OK...So we have bugs in the new firmware and a library that has a bunch of "RAN 0" instead of "All" that was said to be worked on (fixed) overnight and released this morning. I just did a check of all updates on my TRX-2 and the CPU went backwards from 4.0 to 3.0.0.0. I guess they are stopping anyone else from updating to NXDN. No new library update either.
FWIW, I tried some NXDN and liked what I heard once I was on frequency. The big problem I had with limit searching was the nonsense step size on UHF that took way long to scan through, and stopped on several incorrect frequencies prior to reaching the actual frequency, forcing me to manually advance to the correct frequency...then forcing me to manually advance past several more incorrect frequencies to get it searching again. NO OPERATOR STEP SIZE SELECTION FOR MANUAL LIMIT SEARCH? Why not?
That made manual searching almost useless. By the time you got it "on frequency", the traffic was done. You missed it. The I tried Service Search for Ham Radio and got bogged down wasting a whole lot of time stepping through 420 to 440 MHz for nothing. In fact, most of the ham ranges have way too much wasted time looking at frequencies that are not going to yield much of anything. And with no way to tailor the ranges and step size, you are stuck with poor search tools. Only one limit search range, no step size adjustment, and NO EZ-Scan support for searching is beyond comprehension for a "top of the line" scanner.
And to make matters worse, searching is THE ONLY WAY to hear all modes (including DMR and NXDN) on a frequency! I can't even create memory channels that can do that because of that stupid MODE selection barrier of AM, FM, NFM, DMR and NXDN. So if I want to search known Amateur Radio bandplans for any mode, or just for all "DIGITAL MODES", how can I do that? Seems like a simple request. I just want to look for all mode (or just all digital mode) reception on a memory channel, or list of memory channels. Can't do it!
Someone has to rethink the approach to interfacing with this "high end" scanner. Bugs? I can tolerate that knowing it will be fixed. But major limiting design issues like above??? No, there is no excuse for that. It's a major letdown on a great receiver with great sound. No joy on searching out new activity of ANY kind. I hope Whistler is listening to this (and yes, I did make suggestions to them using the official e-mail address) and fixes these shortcomings ASAP. Good hardware, but bad software!
Phil