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Whistler WS1095 / WS1098 · Volume 2

Whistler WS1095 / WS1098 — Vol 2: Installation, Operations & Programming

The PSR-800 platform as a base/mobile scanner with a remote head (2015)

2.1 About this volume

This volume covers what is specific to running a WS1095 or WS1098: installing it on a desk or in a vehicle, the head cable, power and audio, how operation differs from the PSR-800 handheld, programming with Whistler’s EZ-Scan, DMR’s site-scanning behaviour, and controlling the scanner from a PC. Everything the base/mobile sets share with the handheld — the Library, objects, Scanlists and Scan Sets, Set Location, Spectrum Sweeper, weather, recording and card handling — is covered once, in the GRE PSR-800 dive’s Operations and Programming volumes. Procedures below follow the WS1095/WS1098 User Guide (rev 12E15) and, for the shared chassis, the TRX-2 User Guide (rev 10A17).

2.2 Desk installation

The supplied mounting bracket doubles as a desk stand. Fitted above the radio it lets the base hang below a shelf; fitted below it tilts the set up on a desk. Stick the self-adhesive rubber washers inside the bracket sides over the attachment holes to protect the case, slide the scanner in, and tighten the two knurled knobs. The rubber feet stop the base sliding on a desk and should be left off if the bracket is screwed to a surface.

Power comes from the supplied AC adapter into the rear DC 13.8V jack. The manual specifies that the adapter hang vertically or sit in a floor-mount position. The telescoping antenna goes on the rear BNC jack, extended according to band:

Table 1 — Power comes from the supplied AC adapter into the rear DC 13.8V jack. The manual specifies that the adapter hang vertically or sit in a floor-mount position. The telescoping antenna goes on the rear BNC jack, extended according to band

FrequencyAntenna length
25–54 MHzExtend fully
108–174 MHzExtend 4 segments
216–225 MHzExtend 3 segments
225–406 MHzExtend 2 segments
406–1300 MHzCollapse fully

An outdoor antenna with a BNC male connector (or an adapter) is the practical choice for a base station. The manual’s outdoor-antenna safety warnings apply — keep clear of power lines, ground the mast and coax to code, and disconnect the scanner from an outdoor antenna during storms.

2.3 Vehicle installation

Mounting the base. With the bracket above the radio, the base hangs under the dashboard; with the bracket below, it sits on a console or other flat surface. Use the bracket as a drilling template, drill pilot holes slightly smaller than the supplied screws, and check what is behind the panel before drilling. The manual stresses choosing a spot that does not block the driver’s view or sit in an air-bag deployment path, where a deploying bag could throw the radio at the occupants.

Mounting the head. Three options: leave the head docked on the base; separate it and fit it to the supplied head bracket; or put it on an AMPS or Lido mount (not included). A separated head needs the head cable run from the base, and the magnets’ heat limit (80 °C / 175 °F) argues against leaving the head where the sun cooks it.

The head cable. Use the supplied 6½ ft 8P8C Type B straight cable, or any straight CAT 5/CAT 6 cable up to 100 ft. Off-the-shelf straight network patch cables are reported to work (unconfirmed). Never use a crossover cable; the manual warns it can damage both head and base. Route the cable away from pinch points and sharp metal edges, as for any vehicle wiring.

Wiring power. The manual’s procedure:

  1. Disconnect the vehicle battery’s negative terminal first (this can reset radio presets, alarms and similar systems).
  2. Route the supplied DC cord from the power source to the mounting location.
  3. Ground the black lead to the chassis with a sheet-metal screw into a bare metal frame member under the dash, making sure of full metal contact.
  4. Connect the red lead to a source that is switched by the ignition.
  5. Plug the coaxial power plug into the rear DC 13.8V jack and reconnect the battery.

The in-line fuse holder must stay in the cord. A blown fuse is replaced with a 3 A slow-blow fuse; if it blows again, check the wiring for shorts and the radio for a fault. Any other supply must deliver 12–14.4 V DC at 600 mA with a centre-positive plug.

