Whistler Fake News

[trentbob]

CNN?... why in the world would you ever listen to them? This Thread is about whistler's fake news and dishonesty not CNN's fake news and dishonesty. LOL.

 

[gtaman]

I've just given up on scanners plain and simple. I only have two left now. A BCT15 for Aircraft and a 996XT for other stuff. I've removed all my trunked systems but EDACS from the 996XT. I don't have the patience for it anymore. I dropped a couple stacks on a RELM radio and I'm never going back.

 

[Wilrobnson]

Call me a Whistler fanboy, I guess. I bought two of the Uniden 325P2 radios, and they were horrific. Sold them and bought a TRX-1, and within weeks bought another.

I live in RF-hell, atop one of the highest hills in a major urban area, covered by a multisite 700 Phase-2 system for the city, blanketed by another 700 Phase-2 system for the county. I live 4 blocks from 2 major hospitals that double as convenient antenna sites for truckloads of users, 1 block from a T-Mobile cell site, with my AT&T site 5 blocks south.

Both TRX radios kick hind end on all bands, track both 700 systems perfectly, with multiple antennas (ranging from a paperclip, to the stock ducky, to my attic-mounted, multiband milsurp discone I took off a building at JBLM).

In the car? No issues other than road noise. Fed with a variety of antennas, from a simple Larsen low-pro 7/800 soup can to a Comtelco multiband model. Radios ride in Ram Mounts.

On the commuter train? No issues (especially with a Bluetooth dongle feeding into my Bose headphones)

In the airports I frequent whilst travelling for work? No issues; same setup as the train (though sometimes I just let them record in my carry-on bag while pouring back complimentary beverages in the Lounge).

Whistler has made me enjoy scanning again.

The only downside has been the fact I'm considering a third TRX-1 that can stay at home while I'm on the road to log/record (I have a great many projects I work on, radio-wise).

ETA- the city's 700 system is 7.16; I'm unsure what flavor the County uses.

 

[Machria]

As I understand, Whistler is buying Uniden. Has anyone else herd this this morning? Apparently it's a friendly takeover. CNN reported it early this am.

 

[sibbley]

As I understand, Whistler is buying Uniden. Has anyone else herd this this morning? Apparently it's a friendly takeover. CNN reported it early this am.

Not found on CNN or a google search.

 

[JimNS3K]

You do realize today is April Fools Day.

 

[Machria]

Fake News? April fools day?

 

[trentbob]

As I was reading the Fanboys post about how great His Radios work with RF and 700 P2 simulcast I thought how could he be the only one? How about everybody else in the hundreds of posts in the dozens and dozens of threads from all over the country using paint cans, yagis and paper clips and all the other gimmicks to try to get these radios to work right with LSM. I thought if it was true I could get rid of that heavy Motorola and have the perfect radio that works everywhere on all the systems I need in the car. What a dream that would be. Then I realized... IT IS APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!

 

[Ed6698]

I guarantee it wouldn't work in the car.

Sorry to inform you it worked in the car. Wife and I just got back taking a ride around in the County, granted we probably did not hit all the towers. My WS1080 with the stock rubber duck antenna. Even the wife said sounds like it works fine to me.

 

[trentbob]

Ed... if your county is using a 700 megahertz Phase 2 tdma system with multiple simulcast Towers where you can not pick the sites you want as sites just say "simulcast" and you have no missed or broken Transmissions as you move around in between Towers consider yourself a lucky man. It just proves radio 3353's point below it is about location and 99% of us in the country are not in the right location. If the radios worked like that everywhere you would not have the multiple threads trying to devise ways to pick up these systems. You would not have the discussions about the relm radios being the way to go now. My news agency would not have spent the money to purchase apx7000's so we could do our jobs. This is a problem that only affects a specific system that is subject to the effects of LSM. Other digital systems work just fine with these radios. If you are using the system in your county that the rest of us are having a problem with you are very lucky. I envy you.

