Where is Whistler Wendy at? I notice not a single post from her on this issue. I'm sure she must read these posts. Yet you have people on here who brag about how Whistler listens to your problems. The only thing they try to do is give you a firmware update for one so called new features that these scanners do. What they don't do is fix the problem that these radios can't do like picking radio transmissions as claimed. Yes this is fraud big time, but hey keep on buying this stuff.
Whistler Fake News
- Thread starter SCPD
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I am on an Edacs system .. no P25 **** for me. So .. just the front end issue, which as you know is fixed except for the cell towers. I am going to be doing a 'low pass filter fix' for that problem but more when I have a bit of time to look into that.
Whistler Wendy is in marketing, not engineering. She refuses to discuss LSM. She only posts feel good items.
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Actually having a representative on the forums is a good idea and I hope Wendy's hamburgers never makes her take down her Avatar because it's cute. What I want to know is why is the CEO or president of the entire company not screaming at the engineer's to fix the problem. If they do not solve the problem of LSM they eventually will stop selling any scanners in the years to come and will be finished. So let's not blame WW she's just doing her PR job. Where is the CEO of the company? Do you want to stay in business? Uniden is obviously falling behind and is still pushing those x36 Clunkers as their flagship scanners, they don't do that much better with LSM and can't seem to add nxnd. Whistler management needs to seize the day. Stop committing Consumer Fraud and put a disclaimer in your ads that P2 TDMA simulcast performance will vary depending on location and system. If the long in the tooth PSR 800 and 900 can't be modified to handle LSM then build a new radio that works and delivers what you say these radios deliver and you will own the market. I for one would spend big bucks for a dream radio like that, I would love to stop lugging around that APX 7000. The ball's in your court, then again we really don't know what your business model is and what your intentions are in the future do we? I guess we'll find out.
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Well said.
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Yes I agree. They inherited a company and products they basically knew nothing about. I know of at least one engineer who worked for GRE that must consult with them and he comes on once in awhile. The problem is if the PSR 800 and 900 could be modified to handle LSM they would have done it by now. I know you live in Bucks County PA and that is a P2 simulcast system that does not work at all on Whistler scanners. Not a lick. There are a couple of people who live in the right proximity to a tower using all the gimmicks where it might work but in a car moving around forget it. Unication is already taking business from Whistler and if Whistler doesn't solve the LSM problem as the whole country moves over to systems subject to LSM they will surely go out of business and no matter who the PR person is it won't matter.
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bigcam406
Member
Unication still hasn't released a phase 2 capable pager yet...
gtaman
Member
You wanna solve LSM? Buy a RELM. You can have PHASE 1 and 2. Hell even roaming. None of the site programming garbage. It does it for me. Anyone need a BCD996XT? It's sitting on my front porch. The KNG threw it out of the house. There is a reason why the radio has a crown on it.
I'll take it... I'm sure I can put it to good use.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Hooligan
Member
Spoke face to face with "JD" from Whistler last week at the International Wireless Communications Expo, where Whistler had a booth. Several specific "please fix/improve this" items were mentioned, and JD was very nice about it, but it was clear it wasn't the first (nor the 20th...) time he'd been asked about the status on a particular issue.
He couldn't make any guarantees, but on behalf of Whistler, he certainly did acknowledge the issues, and issued a somewhat generic "they are being looked at for correction or at least improvement" response, as well as made a gentle reminder/reality-check suggesting that while things like the LSM issue are a big nuisance for some of us, the reality is that there are other issues which affect more of their customers, so issues need to be prioritized. He said it in a very nice way, and even though it may not be what we want to hear, it is common-sense/reality.
Also, the current TRX models still rely heavily on GRE design & engineering. In addition to trying to make us hard-core scanner geeks happy )the LSM matter, etc.) they are also hard at work on future scanner products which will grow-upon but also be divorced from the GRE 'bloodline.'
Totally silly to bring Relm/BK/Unication radios into this discussion -- they're not broadband scanners. I don't even have any Whistler/GRE scanners -- I've got Unidens, even though I think the Whistler/GRE line's technical performance is much better, and the Uniden tech support guy (UPman) is an... well, I don't have any respect for him.
