Whistler WS1065 for scanning Digital Frequencies

[Greg43545]

I'm not familiar with Whistler scanners, I personally own and use SDS 100 & 200 scanners, thus the reason for this inquiry.

I have a friend who is a Senior Citizen on a fixed income who wants to acquire a digital scanner, but cannot afford the price of an SDS scanner. I advised her that I would research the Whistler WS1065 for her.

She would be scanning the Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System (NORPSS) and the Ohio MARCS-IP: Multi-Agency Radio Communications frequencies.

My questions are,

1) Does anyone own and use a Whistler WS1065 to monitor the above mentioned frequencies, or those similar to them?

and

2) If so, how does the scanner perform scanning those frequencies?

and

3) Would you recommend this scanner to my Senior Citizen friend on a fixed income?

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide. I feel I must be very sure before I recommend her to buy this scanner because even a purchase of $270.00 is a major expenditure to her.

 

[cmjonesinc]

Not from the area so I'm just going by the database here... It looks like norpss has some simulcast being used. Specifically the Lucas County site. A 1065 will be hit or miss with simulcast. However if the Fulton, Henry, or Wood sites are within range of the area the scanner will be in, those should work fine. Not being from the area i can't comment on which talkgroups are carried on the specific sites.

As for the marcs-ip system, it too appears to have a mixture of simulcast and non simulcast sites. Not knowing the specific site the scanner will be using will make it difficult to theorize if it will work well on not.

If you manage to get lucky and be able to use non simulcast sites that scanner will work fine. I've had many gre psr-600's and radio shack pro 197's which are the older variants of the 1065. They are great radios and personally I've always thought the audio was better than my bcd996xt's. Hopefully someone with some more local knowledge can chime in

 

[KevinC]

Not from the area either, but I agree with the above post. If it's not simulcast it should work great, if it's simulcast it may be hit or miss.

 

[Swipesy]

You should post your question in the Ohio forum where you will get an exact answer from those who live in Northwest Ohio. MARCS can be simulcast in some areas and it can be troublesome using 1065 and then again not based on scanner location versus towers. Ask a moderator to move your post.

 

[just1bob]

Make sure any scanner she gets is easily returnable…just in case.

 

[trentbob]

Yes, under different rebranded names this is a 15-year old scanner. I picked up four of them when RadioShack was going out of business years ago for $125 a piece and flipped them for a good profit.

Make sure there is a money back guarantee for at least 30 days from reputable vendors like Scanner Master, Bearcat Warehouse. She could be in some kind of an area that these ancient radios don't work in.

 

[tvengr]

She would be scanning the Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System (NORPSS) and the Ohio MARCS-IP: Multi-Agency Radio Communications frequencies.

Is she in Lucas County? The Lucas Co site on the NW Reg system is simulcast. The radio may or may not work depending on her location in relation to the towers. That is a huge system. You would also need programming software. I use Butel ARC500 Basic. If the radio doesn't work, the software would not work on another type of radio. The software has a 30 day free trial which should be sufficient to program the radio. To program the radio easily, you would need to be a premium subscriber to Radio Reference in order to download directly from the RR database. It takes longer without the subscription, but it is still a lot faster using the software than trying to program the radio manually using the menus. The Lucas Co system would take forever to try to program manually.

 

[wtp]

it might really help if you tell us what county she is in.
and would she ever think of any local stuff ?

 

[Swipesy]

Tvengr do you really think that a senior citizen, first time scanner user would be able to deciper the jibberish alpha tags that would be d/l from the RR database? Yes programming software is a must but direct d/l and then load to the scanner would be worthless for the intended user. Tell the OP the whole story. He would have to manually alter the Alpha tags before loading to the scanner.

 

[tvengr]

Tvengr do you really think that a senior citizen, first time scanner user would be able to deciper the jibberish alpha tags that would be d/l from the RR database?

I agree about the downloaded alpha tags. I always edit them to something that makes sense.

 

[Greg43545]

My apologies for not posting what county she resided in

She lives in Henry County Ohio

She would be able to use the Hamler and Wauseon towers for NORPSS Frequencies for Henry Co SO, Fire, and EMS as well as Napoleon PD, Fire and EMS

She would be able to use the Holgate and Defiance towers for the Marcs IP Frequencies for the Ohio Highway Patrol for District One

 

[N8IAA]

My apologies for not posting what county she resided in

She lives in Henry County Ohio

She would be able to use the Hamler and Wauseon towers for NORPSS Frequencies for Henry Co SO, Fire, and EMS as well as Napoleon PD, Fire and EMS

She would be able to use the Holgate and Defiance towers for the Marcs IP Frequencies for the Ohio Highway Patrol for District One

As Swipesy stated, ask to have your post moved to the Ohio state forum. You do this by clicking on Report in the bottom left corner of your post.
Answers in a general forum will not get you the answers you are looking for.

 

[KevinC]

Continue here...

Using the Whistler WS1065 for Digital Frequencies

I'm not familiar with Whistler scanners, I personally own and use SDS 100 & 200 scanners, thus the reason for this inquiry. I have a friend who is a Senior Citizen on a fixed income who wants to acquire a digital scanner, but cannot afford the price of an SDS scanner. I advised her that I would...

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