TRX-1: TRX-1 Reviews Wanted

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trentbob

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Thank you John. I know you know this history as well as I do.
 

Swipesy

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Yes sir. We have seen it all, lived it all. Having grown from 1 crystal mounted on a board and an ear plug to today's sophisticated radio technology there are few if any surprises in our hobby.
 

buddrousa

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Most here do not remember when I was a RadioShack GRE fan had the 785d that the 96 and 2096 run circles around then 164's the 197's then the 410's Pro18 Pro668 and I tried the TRX's (Still have them) but not using them on the front line fulltime.
An answer from a few post ago is yes you can hold on a talkgroup but it still takes the time to scan the voice channels looking for the talkgroup to still be active.
 

trentbob

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Most here do not remember when I was a RadioShack GRE fan had the 785d that the 96 and 2096 run circles around then 164's the 197's then the 410's Pro18 Pro668 and I tried the TRX's (Still have them) but not using them on the front line fulltime.
An answer from a few post ago is yes you can hold on a talkgroup but it still takes the time to scan the voice channels looking for the talkgroup to still be active.
Yes Buddy, in 2003, when the 785d, 250d and the pro 96 all came out together it was like night and day. They were the first digital scanners, type ll smartzone systems were popping up everywhere. The Uniden radios were nice but muffled and garbled on digital, the pro-96 was clear as a bell and GRE/RS ran circles around Uniden on digital.

As far as nxdn on the Whistler trx-1, I was very disappointed to find that it did not work on the trunked nx48 system in the city that I worked, many missed and broken transmissions, we were using DSD on laptops mounted in the cars and I had looked forward to that option. Of course I would have paid for it like I did with Uniden just to have it work properly. That NXDN system was in the clear for 5 years but the police always said, they had no problem with hobbyist, First Responders and media types buying expensive sophisticated radios and programming them to listen with good intentions BUT IF... Well, of course they are encrypted now, LOL, doesn't matter, I'm retired.
 

Swipesy

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Bob, the only Uniden I ever owned that I liked is the BC125AT. All my Unidens had low muffled volume except the 125 which is great for my train watching and MilAir. And of course the BC-235XLT and it proprietary battery. But still the technology was great to watch the naysayers that the hobby was dead because of trunking fade into the sunset.
 

DJ11DLN

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Late to the party here but I'm very happy with my TRX-1. BUT...I don't have any LSM closer than 50-ish miles from where I live and no NXDN and only a little DMR that I'm actually interested in, and it's conventional. For all of that and the P25 p.1 that makes up the lion's share of what I scan plus some conventional analog stuff, it works really well for me. I have a 436 and the Whistler decode and audio is definitely superior, which is important to folks like me whose ears don't work as well as they used to. I started in digital trunking scanners with a Pro-18 so the software wasn't difficult at all for me and once you get used to it it's actually pretty easy, especially with some of the changes they've made.

Is it perfect? No, it's not. And if I lived in the middle of the LSM hell that so many people have to deal with no doubt I'd have a different take on it. You can do things to help with that but when I go to an area with LSM I take my G5.

Bottom line, until something better comes along or things here change drastically, it's a go-to for me. But YMMV as always.
 

Paco-Jerte

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I am late too. Got my current TRX-1 from the classifieds here for a great price and easy fix with deep deep cleaning works 100% with batteries.

Whistler TRX-1 w/leaked battery damage | RadioReference.com Forums

Anyhow, its been great for my office's desktop with Simulcast (In Los Angeles) using a Radio Shack Telescopic antenna. Most complain about the Simulcast issues but using the right antenna and pointing to the adequate tower it works great and clear.

And what I paid for it was a great bargain for a unit that gets DMR/NXDN built in. The deep cleaning managed to get all that crap out of the scanner that was preventing it to work properly.
 

trentbob

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Bob, the only Uniden I ever owned that I liked is the BC125AT. All my Unidens had low muffled volume except the 125 which is great for my train watching and MilAir. And of course the BC-235XLT and it proprietary battery. But still the technology was great to watch the naysayers that the hobby was dead because of trunking fade into the sunset.
Oh yes John, I still have my 235XLT. The technology in developing trunked scanners was outstanding. Developing digital scanners was also an accomplishment. There certainly are less companies than there was in the sixties and seventies making monitors, scanners and receivers. We are down to a few. It will be interesting where we go from here as we rapidly lose police calls and new modes are being developed.
 

spacellamaman

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I am late too. Got my current TRX-1 from the classifieds here for a great price and easy fix with deep deep cleaning works 100% with batteries.

Whistler TRX-1 w/leaked battery damage | RadioReference.com Forums

Anyhow, its been great for my office's desktop with Simulcast (In Los Angeles) using a Radio Shack Telescopic antenna. Most complain about the Simulcast issues but using the right antenna and pointing to the adequate tower it works great and clear.