He couldn't make any guarantees, but on behalf of Whistler, he certainly did acknowledge the issues, and issued a somewhat generic "they are being looked at for correction or at least improvement" response, as well as made a gentle reminder/reality-check suggesting that while things like the LSM issue are a big nuisance for some of us, the reality is that there are other issues which affect more of their customers, so issues need to be prioritized. He said it in a very nice way, and even though it may not be what we want to hear, it is common-sense/reality.
Also, the current TRX models still rely heavily on GRE design & engineering. In addition to trying to make us hard-core scanner geeks happy )the LSM matter, etc.) they are also hard at work on future scanner products which will grow-upon but also be divorced from the GRE 'bloodline.'
Totally silly to bring Relm/BK/Unication radios into this discussion -- they're not broadband scanners. I don't even have any Whistler/GRE scanners -- I've got Unidens, even though I think the Whistler/GRE line's technical performance is much better, and the Uniden tech support guy (UPman) is an... well, I don't have any respect for him.
I understand a lot of you guys have real problems with the Whistler products. For me they just work better than any Uniden I have. I don't have simulcast issues, but I also have no simulcast systems in close enough proximity to cause me trouble. But, I still can't fathom that the LSM issues haven't been resolved by either company.
In comparison, I can't trust any information on talk groups decoded on my 436/536 cause of the false TGID issue Uniden can't seem to fix. None of my Whistler's have that problem. I hate the fact that Uniden simply refuses to allow us to program DMR conventionally with TGID, CC, and Slot. Oddly, even though the Whistler's are slow to scan, the Uniden is even slower on DMR using the One Frequency Systems. I hear more on the Whistler's than on the 436/536.
I can hear weaker signals with my Whistler's over the 436 with the proven UHF problems, which appear to have been fixed in newer production runs with the addition of a new board and added capacitor. But, still no admission from Uniden that there was a problem.
Just my 2 cents on why I like my Whistler over my Uniden.
In comparison, I can't trust any information on talk groups decoded on my 436/536 cause of the false TGID issue Uniden can't seem to fix. None of my Whistler's have that problem. I hate the fact that Uniden simply refuses to allow us to program DMR conventionally with TGID, CC, and Slot. Oddly, even though the Whistler's are slow to scan, the Uniden is even slower on DMR using the One Frequency Systems. I hear more on the Whistler's than on the 436/536.
I can hear weaker signals with my Whistler's over the 436 with the proven UHF problems, which appear to have been fixed in newer production runs with the addition of a new board and added capacitor. But, still no admission from Uniden that there was a problem.
Just my 2 cents on why I like my Whistler over my Uniden.
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Big cam yes I misspoke and meant to say Relm as I did in the previous post, I am not a pager expert and just read what I see in the post. Hooligan... we are all from different parts of the country. In the Northeast part of the country Public Service radio is rapidly converting to 700 megahertz Phase 2 simulcast. Every new system coming online and there are a lot of them. That is also a large market for scanner buyers, First Responders and hobbyist a like. It is a huge market and a lot of systems that will be affected by LSM. What bigger priority would there be for scanner company who really wants to stay in business? To say they are looking at the problem is another way of saying they can't solve the problem. It is obvious the PSR 800 and 900 cannot be modified to handle LSM or it would have been done already, I get that, they have been looking at the problem long enough. To say they are aware of the problem just confirms the unfairness and dishonesty of not informing consumers with a disclaimer that the radio may not work for them in their hometown which is all they really want in the first place. The alternatives are not scanners, I guess you would call them pagers but if they work people will buy them because again they want to hear dependable communications in their hometown. There really is no defending the indefensible. I have to use an apx 7000 to do my job because I need dependable communications I can rely on but it would be great to have the convenience, versatility, programming and design of a Whistler scanner but it has to work on the system's I monitor. Now is the time for Whistler to readjust their priorities or it will be too late and Uniden will beat them out. It probably is too late already and that makes me really wonder what their business plan is and if they already know what the inevitable is.
