Whistler WS1080 TDMA/Conventional Videos

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JD21960

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I did some videos on YouTube of the TDMA and Conventional Calls on the Whistler WS1080. Had the scanner for 3 weeks now and like it more and more. All scanners have good and less than optimal things about them. Coming from the changing of crystals on the fly days in 1974? I'm pretty easy to satisfy with today's scanners. The old Pro96 is 10 years old so it was time for an upgrade. Thanks to HAM STATION in Evansville INDIANA for such fast service! and to Whistler Customer Service for getting the EZScan software questions answered so fast. :0)

Whistler WS1080 Police Scanner - YouTube

Whistler WS1080 Police Scanner TDMA signals - YouTube

Whistler WS1080 - StarCom21 Illinois - YouTube
 
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JD21960

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Thanks. I had the sound up too loud for one of them and camera too close as those TDMA calls are louder than normal. I get those in very well outside my apartment and even in the surrounding counties through the StarCom21 Towers, even in my brother's basement. My apartment is a different story as there's a Cell Tower 300yrds away AND 2 doors south a Fire Department tower with several antenna's on it. The interference and simulcast issues here are difficult. I don't get all the TDMA broadcasts but most of them. I'm thinking of a Yagi Antenna for home. Some people were wondering about the TDMA calls so I did the videos of the Fire-ground training and actual fire event to show what the scanner is capable of.
 

Daleb49

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Well those Videos got me drooling!
Can't wait for Xmas money to roll in.
Thanks for posting
 

RoninJoliet

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Great videos "JD2", I like your support of our IL teams in message area.....My scanner friend here in "ENC" Joliet is a fireman, said digital is BAD with fire ground full head dress setups, they should only use VHF.....I have the RS106 and Uniden396XT for Starcom digital and would like the 1080 but my knowledge of software programming is bad along with computers....I program evey thing by hand.....I really enjoyed listening to NWCD when I visited my daughter in Elgin when they were on the Motorola analog trunk system.....
 

JD21960

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Thanks Daleb49 and Ronin Joliet. That price is coming down little by little I see on the different websites by Christmas it should be even better. I sure miss the days of 453.900 on the Tollways and being able to hear everyone including Cook County Sheriff and Suburbs in the clear. But this is what it is now so the WS1080 is my new toy. I thought having only a USB cord and batteries would bother me, but I like the USB set-up a lot now as I usually have my computer on while the scanner is on too, so it works. Programming isn't too hard at all. It COULD be easier as the EZScan software needs more functionality, ability to TAB across and up/down instead of using the mouse/cursor to do one thing at a time. But Scanlists are easy to maintain and assign talkgroups to and you can punch in conventional channels by hand and assign it to a scanlist although that is a little tedious, easier to do on the software. I do mine by County instead of Conventional on one list and the Trunked on another. I haven't noticed a big lack of scanning speed by mixing the two, but having That trunked system by itself in one scanlist does speed up scanning as someone in Radio Reference forums advised. I'm content to listen to the Fire Calls and old police "local" channels that they still use in the open, Ha! they think we deleted those? not likely. The day they block everything? I'll just monitor Ambulance, Ham Skywarn and whatever there still is that lets us be more informed about events around us.
 
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AC2OY

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Johnny I saw a video on YouTube not sure if it was you but the phase 2 sounded amazing! Better than my 800. I consider myself objective and I havevto say that audio where they were wearing SCBA masks I guess, sounded better than anything I have heard yet😰📻🔊
 

JD21960

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Yes, the Phase 2 sounds good in this area on the StarCom21 sites. I've heard even better with it where they're not wearing air masks. I also had videos of Chicago Fire using "D2" and IDOT Administration signals using those, but I deleted those in favor of a longer video with that Fireground channel. If I had to change anything on the WS1080 it would be the size of the speaker. If it were like my Pro96 it would be perfect. At home when I want louder volume I use the "Aux" input on a powered speaker of another radio hooked up to the WS1080 earphone outlet. Sounds great that way. Driving in the car it can't compete with wind/road noise except for the louder digital signals. One needs an earbud or powered speaker in the car unless you're sitting with the engine off like I did in the videos. Speaking of the GREPSR 800, Those Youtube videos helped me buy the WS1080, I liked the sound quality on those too.
 

rbrtklamp2

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I have seen it display D2 on conventional signals to. But there is no phase 2 conventional operation its not even a option for conventional only for trunking. I think it is a bug in the firmware or DSP? Anyway it may display it as phase 2 but if its conventional it cant be.
 

