WS-1095 Out in the Wild

There have been some reports, and pictures as well of the Whistler WS-1095 mobile finally ending up in the hands of the users.  Reports have been limited so far, but over all people seem happy with it.  The main feature here is the remote head.   In today's vehicles, it is very difficult to mount anything.  The head is thin enough to be able to be mounted just about anywhere.  This is also a superior design, compared to Uniden's RH-96 head sold for the old T/XT scanners.

Not that this is a surprise, but despite the awesome remote head, unfortunately scanner isn't any different from the WS-1080 scanner (and RS Pro668), and has the same limitations.    Even still, it makes the base/mobile playing field that much more crowded.  Uniden's lack of a decent remote head gives this scanner an advantage, despite the lack of GPS and quick keys to easily change scan lists.   Uniden's iPhone app, although works, doesn't even let you change the volume on the radio itself.   Comparing this against the Home Patrol, the HP has more install options due to its unique form factor, however the need to use an amplified speaker and the awkward setup of cables coming out both sides complicates that as well.

The big issue I find with the scanner (and it's hand held cousins) are that you cannot put a trunk site in a favorite list.  If I were to set this scanner of for all of NJ, I would have to duplicate the NJICS system at least 6 times, and the NJSP system 3 times (not including any of the IR sites).  I have tried to use the multi-site settings, however I found that more often than not, it tends to sit there for up to 5 minutes at a time polling all the sites and never worked well.  This feature goes back to the PSR-500 radios and as far as I can tell, has never really worked right.  If they can make that work, the need for quick keys becomes less important (and GPS to an extent).   Aside from that, having to turn scan lists on and off manually through the menu isn't really something I would want to do, however with more flexible mounting options, that will negate that to a degree.

If you want to talk desktop scanner only, it really comes down to preference if you like Whistler over Uniden.  Reports are still pending, however you may run into the same intermod issues when using an external antenna, similar to the hand held models.

Overall, for a mobile install, it is worth considering, especially if you do not need/want the GPS feature.  The remote head puts it ahead of Uniden as far as mounting wise.

Pros:
Remote Head
Bright Clear Display

Cons:
No GPS
No Quick keys
Quirky software

On a semi-related note, there are rumors circulating that Uniden is preparing a hardware update to the x36 line, to address the battery and possibly the display issues.   Hopefully this will put an end to some of the issues with these radios.

Hot 97 Summer Jam Incident at Met Life Stadium

For those of you who missed it, the Hot 97 Summer Jam went into complete chaos when people started jumping the fence.  NJSP was operating on Statecom 2 at the time.

I posted the audio for download.  I cut out the dead air, except for when the emergency button was it, which keeps the carrier open.  Each file is approx. 15 minutes long.  Most of the action takes place on parts 3 thru 6, but it is worth listening to the entire thing to see how things escalated.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/74iv1yojrnkerr6/AABV-tbniD6Z_jLH-tiv97BYa?dl=0

Happy Friday Pro 668 owners

Whistler dropped an update yesterday for the Pro 668.

- Fixed EDACS patching bug. 

- Add delay in USB startup required by some USB host hardware. 

- Changed algorithm used for battery level icon. 

- New default voltages for NiMH icon thresholds. 

- Fixed Audio Boost handling for analog frequencies. 

- DAC gain changes for digital "too loud" problem 

- EDACS ESK detection fixes 

- Fixes for password / alarm functions. Changes were not always preserved on power-down.

I updated mine last night and so far no problems at all.

Spring Round Up

Not too much happening in the scanner world lately.  My anticipated blog about re-purposing your old android phone for a Uniden Remote scanning head came to an abrupt halt when I shattered the screen of my Galaxy Note 3.  I will be revisiting that once the android app is released.  Speaking of that, here is the latest Uniden update:

Clock Battery fix (not firmware):  No word from Uniden
Android App: No word from Uniden
Screen dimming on the x36 scanners.  This is a fairly new one.  I can report both of mine have noticeably dimmed over the last year.  No word from Uniden.

So you see the theme here.  Lets move on to new and exciting products that will hopefully actually work as advertised.

The  long awaited Whistler 1095 Mobile scanner is supposed to be out any time now.  I can't wait to see some reports on how it performs.

AOR has released a very interesting radio that decodes pretty much everything and anything.  It is too bad they don't offer trunk tracking on their radios.

