of course that was during the no-returns phase of the RS fire sale. Figured it was a paperweight, it was about 80% deaf. I couldn't believe the difference. The Pro-18 wasn't nearly as bad out of the box but it too woke up a good bit when upgraded.
 

ilgrant

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I did notice some significant improvements after upgrading my PSR 800 with the Whistler upgrade. I think it's worth it. Your mileage may vary.
 

jmayson

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I just sent my PSR-800 in. I do have a question. Am I going to run into the same driver issue with Windows 10 that I had with the legacy scanner and software? My only Windows computer is very locked down and allowing unsigned drivers isn't an option.
 

wa8pyr

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Hello Folks...

Ive had a Grecom PSR 800 for years...
Noticed today that Whistler are offering a legacy upgrade to their software etc.
Is it worth it? Any benefits? Has anyone done it?
would love to hear some feedback before I do it.
Upgrade Your Pro-18, Pro-668 or PSR-800 Scanner

I have a Radio Shack Pro-668 (basically a PSR-800 in slightly newer Radio Shack clothing). Did the official upgrade which turns it into a WS1080. It's pretty much dedicated to DMR monitoring and I have not been unhappy with it.

The only thing I had to watch out for at first is that you must use the WS1080 EZScan software and not the Pro-668 software. After a couple of "oops" moments (which fortunately did not damage the scanner) I just deleted the 668 software and problem solved.
 

jmayson

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My PSR-800 arrived today from Whistler following the upgrade. Here was my experience.

I live in Austin and the radio was "deaf" to the local simulcast system. I experienced the same in Plano. However it worked great scanning the TxWARN, Louisiana, and Mississippi systems. So I figured my scanner was still functional. I hoped the upgrade would help. And it did.

I'm sitting here now hearing radio traffic I've never heard before. I don't know if the upgrade advertises improvement, but it certainly helped me a lot and for less than $60 I will now enjoy my scanner for many years to come.

Thank you @WhistlerWendy for your posts here.

Edit: I shipped my scanner via UPS late on a Monday afternoon. I received it back on Friday of the following week, 11 days later.
 

IAmSixNine

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Plano and Austin might have denser tower sites because they are covering smaller areas with more towers for better portable / in building coverage.
Many statewide systems are designed for wide area coverage so less dense tower configurations. That also equates to less simulcast distortion because your less likely to be RXing multiple towers which is were simulcast distortion comes from.
Thanks for reporting back that its working better.
That info is good to know.
 

fredva

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Many statewide systems are designed for wide area coverage so less dense tower configurations. That also equates to less simulcast distortion because your less likely to be RXing multiple towers which is were simulcast distortion comes from.

They are also often multi-site systems, or primarily multi-site with pockets of simulcast. With a multi-site configuration, adjacent repeaters don't transmit on the same frequencies, so you don't get the simulcast distortion.
 
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