JD21960

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I'm not an expert on signal types but I'm listening to the Northwest Central Dispatch talkgroups of StarCom21 RRef Site 049 in IL for Cook County. NWCD moved all the Ops to StarCom and vanished from monitoring for scanners like my Pro96. Then Recently they opened up the simulcast I mentioned above for fire calls. I can get those now with the Pro96 which is P25 Phase 1 but NOT the talkgroups in Phase 2. With the WS1080, the TDMA talkgroups are showing up as D2* It's weird because most fire calls are normal, but some are showing D2, sound louder and more clear, NWCD alternates between them at random lately. I noticed most the "Admin" city channels and secondary police/fire talkgroups are broadcasting in D2. Whatever it is, I get it with the WS1080, NOT with the Pro96. There are some IL NWCD experts in here, maybe they can explain what's going on cause I just know D2 talkgroups don't show on the Pro96 which is a P25 Phase 1 scanner. Whatever they are? D2? I like them.
 
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JD21960

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@rbrtklamp2 I see you're in DuPage County. I was in Elgin IL and hearing the 700mhz StarCom21 Site there really well, Listening to DuCom-Fire West. I'll have to go to lunch at the Portillos on Rt64 West and test it out some more. I usually would take my Pro96 to the Cascade Drive-In in West Chicago out there a lot this past Spring/Summer for the movies.
 

KE5TLF

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My biggest question is, did they do anything to remedy the problem with the PSR-800's TDMA audio being painfully hotter than FDMA.
 

JD21960

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I noticed it IS louder. Someone with a PSR-800 "Signal-ZERO" posted some advice about the default "64" level for DSP level adapt, setting it to 16 instead of 64. I've wondered about these settings and am going to experiment with them. I have no complaints about the WS1080 so far other than the small speaker size. If it had a Pro96 speaker and capacity? it would be perfect. The whole reason I got a WS1080 was thanks to all the people doing YouTube videos over the last few years showing the quality of the sound. I liked it enough to buy the "new" WS1080.
 

APX8000

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I have seen it display D2 on conventional signals to. But there is no phase 2 conventional operation its not even a option for conventional only for trunking. I think it is a bug in the firmware or DSP? Anyway it may display it as phase 2 but if its conventional it cant be.

It's a bug...my PSR-800 does that on conventional P25 channels sometimes. Looks like they never fixed it from the previous firmware.
 

SCPD

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Thanks for doing the videos JohnnyDollar.
Whats the default setting for the DSP on the 1080 is it the same as the GRE 800 ?
 

JD21960

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Yes, 64 default. I did those videos at the 64 default for DSP level adapt and default Multi-Site Threshold levels. I did have the Attenuation on "A" for the Cook/NWCD StarCom21 site itself, but not Globally. Been experimenting with the Multi-Site Threshold levels on the EZScan software Trunked tab tonight. Higher threshold at 90-99 seems to be helping, loud and clear, no attenuation needed. I'm sure there's a setting combo in there somewhere that is optimal, finding it is half the fun.
 
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RoninJoliet

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I know what the Multisite Threshhold levels are for digital decoding perfection but what is 64 default DSP level adapt?.....
 

W6KRU

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The Multi-site Threshold levels are for determining when the scanner attempts to find a site with a better signal than the one currently in use. The DSP Level adapt setting controls how fast the DSP reacts to changing signal levels.
 
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