 

[pfd461]

Well I guess I'm not the only one who thinks these scanners are pure junk. For a while I thought I was. Like one person said do you have to sit in the corner with a tin cap on your head to listen to your scanner? This is people call fun. I posted about a month ago asking if maybe people would pay for a subscription service like cable to have good quality audio to what ever they wanted to monitor. Of course I did take a little slack for suggesting this saying that is part of the fun of these so called scanners. Are u kidding me from I'm seeing here it's not that crazy

 

[Ed6698]

Ed... if your county is using a 700 megahertz Phase 2 tdma system with multiple simulcast Towers where you can not pick the sites you want as sites just say "simulcast" and you have no missed or broken Transmissions as you move around in between Towers consider yourself a lucky man. It just proves radio 3353's point below it is about location and 99% of us in the country are not in the right location. If the radios worked like that everywhere you would not have the multiple threads trying to devise ways to pick up these systems. You would not have the discussions about the relm radios being the way to go now. My news agency would not have spent the money to purchase apx7000's so we could do our jobs. This is a problem that only affects a specific system that is subject to the effects of LSM. Other digital systems work just fine with these radios. If you are using the system in your county that the rest of us are having a problem with you are very lucky. I envy you.

I am no expert on these systems. This is the system I am talking about, it says 4 site simulcast, not sure if that is the towers, but there are 6 towers. All I know is I have no problem with picking it up.

Countywide Simulcast Site Details (Lake County Public Safety)

 

[trentbob]

Yes Ed... I had already looked up your system before I saw your post. It happens I am very familiar with monitoring. When I started we only had slide rule tuning radios and I became very excited when Crystal controlled scanners came out (I started when I was 11 and I'm 63 now) if you were to read all the threads with regard to LSM and Phase 2 tdma systems there is much reference made to rual and City systems. It has to do with the distance between Towers. When P2 capable scanners were introduced I was involved in the first YouTube video called P2 shootout. We did it in simulcast ally in the center of Philadelphia across the river from Camden City New Jersey. All simulcast systems. We tested every P2 capable radio and used a Motorola subscriber radio as a control. The results with both Whistler and bearcat were dismal. When we went to a rural area the systems worked better but we were probably just getting the closest Tower because of the distance from the system. That may be the case here. To stay on topic if Whistler claims the radios are p2 tdma capable then they should work for all of us. My money is as good as yours. It is dishonest not to have a disclaimer that results will vary depending where you live. A lot of money was spent in my part of the country for radios that do not work as advertised. Thanks for your input. Nice talking to you... Bob

 

[gtaman]

Yes Ed... I had already looked up your system before I saw your post. It happens I am very familiar with monitoring. When I started we only had slide rule tuning radios and I became very excited when Crystal controlled scanners came out (I started when I was 11 and I'm 63 now) if you were to read all the threads with regard to LSM and Phase 2 tdma systems there is much reference made to rual and City systems. It has to do with the distance between Towers. When P2 capable scanners were introduced I was involved in the first YouTube video called P2 shootout. We did it in simulcast ally in the center of Philadelphia across the river from Camden City New Jersey. All simulcast systems. We tested every P2 capable radio and used a Motorola subscriber radio as a control. The results with both Whistler and bearcat were dismal. When we went to a rural area the systems worked better but we were probably just getting the closest Tower because of the distance from the system. That may be the case here. To stay on topic if Whistler claims the radios are p2 tdma capable then they should work for all of us. My money is as good as yours. It is dishonest not to have a disclaimer that results will vary depending where you live. A lot of money was spent in my part of the country for radios that do not work as advertised. Thanks for your input. Nice talking to you... Bob

That's my issue. Simulcast system. I have 3 towers the lock my scanner up. If I go 10 miles south no issues. Of course now I have this solved by RELM.

 

[SCPD]

Just my experience .. but as long as you do not put an external antenna on a Whistler / GRE then you will be more or less OK in regards to the issue we are talking about here.

Oh btw .. this is NOT about LSM, but as usual this thread, like many before it, has turned into that. :roll:

But re the above .. it is once you put an external antenna on probably all the models, they crater and die. I can see it on a handheld, but the base / mobile models should be able to handle it under reasonable circumstances. (What I attempted when installing my 1095 in my car, is what I would consider pretty reasonable and typical)

My 1095 btw, even though it works better .. it still loses its mind when I go within 6 blocks of a cell site. Even with a horizontally oriented antenna and inside the vehicle. Btw .. I have switched to an 800 MHz 1/4 wave antenna as it works better overall.