And what I paid for it was a great bargain for a unit that gets DMR/NXDN built in. The deep cleaning managed to get all that crap out of the scanner that was preventing it to work properly.

have you or would you like to detail your deep cleaning procedure for those of us who find ourselves in similar situations?

would be much appreciated :)
 

kmartin

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The pros and cons others have mentioned are correct pros.. Durable i also like the fact i can manually program it but took a while to learn how to manually program trunk systems, that takes a while
Cons ..yes there is a big difference in audio volume in P25 phase 1 vs P25 phase II same on the conventional side
P25 louder the non digital. Hopefully in the future whistler will do a better job with audio leveling or have a volume control built for each object Battery changing is a pain with the rubber protective case it does not do simulcast well at all. My solution for simulcast issues for my TRX-1 was first using a remtronix 700 800 MHz antenna i would put the scanner on it's side in my condo so the antenna would be horizontal instead of vertical i found an area where it worked perfectly if i stood the scanner up to where the antenna was vertical in the same spot the scanner preformed terrible. I realize every case is different depending on where you live or environment but i found in most cases that putting the scanner on it's side on a table and moving it around i eventually found that "sweet spot"
 

Paco-Jerte

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have you or would you like to detail your deep cleaning procedure for those of us who find ourselves in similar situations?

would be much appreciated :)


The one he bought used had batteries that leaked in the battery compartment.

Yes as the ad's picture shows the battery leak. But the worst was the main board not seen in the ad.

Used CRC Electronic cleaner spray to remove all the mess from the battery compartment + inner board and purchased a very soft 99¢ toothbrush ( got 5) from Dollar Tree. Eventually used them all and cleaned up the scanner completely from the leak itself.

I say took about 60m doing it carefully until it was to my liking.

Scanner works great ever since.
 
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spacellamaman

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Yes as the ad's picture shows the battery leak. But the worst was the main board not seen in the ad.

Used CRC Electronic cleaner spray to remove all the mess from the battery compartment + inner board and purchased a very soft 99¢ toothbrush ( got 5) from Dollar Tree. Eventually used them all and cleaned up the scanner completely from the leak itself.

I say took about 60m doing it carefully until it was to my liking.

Scanner works great ever since.
Excellent excellent, very much appreciated, especially the fact you did it with an easy to find OTC/not special order type product.

i actually remember the ad and pictures....that was one dirty bird all right, even made me cringe, and i got a high tolerance fer dirt.

Thanks!
 

devicelab

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Cons ..yes there is a big difference in audio volume in P25 phase 1 vs P25 phase II same on the conventional side P25 louder the non digital.

Have you tried the 'audioboost' "ABst" setting? I don't have the above issue on my TRX-1 but I set everything with audioboost enabled.
 

eryoung2k

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Love my TRX-1 took a while to figure out the "Not So Easy Scan" software, but a light bulb went off in my head while laying in bed and jumped on the laptop and got it figured out (remember youtube is your friend with learning about the software) Picks up everything in my area (02324 zip code) I also really like the protective case. Its like a a Otterbox defender series for your scanner. My cat actually (accidently?) knocked it off the table I had it on and it fell to the floor and it was fine!!!
 

ArkTex

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So, my history with the TRX was very similar. Simulcast performance was good awful on it.

Downgrading firmware to 5.3 from 5.8 showed a noticeable difference in my case on my local P25 II Simulcast system. It might just be me not having my unit configured correctly, but it's working a lot better. My opinion is it's a decent scanner for the price, being $400 cheaper than the SDS and not having to pay for upgrades like whistlers. You just have to tinker with it a lot.
 

paulears

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I have to say that in forty years of radio buying, I’ve never found such an annoying radio. Not the performance but a ridiculous operating system that makes operation when driving, for example, virtually impossible. The need to read the displays and the complicated method to save an active channel quickly really annoyed me. I could manage at home, but driving it was useless. It also irritated me that the titles in the menu heirachy often had the SAME title so you think you are in one, when you’re in another branch! The only radio I have sold because of the way it worked. I actually didn’t find the quirks in volume that annoying, just the juvenile and awkward operation style. Virtually every radio for years has a simple way to store something new and interesting. During a search, voices come out. You hit what? one button to stop the search before it moves on and another to put it in a memory for later titling and fiddling. Did I miss that feature?
 

Ubbe

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I’ve never found such an annoying radio.
As soon as you go into the menu system it can't keep track of if you changed anything that actually will have an effect on scanning, so to be safe it recompiles the scanlists before it can continue to scan again. I just let it do what it does best, sit and scan a few systems with important TG's and never touch any buttons except for the volume.

/Ubbe
 
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