Importing Uniden Program into a Whistler

[rocky28965]

I recently added a used Whistler WS1065 to my collection.
Today I powered it up with the intention of programming it for my location.
I installed ARC500 programming software and downloaded the program from the radio.
It contained, what I assumed was the whole of New Zealand, most likely imported from the RR database.
Not much use to me in Central Otago.

Most of my radios are from the Uniden stable, for which I use Proscan.
However, I do have a UBC37CLT which I programmed with ARC370.
So I thought I would import the program from that into ARC500 and write it to the radio.
After a couple of hours of getting nowhere, I came to the conclusion this wasn’t working.

So, some questions for you more knowledgeable people:

1/ Will the trial version of ARC500 actually do this task or do I need to buy it to make it happen.

2/ Is what I am trying to do, indeed possible.

In the meantime, I will browse the forums in search of a solution.

Thanks

 

[ka3jjz]

Unfortunately it's not likely. Whistlers and Unidens use very different methods to organize their data. The best you could likely do is (if this is possible) dump the Uniden radio contents into a .csv (comma separated values) file and re-organize the data. This would be very tedious but in theory possible....Mike

 

[Ubbe]

When I try using ARC125 and ARC500, my ARC370 copy have timed out its demo mode, I first enter a couple of frequencies in ARC500 and export to csv to see how it is formatted.

I open that in Open Office, an Excel clone, and then open the ARC125 file that I have exported to csv and I then have two windows with the different files.

I can see that for the ARC125 file the delay time are in column G but for ARC500 it is in column S. Then click and hold on that G and drag it to the right so it becomes the S column. Do the same for all columns so it will match how it is in the ARC500 window.

The import function in ARC are just a pad where data appear and you have to copy and paste it into the actual program. It's a kind of mini Excel sheet so no need to use that.

From Excel, or Open Office, mark the first upper left cell that has a frequency and hold down shift and mark the the bottom of the S column where you have the last data and do a copy. Then in the ARC500 program you click on the first free frequency cell and do paste and all data are then entered at the correct places.

You will have to edit some values like the bank numbers from ARC125 are just a digit but in ARC500 the scan list that works as banks have a minus sign in front of them.

/Ubbe

 

[rocky28965]

Thanks for the help guys.
I had a feeling it wasn't going to be an easy job.
If I just imported the group for my area from RR, it would only give me 5 or 6 working frequencies.
Whereas the list I have compiled from programed searches has over a 100.
There is also several DMR and DT3 trunking channels but I don't think this radio speaks that language.

 

[Wackyracer]

By using a spreadsheet for all your programing, it can be used as a MASTER to import and program any scanner into your scanners proprietary software.

 

[rocky28965]

I'm making some progress on this but not quite on top of it yet.
I can copy a group of conventional frequencies into the CSV Mapper but can't work out how to get them into a scan list.
The user guide is not much help in this area, mainly covering importing from RR.
So, I thought I'd try that route and see how that panned out.
That worked better, they go directly into a scan list.
So, I'm thinking, I'll import the content relating to my area from RR and then try and edit that to suit my list.
On one of the you tube video's relating to this it shows an editing panel with the scan lists as tabs, similar to ARC370, but I haven't found that yet.
I'll get there eventually.

 

[Ubbe]

It's usually a lot easier to edit in Excel than using the program for the scanner, be it ARC, Proscan, Sentinel or anything else. As soon as you have some frequencies entered in different banks or scanlists you can export that to csv and then import in Excel and can then very easily edit and add new records and save with different filenames that include the scanner model. Then simply import the file in the up/download program for the scanner.

/Ubbe

 

[rocky28965]

Thanks for your good advice.
I got it sorted eventually.
Didn't help when ARC wouldn't write to the radio.
Had me stumped there for a bit, but after changing the firmware in the radio it went straight in.
Now it's just another scanner in the rack.

 

[rocky28965]

Well, if you thought that was difficult, now I'm attempting to install the same program into a TRX-2E.

 

[Ubbe]

Well, if you thought that was difficult, now I'm attempting to install the same program into a TRX-2E.

It should be easy if you export some frequencies in TRX to a csv file and read that into Excel and do the same with the source scanner and compare columns and sort them so it matches the TRX excel window. Then fix any syntax errors that turns up and probably a column will be empty and needs to be filled with data before EZ-Scan will import it.

/Ubbe

 

[rocky28965]

That sounds like a plan, I'll get into that later.

 

[rocky28965]

Slowly getting more familiar with the programming software.
I installed the version that was on the included SD card.
Version 3.42
As suggested, I copied my files from a xl spread sheet to the program.
But I'm having issues writing directly to the radio, so are writing to the SD card externally.
It then works fine when inserted into the radio.
The software will communicate direct to the radio.
I was able to check the firmware and set the time ok.
But If I try to copy to it, a confirmation box pops up behind the software window and can't be accessed.

 

[Ubbe]

But I'm having issues writing directly to the radio, so are writing to the SD card externally.

I have the same experiance and always take out the SD card and program externally. If I have 1000 recordings it will always be 3-4 of them that will have file errors and cannot be read, so there seems to be some sort of SD card access issues that doesn't happen with a TRX-1 that I can program when the SD card are still in the scanner.

Before programming or reading the scanner then always right click on the SD card drive and select properties and then tools and let Windows repair any file system corruptions.

/Ubbe

 

[rocky28965]

I'm running mine remotely while I get it set up so it's easy enough to remove the cards.
I've got 4 different ones here to try various setups on.
I'm finding the smaller capacity cards load quicker in the radio.

 

[Ubbe]

I'm finding the smaller capacity cards load quicker in the radio.

You can partition any SD card to a smaller size, just enough so it will hold any recordings you are doing. It is the partition size that dictate the startup time. You can partition manually in Windows but the graphical user interface from the free version of Partition Magic and similar programs makes it much easier.

/Ubbe

 

[rocky28965]

I'm about to set up trunk scanlists for my area.
There are 2 DMR types used.
Not sure if this radio will decode them.
On my SDS200E they are MotoTRBO and DMR One Frequency.
The TRX-2E only shows DMR in the list of types.

 

[Ubbe]

On my SDS200E they are MotoTRBO and DMR One Frequency.
The TRX-2E only shows DMR in the list of types.

TRX scanners treat all DMR systems in the same way, being it conventional, Cap+ or Tier III, it scans their voice channel slots for active calls and compares to what you have programmed to monitor. So the DMR type, that will be unique only to the control channel, will be unimportant.

/Ubbe