Specs: http://radioaficion.com/cms/aor-ar-dv1/
Discussion: http://forums.radioreference.com/aor-receivers/297029-aor-ar-dv1.html

Coming from Russia of all places, this is a new receiver that does Trunk Tracking, DMR and a bunch of other things.  It is not a dongle, but uses windows software to run it (similar to winradio).  This has real potential.

Site: http://hrw.3dn.ru/news/apco25_and_dmr_receiver/2013-05-06-3
Discussion: http://forums.radioreference.com/all-other-scanner-manufacturers/305124-adcr25-p25-dmr-receiver.html


Lots of new things coming, unfortunately, most require you to be at your computer.  An option (I am sure the FCC wouldn't be too happy with this), is to hook up an FRS radio with a VOX input, to your audio out of the sound card.  You can then add that FRS frequency to your scanner and the audio will come over just like any other frequency.  This could also work with Live feeds as well.

Don't forget to follow @wcalerts for all your Warren County, NJ Fire & EMS alerts.

Will the next generation police scanner be open sourced?

While we play cat and mouse with the Phantom Pro668 firmware update, could an open source scanner be the next big thing?

First of all, I am not a hardware guy (although I am not afraid of a soldering iron), and I am not certainly a programmer. I do however have a pretty good understanding on how things work.

While putting together a BCD396 size scanner is probably out of the question, a home patrol size scanner may just be feasible.  Now that 3d printers are accessible to just about anyone, we  have the ability to create some awesome things.

Now for the parts.  Starting out with processing, the Raspberry Pi (2nd gen) seems like a good choice.  Small and powerful.  Drop a 128 gig SD card in there and you have plenty of space for recording.  There are already small touch screens made for the pi.  One of those with a nice 3d printed case could make a nice size radio.  Unlike the home patrol, it could be made to to sit horizontal or vertical.  The only thing I am not sure about is the battery.   I don't know how long 4 AA batteries would power this.  Another option would be a smartphone lithium battery or even an option to run either one.

The existing sdr dongles could be used, however ideally, one could be manufactured with a smaller footprint, with the antenna easily wired to an external bnc connector.   I would engineer it with 2 dongles for optimal trunk tracking or dual receive.  Taking the dongles one step farther, I would like to see some optimized for say VHF to 900mhz, and maybe one optimized for short wave.  We could actually create a wide coverage receiver with very good sensitivity.

Finally the software and operating system.  Sdr sharp although works, is not the easiest thing to use.  A user friendly version of that with loadable modules is what I envision.   Load up only the modules you need (dmr, provoice etc).  Some sort of slimmed down Linux would be the OS of choice.

Finally, with the built in ethernet adapter,  you have a scanner ready to stream, or run twotonedetect.  In reality,  if you need a streaming scanner only, build it without a screen and manage it remotely.

These are just some basic ideas off the top of my head.  The possibilities are endless for a project like this.  Something like this may someday be a real home brew or kickstarter project.

PRO668 DMR....really?

So our new Pro668 hacker is now claiming to incorporate DMR decoding in his pending custom firmware.   I shouldn't even be wasting time following this train wreck, but I just can't help myself.

If this guy actually pulls this off, you are going to see Pro668 and whistler 1080 prices skyrocket.

Right now I am still calling this bullsh*t until he offers proof. 

Firmware updates

So Uniden  released a firmware update to the 536 scanner.  Fixes included bypassing the clock reset,  faster scanning and improved P25 decoding.   I tested it briefly and yes it does appear to be an improvement.  The 436 version will probably be out in the next week or two.

They also included the first analyze features.  They work but really don't do a whole lot.  The trunk system logging is what I have been waiting for and hopefully that will be next.  Despite the updates, I am still angry at Uniden for the way they have handled things.

On the Pro668 front, there is a guy who first caused a whole forum uproar stating he was able to flash the 1080 firmware into the Pro668.  After 2 days and messing around, we could not reproduce his success and the consensus was that he was full of shit. 

Now he claims to be rewriting the firmware and it going to release it and make the 1080 & 668 a "super scanner".  This is going to go either very bad, or we are moving into uncharted waters, since no one has ever done anything like this before.  The last time was back when Bill Cheek released his books, if any of you remember those days.  No matter which way it goes,  it is going to be an interesting couple weeks ahead.