Whistler WS1065

[ke8has]

hi all, just wanted some advice I know this scanner is p25 phase 1 only, im normally spoilt with my Uniden Scanners, but I got this on a deal from amazon, I got the butel software and its all programmed but I don't appear to be picking anything up, the police in my area are p25 phase 1 my zip is 49116 and I don't appear to get many frequices from my Radio reference download, am I doing anything wrong ? I got about 20 frequencies downloaded. I like the look and feel of the scanner and want to make it work some. thanks its my first whistler

 

[RaleighGuy]

What systems are you listening to? Are they simulcast? What is happening on the scanner, just silence or some hits? Are you able to receive the NOAA weather frequency? It appears there are about 5 towers on the statewide system, are they all programmed in?

Let's start with that and then we can look at other options.

 

[ke8has]

I don't think I have done this right, I am able to upload into the scanner and hit scan it starts scanning, but I don't think I have used the software I have the home patrol 1 and 2 plus the sds 100 and 200 so its been zip code programming for me, are you able to do a search and post it for me maybe I could upload it to my scanner and check between what I did and what you can do ?

 

[RaleighGuy]

I don't have the software all my scanners use EZ Scan, but maybe someone will be able to help.

@tvengr can you help him?

 

[cmjonesinc]

Sounds like you may have downloaded the conventional info and not the trunking info. Database shows your area should be on this system. It has a bunch of talkgroups listed there

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=100

Edit: see attached picture. Make sure you're clicking that button.

 

[Ronaldski]

We list five towers on the database for Berrien, so be sure to have them all in and set the scanliist to roam or stat whichever works best.

 

[ke8has]

oh ill just have another go

 

[ke8has]

ok I did that with the trunking and selected the ones I wanted but wasn't to sure about the sites, so I selected a few from places I know near, I guess im not understanding this completely what towers should I select ? I uploaded to the scanner and its scanning, but im not receiving anything

 

[ke8has]

Sounds like you may have downloaded the conventional info and not the trunking info. Database shows your area should be on this system. It has a bunch of talkgroups listed there

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=100

Edit: see attached picture. Make sure you're clicking that button.

View attachment 105986

you were right but im not sure which towers to select

 

[hiegtx]

you were right but im not sure which towers to select

Looks like the Sawyer tower is the closest to you:

 

[cmjonesinc]

You can manually tune each control channel and see which one comes in the best. If you're going to be using the scanner in a mobile environment you'll probably want to add a few sites anyways.

 

[ke8has]

Looks like the Sawyer tower is the closest to you:
View attachment 105996

View attachment 105997

thanks I selected the Sawyer tower and its now working, how did you get that Map ?

 

[cmjonesinc]

Go that that system page I linked earlier. Scroll to the site and click it. It'll show the location and all the known frequencies used for that site. Might be easier to navigate if you click the 'County' column header to sort alphabetically. Also on those large statewide systems 'ctrl+f' is always your friend. Also just so you know the 'range' field you'll see associated with each site isn't always accurate. It's kind of just a general thing so sometimes you'll need to try other sites to see which has the best coverage. Glad you got it working!

 

[ke8has]

Go that that system page I linked earlier. Scroll to the site and click it. It'll show the location and all the known frequencies used for that site. Might be easier to navigate if you click the 'County' column header to sort alphabetically. Also on those large statewide systems 'ctrl+f' is always your friend. Also just so you know the 'range' field you'll see associated with each site isn't always accurate. It's kind of just a general thing so sometimes you'll need to try other sites to see which has the new coverage. Glad you got it working!

thank you for helping me

 

[tvengr]

@tvengr can you help him?

I have ARC500 also. Please attach your gr5 programming file and I will check it for problems. You will need to right click on the file and Send to Compressed (zipped) folder to be able to attach it. Click on Attach files and Open the zipped folder.

 

[ke8has]

here you go i just want local police fire etc nothing much else

 

[tvengr]

I see that you have just the Sawyer site. There are 6 sites in Berrien County. You will probably only hear what is in your immediate area using the single site. You can enter the control channel and alternate frequencies for all 6 sites in the frequency list. If Multi-Site is set to Roam, the scanner will only scan the site with the best signal. If Multi-Site is set to Stationary, the scanner will scan all 6 sites. Scanning multiple sites will allow you to cover a wider area of the county. You can also duplicate the talkgroups 6 times and have 6 systems, with each one using a single site. In that case, Multi-Site would be set to Off on all systems. Each set of talkgroups would be assigned to a different system and scan list. That would allow you to select sites one at a time to determine which ones are within range. I find that the alpha tags in the download are very ambiguous. I edit all of the alpha tags to something meaningful and organize scan lists using Excel files and then paste into the software. Let me know if you would like me to work on a file for you. I assume you would want all of the fire, EMS and law in the county including the state police.

 

[Ronaldski]

I have psredit500 and converted it over to it.

You have no analog frequencies. In the one trunked scanlist you have only one of the towers so you would be missing a lot of the calls and you have it set for Roam, but with only one tower listed it wont Roam.
Towers you want, only 5.
St. Joseph
Grand Beach
Sawyer
Benton Harbor
Sumnerville

You have every scanlist checked to scan, but you have only scanlist 1 that has info.

The signal bar #'s were set to the older pro 106,197 so you will be seeing very low signal bars even though you have a good signal.

Usually I don't this, but since you at least got it started, I finished it.
I added all the towers, set them to STAT (stationary), fixed the signal bar #'s, turned off all but scanlist 1, added a red led light for fire, set fire and police dispatch to priority, turned on prioity- the upper case PRI, added the fire dispatch VHF frequencies in the conventional frequencies, added scanlist 2 for your county govt. - Just push the 2 key to turn it on and off.
Did add MSP District 5 to scan list 3. Just push the 3 key to turn it on and off.

I also changed the text on a few to get you started. I.e. instead of 11F911 it will show County Fire.
If you want more, look at Berrien County, Michigan (MI) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Your ARC program I dont know if it can import PREDIT500 files, look in the menu bar of that program. If it doesnt, just install PSREDIT500, it comes with a 30 day free trial. Download PSREdit500
In that program just click File, then Open and navigate to where you downloaded then extracted the .zip file.

Once you install this file in the radio, you can in turn use your ARC program to send from the radio to ARC and save to computer.

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You wouldnt need to have multiple different numbered scanlists with a different tower, if one went that way you can just set each to the same scanlist #.

 

[ke8has]

thankyou so much ive install the software and uploaded that file to the radio its scanning 1 and 2 im checking out the software now

 

[Ronaldski]

Yes all what you had in 1 before is still there, I went and put in every Berrien talkgroup short of the 3 govt. ones and the 3 encrypted into it, I think you were missing some.

I was doing some further TLC updates and added #3. So you may have uploaded the file that didnt have #3. that is current.
Scanlist 3 is MSP district 5, now occasionally it 'Might' have some encrypted audio on a talkgroup or two on that scanlist