Review on 📻 Enhanced Scanning Experience with the Whistler TRX-1 Handheld Digital Scanner Radio by Patrick Cox

The Whistler TRX-1 is a decent scanner, hampered by bad software and some questionable design decisions. The bottom line is, if you just want an easy-to-use, out-of-the-box scanner, you should probably avoid it. If you have experience configuring scanner settings, computer software, need advanced digital trunking capabilities, and have the time and patience, this may be for you. Read the reviews and especially the RadioReference.com Whistler forum to decide if this scanner is for you. A commenter on the RadioReference.com forum, Whistler, asked why scanners seemed tied to 1970s technology. I would put the technical level in the mid 80's like DOS command lines, serial ports and primitive software. Consider that for about the same $500 price, we can buy a modern phone/computer with a fast processor, lots of memory, a great screen, a modern battery, reliable software, and the phone sends and receives on similar Whistler, best known for their cheap radar detectors, bought the GRE scanner business. But apparently they have problems with modern technologies, especially reliable and user-friendly software. I have a GRE-PSR500 and it's great. But most of my county's police, fire, ambulance and other government agencies have recently switched to the P25 Type II system, which the GRE-PSR500 doesn't track. deal with the quirks and settings of the TRX-1. Having written both good and bad software, I think I can tell the difference. But I wasn't prepared for what was involved. Here is a brief overview. Good: - Uses the downloaded RadioReference database. - Accepts modern digital trunking systems - P25 Type I and II, LTR, DMR, NXDN, etc. - Good sensitivity and sound quality. - Records and plays the reception on an SD card. - Can store multiple "virtual" scanners, ie. different configurations. Bad: - A buggy, unreliable, unsigned USB driver. - Manual on-board scanner programming for masochists only. - Undocumented function key combinations. - Entering letters from the keyboard is done in a strange, non-standard way. - Charging of the battery in the scanner is done by time setting, not by voltage/current monitoring. Ugly: - Tiny, low-contrast black and white display with many cryptic symbols. - Protective rubber case with brick aesthetic. - Useless ugly plastic inserts on the rubber body. Just annoying: - EZ-Scan doesn't scale to screen resolutions higher than 1080. - You have to remove the protective rubber cover to get to the batteries and SD card. - Change the volume by pressing the up/down buttons. Let me give you some details: When you open the box and insert the batteries, you can turn it on and use the preinstalled software and database. I suggest you do this just to make sure the scanner powers on. You can also change things manually using the tiny screen and minimal keyboard. But manually programming the scanner on-board is only for masochists, and you really need to use the EZ-Scan program. Built-in menus are inconsistent, as are keystrokes. Sometimes "Back" takes you back, sometimes back to the menu to start over. DO NOT connect your scanner to your computer until you have read the instructions on how to download and install the latest software. Installing/updating in the wrong order will cause serious problems. I also suggest that you spend time on the RadioReference.com Whistler forum to see what others have learned the hard way. Almost any USB device - MP3 player, printer, flash drive, portable hard drive - just plugs in and works. You connect, the device is recognized, the driver is installed and redirected. But not this machine. For some reason you have to hold down the "Menu" key while plugging in the USB cable. The USB driver is not signed and requires a multi-step workaround to install it on Windows 10. I couldn't get it to work on my Windows 7 Pro 64-bit desktop. This is for the best though as the EZ-Scan software does not scale to my 2560 x 1440 monitor and distorts the image on the display. The USB driver emulates a serial port so the scanner shows up in Device Manager under Ports (COM & LPT). B. as a serial device, such as COM1 or COM3. For real? In 2017, are they still using this old protocol instead of the modern USB interface? It also transmits data at a very low rate. Although I was able to install an unsigned driver on Windows 10, the connection is unreliable. Too often the scanner screen shows the message "Waiting for USB" and appears to be stuck. Pressing the keys doesn't do anything, and the shutdown button doesn't respond either. You have to remove the batteries and the screen goes black. But when you put the batteries back in you get the same message again which is still blocked. It seems you blocked the scanner. Apparently this has happened and continues to happen so frequently that Whistler provides a 'fix' program on their website to reset the scanner's CPU software which appears to be crashing due to a faulty USB interface. For real? Can they take the time to write a fix program but not the time to fix a bug? I've found that the best way to avoid USB driver hell is to remove the SD card from the scanner and plug it straight into my computer. Notebook. The EZ-Scan program can then read/write the SD card as a G: drive via native USB at a reasonable speed. However, repeated ejection/insertion can shorten the lifespan of the SD card, so a backup is required. I tried using the EZ-Scan program to format a Samsung 16GB class 10 card as a backup. The program said it formatted and copied all data files, but the scanner refused to boot from it. Comparing with the original SD card, some folders and files are missing and it still doesn't work for me. Another example of bad software. Although you can charge NIMH batteries in the scanner, to reduce the chance of damaging the radio, do not do so. The charge option uses the charge clock setting rather than voltage/current monitoring and given other buggy software I wouldn't trust it. Use multiple eneloop batteries and a good standalone external charger. Between changing the battery and removing the SD card, you will hate and avoid the protective rubber case. Looks like brick, but not as ugly as the useless plastic inlays, especially the puke green one. It's a shame Whistler couldn't spend money getting the software right instead of spending it on junk. They also saved pennies by removing the volume control and requiring use of the up/down arrows on the keyboard. Older GRE PSR scanners had a more comfortable way with concentric volume and noise reduction buttons. I really want to like this scanner but I'm disappointed and just accept it now. I was able to work around the issues and customize to my liking. But I'm wary of software, so I won't change much until Whistler fixes the USB issues.