Boatanchor
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It's been blatantly obvious to me, for years, that the GRE PSR series RF design was lacking.
The problem we have nowadays is that while digital modes, have for the most part, eliminated the annoying noises and hiss associated with scanning, it has also masked the (IMHO) poor receiver design in today's scanners.
Yes, it's likely that LSM causes some digital networks to cut out, but it's also true to say that strong in-band signals can also cause digital drop-outs. In-band, can mean anything within +-50Mhz or more at 800Mhz!
Whistler and Uniden both still use RF amplifiers in the front end that are prone to IMD from strong in-band and out of band signals. They do this to reduce cost and to conserve battery power.
The first IF filtering is routed through a ~380Mhz SAW filter that is as wide as a barn door and lets pretty much everything, including adjacent cell and LTE signals through. These strong, unwanted signals are then applied to IF amplifiers and mixers, which again produce additional IMD products.
Scanner manufactures need to start realizing that they need to spend a few more dollars on RF design that handle 'typical' band conditions today. This is 2017 not 1990!!
The bands today are not only congested with signals, but those signals are closer together and much stronger than they were 20 or 30 years ago. All of this adds up to massive potential for IMD generation in any receiver if it is not sufficiently protected by appropriate bandpass and tight IF filtering.
There is no point spending thousands of man hours on software R&D, if the basic RF chain from antenna socket through to the final IF stage, isn't up to par.
In my experience, Whistler's main competitor's RF design is still superior in this respect, but still not as good as it could, or should be.
Anyway, that' my rant..
The problem we have nowadays is that while digital modes, have for the most part, eliminated the annoying noises and hiss associated with scanning, it has also masked the (IMHO) poor receiver design in today's scanners.
Yes, it's likely that LSM causes some digital networks to cut out, but it's also true to say that strong in-band signals can also cause digital drop-outs. In-band, can mean anything within +-50Mhz or more at 800Mhz!
Whistler and Uniden both still use RF amplifiers in the front end that are prone to IMD from strong in-band and out of band signals. They do this to reduce cost and to conserve battery power.
The first IF filtering is routed through a ~380Mhz SAW filter that is as wide as a barn door and lets pretty much everything, including adjacent cell and LTE signals through. These strong, unwanted signals are then applied to IF amplifiers and mixers, which again produce additional IMD products.
Scanner manufactures need to start realizing that they need to spend a few more dollars on RF design that handle 'typical' band conditions today. This is 2017 not 1990!!
The bands today are not only congested with signals, but those signals are closer together and much stronger than they were 20 or 30 years ago. All of this adds up to massive potential for IMD generation in any receiver if it is not sufficiently protected by appropriate bandpass and tight IF filtering.
There is no point spending thousands of man hours on software R&D, if the basic RF chain from antenna socket through to the final IF stage, isn't up to par.
In my experience, Whistler's main competitor's RF design is still superior in this respect, but still not as good as it could, or should be.
Anyway, that' my rant..
gtaman
Member
KNG P800. RELM Will gladly sell you the software no issues.
Edit: any KNG series whether you need VHF, UHF or 700/800 the radios will do no affiliation. KNG P150 (VHF) KNG P400(UHF) KNG P800(700/800)
Word around with some RELM engineers I talked to is they actually may make a scanner. They said in the recent year they have been selling more radios to scanner users. If I was the company I would jump on this in a heart beat.
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Yes. Whistler needed to get ahead of this a long time ago. Instead they just call it an inconvenience for us and not a priority. The radios do not work as advertised on all P2 simulcast systems. A lot of people don't even have these systems around them, for others they do work. Others like us on the East Coast have nothing but these systems and they don't work correctly. Another scanner company could make a killing here. Whistler could still get ahead of this. They should start with an apology and then a disclaimer that the radios may not work as advertised in all circumstances, on all simulcast systems. The consumer can investigate if the radio works on their system before they buy. It's called truth in advertising.
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