Thoughts of Whistler WS 1080

[dwayne0564]

Hello,

I have a BCD 436hp and just considering adding the Whistler WS 1080 to my collection, Looking for Thoughts about the Scanner.

Thanks.

 

[W6KRU]

The construction of the 1080 feels more substantial than the 436. The 1080s display is smaller but easier to read. You turn snanlists on and off by name so you don't have to memorize quickkeys, The audio of the 1080 is better. EZScan is much better than Sentinel. Overall, I prefer the 1080.

 

[JD21960]

Thoughts of the Whistler WS1080

I chose the WS1080 over the Uniden because it has 4 batteries instead of 3 on the uniden, has VERY EASY MicroSD card access *that card mess in the Uniden turned me off when I saw people on youtube trying to change SD cards with that metal slider. I also liked the voice decoding better from seeing Youtube videos of the old PSR800's over what I heard on the new Unidens. Sensitivity is very good on VHF/UHF and trunked systems. The scanner is heavy and sturdy and half the size of my old Pro96, it's easy to carry in a Sweat-shirt pouch or pocket. You might need a powered speaker for car trips OR an earbud as road noise covers all but the loudest Digital signals volume. Sitting still in a car or in hand it's fine. Max volume is 30, they should have made it 40. The perfect speaker/volume would be like that of the Radio Shack Pro96 where you can max it and there's no vibrations or faults. There's a plastic film protector that covers the whole front face, it WILL BUBBLE up after heating up and look terrible. Let it come off and get a nice leather or nylon carry case. My leather case was $19.00 from Universal Radio, Nylon is $13.00. I also put a piece of wide clear TAPE on the screen itself. EZScan software is easy to learn and if you get things messed up? you can just delete the V-scanner folder, set up the software form the way you want and re-save it to V-scanner, then to the SDcard/Scanner. I have 3 videos on YouTube to show people who are interested what it can do and what it sounds like. I had the camera a little too close but it still turned out ok. Reviewing those or other's on You Tube will help greatly.

WS1080 examples on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9tA1n1NRXLGUTINWXX1v_w

 

[iMONITOR]

The Whistler WS1080 is basically a rebadged GRE PSR-800. I think the reviews on the PSR-800 have been favorable. But I certainly would not expect anything more from the WS1080.

 

[W8RMH]

I thought I read a statement on here that the WS1080 had some improvement over the 800.

 

[sibbley]

Hello,

I have a BCD 436hp and just considering adding the Whistler WS 1080 to my collection, Looking for Thoughts about the Scanner.

Thanks.

I have the PSR-800, and also a 436HP. I think a 1080 would be a fine addition to your collection. From what I've read, the 1080 is basically the same radio as the 800 with a few minor changes. Do a search, there are a few posts by folks that have the 800 and the 1080.

The recording feature is much nicer than the 436. You can set it up to record only certain channels or talk groups, instead of recording everything. The 800/1080 LED is much better, you can actually set it up to get a strobe light effect. The LED stays on through the entire transmission! The audio is very good. Decode is also very good. You'll need to adjust the DSP level to systems in your area for best results.

VHF/UHF performance is much better with a duck antenna, at least in my case, YMMV. All around, I don't think you can go wrong with adding the 1080 to your collection.

 

[RoninJoliet]

Does the W1080 come with the latest firmware or do you need to put a new ver: in?....What volume #did "Johnnydollar" have set in You Tube video....TY, very good video and excellent audio even on PHASEII.....

 

[JD21960]

Thoughts of Whistler WS1080

@RoninJoliet Yes, the new scanner firmware is 2.4, I think PSR800's left off with 1.8. WS1080 DSP version is now 1.3. I think I had volume set for 20 or 22 in a couple of the videos. One of them you can see me lower the volume 2x down to 17 because of the "D2" transmissions that are louder than the normal ones. After playing with the DSP Adapt levels and "Multi-site" Threshold levels on the EZScan software for Trunking sites, the "D2" TDMA signals are even better than with the default settings of 75-95 and 64 DSP. I'm using 90-99 for Starcom21 in Cook County and 74 DSP level Adapt.

 

[RoninJoliet]

Thank You, I monitor T102,113 and 125 down south Will Co....Using 396XT,RS106 and base models of the same....Thinking about W1080, ......

 

[JD21960]

Sure thing. I hear ISP5 Joliet here through Cook County's Tower too. IS there a Map with tower listings of the StarCom21 by County? I can see the sites flashing on my Pro96 next to the Baud rate on the Control Channel but I have been wondering where everyone is getting their exact tower numbers and such? Is it under StarCom21 for the County listing in RR data bases? UPDATE -- Never Mind. I found it

http://wiki.radioreference.com/images/7/72/Starcom21_Site_Numbers_Map.jpg

 

[BeerNutz]

Bought the PSR-800 when they first come out. The strange thing was coming on this forum then was 9.5 out of 10 negative or incorrect posts about the radio were clearly from people who did not own the radio. Some tried to correct the incorrect post but they continued on and on anyway. WS1080 owners won't have to go through this nonsense. For ease of programming, daily use and build quality the 800/1080 are one of the best radios sold today.

 

[BenScan]

I've been a Uniden fan for a long time. I own 15 or so of them, including BCT15Xs, BCD996XTs, BCD396XTs, BCD436HP, BCD536HP, HP-1. When the Fort Worth Public Safety and Local Government trunked systems went from analog to digital P25, simulcast multipath problems started to be an issue with the Unidens. Being fed up with Uniden, I decided to try the Whistler WS-1080 hoping for some relief. Unfortunately, it's not significantly better in regards to simulcast multipath problems. However, I do like the sound better than the Unidens, as well as the recording playback. I thought the lack of buttons might be a big drawback, but they're well laid out and intuitive, and they're more responsive than the Unidens BCD436HP and BCD536HPs. I'm still getting use to the display. The font is larger which is easier to read, but it can be a little awkward figuring out what you are looking at sometimes. Right now, I can't see buying another scanner until Uniden or Whistler address the simulcast problems with a change in hardware and design. You can get these to work with a yagi antenna and holding your mouth just right, but don't expect true handheld(rubber-duckie) use to be acceptable if you live, work, commute, or travel between a few towers on simulcast systems.

The EZ Scan software is fairly intuitive, and if you put some thought into your scan lists and sets, you can accomplish some of the things I like about Unidens. Unfortunately, there are not number tags to let you quickly navigate to a particular channel. However, you can make it quicker with the scan lists.