My Whistler TRX-2 ordered through Amazon arrived two days earlier than promised, which was a very nice surprise. On the day I placed my order I started watching YouTube tutorials about programming the TRX-2 and they helped me very much. One important thing I learned was that you are never actually programming the radio itself. Instead, you are simply loading your configuration onto a removable SD/MMC memory card, which the radio accesses so it knows what you want it to do. With that understanding, I went ahead and installed the Whistler programming software. After navigating through the software for a few minutes, I began setting up my configuration with different scanlists containing the frequencies I was interested in listening to. The software keeps a copy of your configuration in a folder named "TRX-2" which is located in the Documents folder of your windows installation. When you have finished working on your configuration the software can be used to save a copy of your configuration on an inexpensive SD/MMC memory card. I had several 32GB Sandisk SD/MMC memory cards that I used with my cameras so I grabbed two of those for this project to use with my cheap PNY USB card reader. Note that the Whistler software also handles firmware updates and Library updates so everything you need is in the software utility. My goal was to have everything set up so that when the TRX-2 arrived, I could simply insert my pre-configured SD/MMC card and be up and running right away.
There is definitely a learning curve with the software but the layout is pretty intuitive and all the features worked perfectly for me. If you have ever put together your own codeplug for a DMR radio you will find that programming the TRX-2 requires a similar level of understanding. The Library import function works very well and it only took me about 15 minutes to create scanlists for my local police/fire/EMS services, plus the local state police troop(APCO 25) along with a separate scanlist for all the other state police dispatch areas and car-to-car frequencies. My next project was to export the codeplug from my CS800D (2m/440 DMR radio) in CSV format. When that was opened up in Excel, I used the Whistler software to do a clipboard import of all my installed DMR repeaters, DMR simplex frequencies, and my hotspot. The data imported from Excel arrives into an editable table created by the Whistler TRX-2 software when you use the "import from Clipboard" option. After identifying the frequency, alpha tag, and mode columns for the Whistler software, all my programmed DMR repeaters were successfully installed with two frequencies for each repeater, one for TS1 and the other for TS2. I used the wildcard option in the Squelch column for the color code and talkgroups with only the TS marked as either 1 or 2, so the scanner runs in its version of promiscuous mode for each separate time slot. The scanner does a beautiful job with ham radio DMR and all the various digital formats used by commercial and public services. It also does a great job with the FM and FMN modes used by the local EMS across my state. I live 6 miles from an airport so the airband is important for me and I can say that the TRX-2 does a fine job with the AM mode on the airband. The Whistler software has a complete library of airband frequencies used by my local airport so creating a custom scanlist from that resource only took a few minutes. You can delete anything from your configuration you are not interested in and you can easily manually add anything you want if desired. The Whistler software and its ability to program the SD card inside or outside of the radio is a huge bonus. At any rate, I was done much more quickly than I thought I would be. I made two copies of my scanner configuration on two Sandisk 32GB SD/MMC (class 10) 90MB/s memory cards. I also used the Whistler software to load the Libary on both SD/MMC cards so it would be available for editing on the fly with the scanner.
On the day the scanner arrived, I removed the front panel and the SD/MMC card that came with the radio, and inserted one of my pre-configured memory cards. I hit the power button and got the black screen of death with an error message indicating a problem with the card. As it turns out, when I inserted the card I felt a static snap and that did a fine job of corrupting everything on the memory card. I put on my bench static strap and removed the corrupted card and installed my second copy. Hitting the power button brought up the "Init SD FileSys" screen and the "Verifying Data" screen and when that was done my Scanlists all showed up. Hitting the SEL button on the front panel started the scan process and I was up and running. Yeah, watch out for static charges when you play with those memory cards. I used the Whistler software utility to re-format the corrputed card and then re-copied my configuration to it and that resolved that issue nicely. I also copied my configuration onto the 4GB card that came with the scanner. I noted right away that the stock card took a lot longer to initialize and verify at startup. The cards that I had pre-configured were noticeably faster because they support transfers up to 90 MB/S and apparently the scanner does too. Use the faster SD/MMC cards to take advantage of the speed boost with data. I got my cards here on Amazon for around 8 bucks each.
The TRX-2 has surpassed all my expectations in ease of setup, operation, and updates. It is full-featured and runs beautifully all day long and as a side note, it doesn't flinch at all while I run my ham gear from 160m through 70cm. Note that the roof mounted log periodic antenna my TRX-2 is connected to is 50 feet from my tower and wire HF antennas which both are used to run full-legal limit. I highly recommend the TRX-2 for serious scanning.
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EXCELENTE SCANNER
TODO FUE DE MI AGRADO,EL VENDEDOR MUY HONESTO Y CUMPLIDO,EL SCANNER ME LLEGÓ ANTES DEL TIEMPO 👏 ACORDADO.EL ESCÁNER LO UTILIZO PARA ENTRETENERMEGRACIAS.
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Bob
Good scanner, anyone who says it’s no good doesn’t know how to program it.
Reviewed in Canada on June 1, 2019
