Apparently that was wise advice if you wanted to continue your listening pleasure with your core channels. I still believe in the TRX-1 and will work with Whistler to see if there is any kind of solution. But in the interim, I shall enjoy my SDS 100.
If you are using your TRX-1 strictly at home, you can try some of the antenna work-arounds to see if you can improve things. These suggestions would not be workable when trying to montor outside of your home. The radio environment on a moving vehicle is too varied to find a workable method.
At home, you may be able to receive the system by using a directional antenna aimed at one sub-sites (transmit tower). That would degrade reception of any other systems not in that same direction, but by focusing on a single point, you might be able to make progress.
Remember that, when dealing with Simulcast,
less, not
more, antenna may help. You have signals coming at you from various directions, arriving out of sync. A "better" antenna merely amplifies the signals that are not in step with your closest site. You can try the marginally forum famous
paperclip antenna, to see if it helps, Reception with that might be so poor that only one signal is usable to your scanner.
Other than stating 'southern Dallas County' for your location, there's no way to suggest a specific location to focus on. No one needs your exact address, but if you'd indicate something in your area, such as a shopping center, of specific street (or highway) intersection, then a suggestion on which transmit tower to focus one would be more accurate. Let's say that you were in Duncanville. The transmitter closest to you would be on west Wheatland Rd, next to DFR Station 12. Using a fairly short antenna, not a longer or gain type, you might find that placing the scanner on a table or desktop, and then setting a baking pan or other object, tall enough to block the antenna's view, on, say, a northeast to southeast direction, you might shield the scanner from signals other than the Wheatland Road site. If you were in Lancaster, then the same item, but in a northeast to southwest position, possibly could make the scanner focus on the site in southeast Dallas County, near the Dallas Water Utilities wastewater treatment site that is west of Seagoville, roughly east of Hutchins, and south of Balch Springs. Since Dallas Layer 1 is using frequencies licensed to the state, we don't know exactly where the actual transmit towers are. But if they are in the same location as those shown for Dallas Layer 2, then these suggestions might help. Other than if you purchased a directional antenna & the hardware (and coax) to install it, none of these other suggestions would cost you nothing but a few minutes of your time.
Lastly, remember that simulcast problems are extremely location specific. You might find that using the TRX-1 in a specific location, then something in your house (metal siding outside, foil backed insulation), or an object on the other side of the wall, such as a refrigerator or metal filing cabinet, might let you find a sweet spot where the TRX-1 can function. In exchanging messages with someone else on the forums, he advised me that a
six inch movement of his 436HP took his scanner from missing calls, to working much much better. This, again, would only cast a few minutes of your time.
When the system transition of Dallas & Dallas County agencies from conventional to P25 Phase II began, I tried to purpose my TRX-1 to monitor the new system, recording all traffic, to aid in identifying the usage for new talkgroups as they came online. It recorded literally thousand of audio files, none of which were of any use. Just garbled audio, While neither the 436HP, nor the 325P2, are 'simulcast friendly', I have managed to get usable reception on the new system with careful choice of location, antenna, & scanner orientation. But as is often said, YMMV.