Oh .. the thing, I always giggle at the manufacturers showing a picture of 'an external antenna' on a house in the owners manual. That is a recipe for disaster for many. I just checked the 1080 and sure enough it is there.

I think it is cause it is a we need to compete with Uniden thing.

But .. as some of my friends will tell me (and they have) that any late model GRE / Whistler model will not work with that external antenna. I guess the thing .. location, location location. If you live in the country somewhere .. you can get away with it.

I would venture to guess that is not the case for many of us.

 

[trentbob]

Edmscan... actually this thread has stayed right on topic as most don't. It is called Whistler fake news. Your RF issues are very valid with regard to the latest Whistler scanners that as we all know are GRE scanners that have been updated and modified to offer more options like the keyboard and NXND. Your observations about older GRE scanners working better with regard to RF and being built a lot better than what is offered today are valid. We all remember the first digital scanners and how the pro 96 sounded a lot better than the BC 250. When talking about fake news from Whistler how can you not talk about their claims that they are p2 tdma capable when for a majority of the country they are not. A mobile is meant to be mobile and a portable is meant to be portable. Unfortunately in my area the stubby antenna, the paperclip or no antenna at all doesn't work for LSM and would make the radio useless for anything else. When you talk fake news and Whistler how can their false claims not be brought into the picture? It really is Consumer Fraud. Thank you for the opportunity to voice our opinions regarding Whistler fake news. You are very correct about the RF issues sorry to have diverted to p2 tdma false claims but it is all Whistler fake news.

 

[milcom_chaser]

Whistler went through an EOL for some components in the RF section. So, when the TRX line was released, some sensitivity gains were noted. Supposedly, the VHF section had some added filtering.
In your post you repeatedly mention cell tower interference. Wonder what's up on that tower in the VHF band as a provisioned antenna that's causing such desensitization to the receiver front end?

 

[Wilrobnson]

As I was reading the Fanboys post about how great His Radios work with RF and 700 P2 simulcast I thought how could he be the only one? How about everybody else in the hundreds of posts in the dozens and dozens of threads from all over the country using paint cans, yagis and paper clips and all the other gimmicks to try to get these radios to work right with LSM. I thought if it was true I could get rid of that heavy Motorola and have the perfect radio that works everywhere on all the systems I need in the car. What a dream that would be. Then I realized... IT IS APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!

Sorry, no April Fool's hogwash. I stand by what I stated.

Although, I did have an anonymous caller earlier reporting a leprechaun bite...

 

[SCPD]

Btw .. I have changed the antenna to a 1/4 wave 800 MHz antenna as that is my desired band. It works well .. except when I get 6 or so blocks from a cell site. It works better than the dual band ham antenna.

 

[trentbob]

Wil... I believe you. The last thing I need is Robbie swinging his arms saying danger!, danger! and coming after me. It is all about location. As radio 3353 said below "it's about location but 99% of us are not in the right location". You know we would not have the hundreds and hundreds of posts trying to devise gimmicks to make these radios work on p2 TDMA if there was not a problem for most people. People would not be flocking to Relm to buy radios to pick up systems Whistler claims their radios do. We have quite a few people in my County including myself who use Motorola radios to pick up P2 TDMA. Whistler needs to show some truth in advertising and put a disclaimer that these radios will not work for everybody on Phase 2 simulcast. It is dishonest not to. As more P2 simulcast systems come online they won't get away with it anymore. The best solution would be to fix the LSM problem or in the future they will not sell any more radios and go out of business. Counties in my part of the country are continually making plans to switch to 700 megahertz Phase 2 simulcast systems that will be subject to LSM. For the unfortunate consumers who believe the false advertising and bought these radios in the four counties I monitor most get returned except for those who are in the right location and don't use a mobile application.
Edmscan... as far as the 3 inch quarter wave mobile antenna for 800 it doesn't work for us as our towers are many and too close together. As far as the RF front end overload on VHF we listen to the old VHF marine radio system because of the Delaware River. The old gre's worked fine but the new models are full of interference. It does not affect the VHF conventional p25 digital Coast Guard channels.