Will Whistler survive in the scanner market?

[Ed6698]

The reason why he came here is Uniden was mentioned at one point, he is the ultimate defender/cheerleader for them, will dispute any negative said about them and will always try and have last word on any topic about them or anything mentioned. He is grasping for straws to try and defend his position of Uniden corrupted SD card issue, so he drags in a couple threads to deflect the issue.

 

[SCPD]

The reason why he came here is Uniden was mentioned at one point, he is the ultimate defender/cheerleader for them, will dispute any negative said about them and will always try and have last word on any topic about them or anything mentioned. He truly is grasping for straws to try and defend his position of Uniden corrupted SD card issue, so he drags in couple thread to deflect the issue.

Don't worry I rolled my eyes already. :roll::roll:

 

[ratboy]

I got rid of my PSR-800 for two reasons:

1. The SD card corruption issue it had, it drove me nuts, it happened weekly. My Pro-668 has had zero problems, period..
2. It was deaf on VHF. Not as bad as the Uniden HP-1 I had was, but pretty deaf. My Pro-668 is very good on VHF.

So away it went.

 

[Voyager]

Well, you must have made a lot of user errors, then, rat.

Ya gotta love the people who accuse others of things, and turn around and do the same things themselves, though (not talking about you, rat). They are defending Whistler at all costs and "will dispute any negative said about them".

At least I admit there are issues such as the card issue with Uniden. I even said as much in this thread. But, do they see that? Nope. They are truly blinded. Then they blow off any Whistler card issues as user error.

Oh, and the 800 wasn't deaf - it was designed to act that way since it knew you didn't need to hear what was being said at the time because nobody ever had any overload issues with their GRE/Whistler. :roll:

Note that I have NEVER trashed GRE or Whistler. All I have done was made observations and passed along known issues. Of course, the fanboys think even mentioning any issues means you are trashing them because the Whistler models are the perfect scanner. News flash: The perfect scanner doesn't exist, and likely never will exist.

 

[gtaman]

GRE did come out with the first X2-TDMA scanner. 😉

 

[2k6gto]

Larger sd cards being the problem?

My 1080 came with a 4g micro sd card. Never using it, I imeadiatly replaced it with a 32g. I was aware of the long load up time with the larger card and decided to live with it, but my computer would never recognize the card while it was in the scanner. The 1080 worked fine but I could not up date the scanner. After a few weeks of trying I gave in and put the original 4gig card in. Presto, my computer recognized it and I was finally able to up date it. I've now shelved the 32g card for the factory 4g. It is my opinion that even though the manual says it'll do a 32g card, it has inherent problems with the larger cards. I wonder how many people are thinking they have corrupt cards when it's really an inability of the scanner to handle the larger cards.

 

[Ed6698]

Don't worry I rolled my eyes already. :roll::roll:

About the only thing we can do, he sure is persistent.

 

[gtaman]

My 1080 came with a 4g micro sd card. Never using it, I imeadiatly replaced it with a 32g. I was aware of the long load up time with the larger card and decided to live with it, but my computer would never recognize the card while it was in the scanner. The 1080 worked fine but I could not up date the scanner. After a few weeks of trying I gave in and put the original 4gig card in. Presto, my computer recognized it and I was finally able to up date it. I've now shelved the 32g card for the factory 4g. It is my opinion that even though the manual says it'll do a 32g card, it has inherent problems with the larger cards. I wonder how many people are thinking they have corrupt cards when it's really an inability of the scanner to handle the larger cards.

I ended up getting a 16 GB card to work but I had the same similar issues. I ended up settling for an 8GB and it works fine.

 

[2k6gto]

I ended up getting a 16 GB card to work but I had the same similar issues. I ended up settling for an 8GB and it works fine.

Good to know. Now we at least know it's maximum card capacity for reliable card-in-scanner update. Advertised or not, 8gig appears to be its max unless you are willing to remove the card each time you update your computer adjusted settings.

