Is there a way to get the WS1040's speaker to mute when no transmission is received?

[DVINTHEHOUSEMAN]

I've noticed over the past couple months that the WS1040 doesn't completely mute the speaker when no transmission is being received. It has a slight hiss at all times which I'm pretty sure means that the audio circuit is still active and as a result, draws much more power than it needs to and makes it only last 5 or 6 hours on a full charge at most. Other handheld radios I own shut off the audio circuit or at least disconnect the speaker when nothing is happening to conserve battery life. Whistler/GRE seems to have left that idea in the hat for this one, unless there's a hidden option I don't know about.

I know NIMH batteries doesn't get you very far in today's world, but my BC100 will last for almost 8 hours with 1000 mAh batteries under normal use whereas the 2300 mAh batteries in my WS1040 only give me 6 at most, with minimal key presses and backlight usage.

Did Whistler include a secret option for the speaker or did it really never get brought onto the table? It would seem odd to not bring it up but who knows.

 

[Ubbe]

Speaker amplifiers generally takes 10mA in idle and scanner 100-150mA as a total. Instead of 6 hours it would be 6,5 hours if the amplifier where disconnected. But usually amplifiers are not made powerless as it would create a thump when powered on and takes too long for scanner use until it produce clean audio. But they use the mute function in the amplifier to make it silent, if they have that option. I guess the old design in 1040 doesn't have that mute feature.

/Ubbe