Whistler Announces Entry into Radio Scanner Market

[LIScanner101]

I'm with you on this. After reading soooo many negative posts on the new Uniden scanners I decided that I won't even bother waiting for the firmware upgrades that will supposedly fix all the premature release issues. Instead, I'm on the fence for either a 996XLT or PSR-600, OR hold off until the Whistler are released. It's a tough decision!

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

I think I would probably wait to see. Trust me I bought two of those BCD536HP radios and i am just going to keep one just to have but to have two of them with all of those issues its just not worth it. Plus I am going to have to send Uniden back my radio that has hardware issues and have it replaced but I do get a three year warranty out of this whole mess. I do say the display screen is really nice and it is a good radio but not for 600 bucks. I dont see using all of the bells and whistles of the radio. I just want a good radio that can decode P25 really well and function good throughout all of the bands. We will see and wait. I did find that the 600 unit did have some issues on receiving on the airband 118-136 tho

 

[LIScanner101]

I think I would probably wait to see. Trust me I bought two of those BCD536HP radios and i am just going to keep one just to have but to have two of them with all of those issues its just not worth it.

Hard to justify having even ONE if it’s not working the way you like it…what do you plan to monitor with it?

Plus I am going to have to send Uniden back my radio that has hardware issues and have it replaced but I do get a three year warranty out of this whole mess.

I believe any x36HP that is being sent back for issues is going to be replaced with a repaired/retrofitted one and will have a new 3 year warranty. Not sure what happens if you decide to not bother sending it in, I would imagine it would only have a 1 year warranty, that would only seem fair to Uniden.

I do say the display screen is really nice and it is a good radio but not for 600 bucks. I dont see using all of the bells and whistles of the radio. I just want a good radio that can decode P25 really well and function good throughout all of the bands. We will see and wait.

From what you said earlier and from what I’ve been following VERY closely on these mega-threads it seems the PSR-600 is superior at P25 decoding to the 536HP. With that said, why don’t you just use your PSR-600? May I assume you need P2?

I did find that the 600 unit did have some issues on receiving on the airband 118-136 tho

That wouldn’t be an issue for me since I don’t do any airwave monitoring at all.

 

[stingray327]

I'm with you on this. After reading soooo many negative posts on the new Uniden scanners I decided that I won't even bother waiting for the firmware upgrades that will supposedly fix all the premature release issues. Instead, I'm on the fence for either a 996XLT or PSR-600, OR hold off until the Whistler are released. It's a tough decision!

What issues?

 

[Ensnared]

Wait

I'm with you on this. After reading soooo many negative posts on the new Uniden scanners I decided that I won't even bother waiting for the firmware upgrades that will supposedly fix all the premature release issues. Instead, I'm on the fence for either a 996XLT or PSR-600, OR hold off until the Whistler are released. It's a tough decision!

My personal preference has & will continue to be with GRE/Whistler Designed digital scanners. These radios have an extremely large storage capacity. Also, they have Virtual Folders. Uniden does not offer V-folders.

As I understand things right now, the PSR 800, PSR 500/600 will bear different model numbers with Whistler. I also believe the PSR 900 will be forthcoming. But, what I'm really anticipating for Whistler involves possible proprietary offerings that Uniden does not offer. Even adding one new out-of-reach radio system would give Whistler a distinct advantage over the competition. We already know that the new Unidens don't have new radio systems beyond the PSR 800, Phase II. I expect Whistler to have Phase II and more. I'm going to wait to hear the verdict.

 

[joncleve]

Let's hope that Whistler can correct the horrible front end overload that I experienced with the GRE units I had. In my area it was almost to the point of being unusable.

 

[SCPD]

PSR-600

I think I would probably wait to see. Trust me I bought two of those BCD536HP radios and i am just going to keep one just to have but to have two of them with all of those issues its just not worth it. Plus I am going to have to send Uniden back my radio that has hardware issues and have it replaced but I do get a three year warranty out of this whole mess. I do say the display screen is really nice and it is a good radio but not for 600 bucks. I dont see using all of the bells and whistles of the radio. I just want a good radio that can decode P25 really well and function good throughout all of the bands. We will see and wait.>>>> I did find that the 600 unit did have some issues on receiving on the airband 118-136 tho

<<<<

I had the PSR-600 and it was very fast and very sensitive,what issues did you have with it?
it was so sensitive I had to run it with a homemade attenuator.

 

[Swipesy]

Was there any marketing on the x36 that specifically advertised better P25 [simulcast] reception, or was it a consumer assumption that newer = better?

Someone else posted they suspected the x36 guts are the same as the 396XT and HP-1...wonder if that's true.

I have no x36; just a 396XT with older firmware that receives P25 simulcast very well.

The x36 has the AMBE+2 vocoder. What vocode is in the 396XT and HP-1?

 

[joncleve]

The issue is that it is way too sensitive. The front end was constantly swamped with RF when running mobile. I had to run it with the attenuation enabled which is too much attenuation. For some areas it is probably fine. For me it just wasn't the right fit.

<<<<

I had the PSR-600 and it was very fast and very sensitive,what issues did you have with it?
it was so sensitive I had to run it with a homemade attenuator.

 

[RadioDaze]

It would be nice to have a variable range of attenuation, like 1 to 5, which could be applied on a per-site and even per-channel basis.

 

[k1agh]

Ok if this has been covered sorry but when is whistler scanners going to be available? and what price points?

 

[LIScanner101]

Ok if this has been covered sorry but when is whistler scanners going to be available? and what price points?

The introductions have been covered extensively in the various Whistler threads.

Price points? I haven't seen anything on that yet.

 

[jaspence]

ZIP code programming

That was also a feature in the PSR 800. You selected what groups to hear, entered the zip, click Import and it's programmed and ready to go. I found it bringing in too much and easier to get what I wanted through normal programming.

 

[Salvation]

That was also a feature in the PSR 800. You selected what groups to hear, entered the zip, click Import and it's programmed and ready to go. I found it bringing in too much and easier to get what I wanted through normal programming.

I would find it easier if there was software for the Mac.. Now I just load via zip code and then dump what I don't want on the 536HP.. Wish I knew how to code, I would make a Mac app and would have no competition in this field and make a decent buck..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[n5ofq]

Whistler to provide firmware updates for GRE models?

The Whistler 1040 appears to be the GRE PSR-500. Any idea if future firmware updates could be applied to the GRE-500? Probably not but it seems rather trivial to do so.

 

[tsalmrsystemtech]

No probably not to the GRE 500. That radio has seen its day in the sun and is pretty stable as is.

I would not hold your breath for any updates to any GRE faceplace on any of their radios. Just sell it for cheap and look forward to future growth with this company. Looks like they have some good stuff in the brewing in the hopper. I like how they keep a pretty tight lip on anything to do with their company. Its a good policy. Lets not tarnish their name. Lets just sit back and watch the WS-1095 get released.

We all have been waiting for a couple of years now.

 

[Voyager]

The Whistler 1040 appears to be the GRE PSR-500. Any idea if future firmware updates could be applied to the GRE-500? Probably not but it seems rather trivial to do so.

Most likely not, and it's actually more of a PRO-106 clone (different layout).