 

[safetypro79]

If we think we got it bad here in the US

Try overseas like most of Europe and Asia TETRA systems for all PS

30 years ago took my scanner to Austrlia and New Zealand was was able to monitor the Fire Services on 88 mhz and the 155 MHz range

 

[wbswetnam]

Now that AOR has announced production of the AR-DV1 wideband "DC to daylight" scanner capable of monitoring not only P25 phase 1 & 2 but D-Star, DRM, and NXDN, I am wondering if the other scanner manufacturers are finally going to get on the ball and produce scanners which can receive these modes as well.
Just a note about the AR-DV1... apparently it cannot do trunk-tracking, nor has it been approved for sale in the USA yet by the FCC. Don't expect to be seeing it right away. Also, when it does come out, I feel sure that it will have a very hefty price tag since it will be one-of-a-kind.

 

[wbswetnam]

Try overseas like most of Europe and Asia TETRA systems for all PS

30 years ago took my scanner to Austrlia and New Zealand was was able to monitor the Fire Services on 88 mhz and the 155 MHz range

That's the truth... European scanner buffs these days can only get their "fix" by listening to streamed public service systems in the USA. Also be glad you don't live in Jacksonville, Florida. There is NOTHING left to listen to, only the sanitation workers are unencrypted. No Jacksonville PD, no Duval Sheriff's Department, no Florida Highway Patrol, no fire or EMS dispatch, nothing. ALL public services are 100% encrypted.

 

[SCPD]

Good to know. Now we at least know it's maximum card capacity for reliable card-in-scanner update. Advertised or not, 8gig appears to be its max unless you are willing to remove the card each time you update your computer adjusted settings.

I use 4 GB and 16 GB cards and never have had any problems. They are Kingston and SanDisk cards respectively.

 

[ratboy]

I bought a 16 gig Sandisk card and it came before the Pro-668 did and I only used the original 2 gig Sandisk card to check out the radio and make sure it worked before I copied everything over and it' in the 668's box now. Now that I have the 668 set up pretty much the way I want it, I will copy the configuration over to the 2 gig card, just as a backup. I have had zero issues with the 16 gig card.

 

[ratboy]

Well, you must have made a lot of user errors, then, rat.

Ya gotta love the people who accuse others of things, and turn around and do the same things themselves, though (not talking about you, rat). They are defending Whistler at all costs and "will dispute any negative said about them".

At least I admit there are issues such as the card issue with Uniden. I even said as much in this thread. But, do they see that? Nope. They are truly blinded. Then they blow off any Whistler card issues as user error.

Oh, and the 800 wasn't deaf - it was designed to act that way since it knew you didn't need to hear what was being said at the time because nobody ever had any overload issues with their GRE/Whistler. :roll:

Note that I have NEVER trashed GRE or Whistler. All I have done was made observations and passed along known issues. Of course, the fanboys think even mentioning any issues means you are trashing them because the Whistler models are the perfect scanner. News flash: The perfect scanner doesn't exist, and likely never will exist.

Every scanner I had until I bought my Pro-2004 in 1986 was Bearcat/Uniden. The first time I stopped buying Uniden scanners was solely due to the awful battery packs on the 100/200/105/205XLT handhelds that seemed to fail precisely at the worst time possible (Out in the "boonies", with no power source easily found to charge it up). I did buy several RS Uniden made radios that took AA batts during this period, I think the last one was a Pro-26.. The next time was after I bought my BC9000XLT. It's poor RF perfromance was enough to push me into the GRE camp for base scanners. And the next time is now, seeing all the issues with the X36 radios and Uniden's failure to deal with them. No, no scanner or manufacturer is perfect, but homestly, it seems like Uniden, and especially their service department, is playing a bad joke on everyone lately. Time will tell about Whistler, but so far, my experiences with them far outshine my dealings with Uniden. I have experience with Uniden's service dept going back to the mid 80's, at least. Nothing good, ever, in 30+ years. Delays, radio being lost (It was found, eventually), radios coming back with unfixed or "Not found" issues that were obvious with 10 seconds of operation, scratched radios when they were sent looking perfect, I finally got fed up. Uniden radios have lately had neat features without RF performance to match, and when you get a "good one", some stupid QC issue, like a rattling speaker or it cuts in and out, like a friend's 436 did until I opened it up and fixed it (Good old DeOxit and some stuff to hold the speaker in and keep it from rattling) are just a turn off.

 

[retropcdos]

Every scanner I had until I bought my Pro-2004 in 1986 was Bearcat/Uniden. The first time I stopped buying Uniden scanners was solely due to the awful battery packs on the 100/200/105/205XLT handhelds that seemed to fail precisely at the worst time possible (Out in the "boonies", with no power source easily found to charge it up). I did buy several RS Uniden made radios that took AA batts during this period, I think the last one was a Pro-26.. The next time was after I bought my BC9000XLT. It's poor RF perfromance was enough to push me into the GRE camp for base scanners. And the next time is now, seeing all the issues with the X36 radios and Uniden's failure to deal with them. No, no scanner or manufacturer is perfect, but homestly, it seems like Uniden, and especially their service department, is playing a bad joke on everyone lately. Time will tell about Whistler, but so far, my experiences with them far outshine my dealings with Uniden. I have experience with Uniden's service dept going back to the mid 80's, at least. Nothing good, ever, in 30+ years. Delays, radio being lost (It was found, eventually), radios coming back with unfixed or "Not found" issues that were obvious with 10 seconds of operation, scratched radios when they were sent looking perfect, I finally got fed up. Uniden radios have lately had neat features without RF performance to match, and when you get a "good one", some stupid QC issue, like a rattling speaker or it cuts in and out, like a friend's 436 did until I opened it up and fixed it (Good old DeOxit and some stuff to hold the speaker in and keep it from rattling) are just a turn off.

I agree with you 100%. Uniden support had been atrocious at best They still haven't even fix a simple bug which they know about in the 436hp with the key lock, when it goes into clock set mode and you set key lock on, you can't unlock it in this mode and have to force a full reset at this point to get the scanner working again. They claim they were going to come out with a update to fix this issue months ago. Months later still haven't fix the issue? Then where the Uniden siren app for Android for the 536hp that people are waiting for? It took almost a year if not more for them to come out with the app for IOS. It the reason why I got rid of the 536hp, had to many flaws and they have promise features don't work and still don't work. Then a simple bug it months and they still have come out with a update to fix it. What kill me most is they were advertising the feature at first when they came out with scanner, which to me is consider false advertising and only after so many people stated that did change to say, "app coming soon". The only reason most put up with Uniden for now is one of the few models that support phase 2 and a newer design, otherwise no one would bother with them anymore, due to how they treated and alienated their customers is very unacceptable. Not something a customer sure have to go though when paying $500 bucks plus for a scanner. I have name brand quad bands transceivers that cost less, Then to make matters worst they come out with more scanner models. which of course is going to take time from the engineers and developers to fix bugs.

With Whistler you don't have these issues. Yes you do have bugs as can't be perfect, there is no perfect scanner, but they fix the issue quickly once discover. Look at the edacs patching bug, as soon as someone notified them about it, they fix it ASAP, even for the PSR-800, which they don't have to support, as that was before they bought Gercom rights. Only issue is they won't service RadioShack scanners, or do updates and take over support for RadioShack scanner they made. I can understand that as they are still under contact and till RadioShack fully goes out of business legally obligated to follow those terms. Only RadioShack for now can release those updates and service them and unfortunately they are not servicing scanners anymore. Whistler has far better customer service.

 

[2k6gto]

I bought a 16 gig Sandisk card and it came before the Pro-668 did and I only used the original 2 gig Sandisk card to check out the radio and make sure it worked before I copied everything over and it' in the 668's box now. Now that I have the 668 set up pretty much the way I want it, I will copy the configuration over to the 2 gig card, just as a backup. I have had zero issues with the 16 gig card.

Good to know with the 16 gig.

 

[2k6gto]

I use 4 GB and 16 GB cards and never have had any problems. They are Kingston and SanDisk cards respectively.

My 32 gig is a Kingston. It works but won't sync while in the 1080. Guess a 16 gig is about tops.

 

[SCPD]

somebody has too much time on his hands.just ignore him.now,back to our regular scheduled program.....

Exactly ... it happens a lot here. I find that threads seldom stay on track over time.

But yes .. back to the real reason of the thread. :wink::wink:

I think that the next while will be interesting in the scanner market due to recent happenings .. but the good thing, I think that Whistler is probably going to see an increase of sales as people are starting to learn that they really do make some great products.

 

[johnls7424]

One thing Whistler, RS and others should do is build a scanner with a more up to date display. Uniden at least in their 436/536HP series did build a more 21st century display showing the system and other character information which I do find useful.