Low supply voltage has a specific symptom. If the vehicle voltage sags too far, the scanner shows “Scanning not available” and disables everything that writes to the SD card, scanning included, to avoid corrupting it. A marginal accessory circuit, a long thin feed or a failing battery can therefore look like a scanner fault.

Antenna and audio. The manual states that mobile operation requires an external antenna; the telescoping whip is for desk use. The speaker is in the base, so a head mounted on the dash with the base under a seat or in the trunk leaves the audio in the wrong place. Plug an external 8 Ω speaker into the rear EXT. SP jack (3.5 mm). The head’s headphone jack is for headphones only, and wearing headphones while driving is illegal in many places, as the manual notes.

Noise. Ignition, alternator and accessory noise reaches any 12 V receiver through its supply and antenna. The standard remedies apply: a direct, well-bonded chassis ground; power taken from a clean circuit rather than shared with noisy loads; and the antenna mounted away from engine-bay wiring. The manual’s own troubleshooting list adds the attenuator for overload from nearby transmitters. Owners report that these units overload on external antennas in dense urban RF (Vol 3), so the attenuator is worth trying before blaming the installation.

2.4 Operating differences from the PSR-800

Day-to-day operation — Library, Set Location, objects, Scanlists, Scan Sets, V-Scanner II folders, Spectrum Sweeper, SAME weather, recording, the alert LED — works as described in the PSR-800 Operations volume. The base/mobile differences:

  • Controls. The head replaces the handheld’s squelch knob and volume keys with a context-sensitive rotary encoder. It defaults to volume while scanning; one press switches it to squelch, and it reverts after an idle timeout of 5 seconds by default. The default mode (Knob Dflt) and the timeout (Knob T/Out) are set in Global Settings. In menus it scrolls and selects, and in text entry it steps through characters. The TRX-2 guide, whose head matches the WS1098’s, gives squelch 9–11 as the ideal range. Press POWER briefly and turn the encoder to set backlight brightness; press and hold POWER until the display reads “release button” to switch on or off.
  • Keypad (WS1098). The full alphanumeric keypad allows direct frequency entry and editing of systems, sites and talkgroups at the radio. The WS1095 keeps the handheld’s menu-driven entry.
  • Head detached. With the head unplugged the base keeps scanning, but nothing can be changed until the head is reconnected.
  • Power-off discipline. The manual advises switching off with the front POWER button before removing power, to avoid SD-card corruption. A search-summary report says a later update added a shutdown delay to reduce corruption at power-down; this could not be confirmed.
  • AGC. The settings include Digital AGC for found objects (“Search Dg AGC”) and a Global AGC mode (“G AGC Mode” / “G AGC On”), useful for evening out digital voice levels across systems.
  • IF output. Menu → Program Menu → Global Settings → scroll past Expert to IF Out: Off or HP, which routes the unsquelched, unfiltered discriminator signal to the headphone jack for third-party decoding software.
  • Clock. A real-time clock time-stamps recordings; the time can also be displayed while the scanner is off (disabled by default).

2.5 Programming with EZ-Scan

The WS1095 and WS1098 are programmed with Whistler’s EZ Scan PC application, the successor to GRE’s PSR-800 software. The PC connects to the USB connector on the head. Goliad Products’ downloads page currently hosts the WS1095 installer as EZ-Scan 2.51.0.707 and has no separate WS1098 entry; the WS1098 is programmed with the WS1095 software (inferred from the shared manual and the absent entry).

What EZ Scan does for these sets:

  • Library updates. It refreshes the RadioReference library on the SD card. The service stopped when Whistler closed in late 2024 and came back under Goliad in February 2025; the timeline is in Vol 4.
  • Programming. It imports systems by location or by “Preferred” selection, edits objects, Scanlists and V-Scanner II folders, and writes the configuration to the card.
  • Firmware. It runs CPU and DSP firmware updates (Vol 4).
  • Card preparation. It formats and prepares the SD card. If Windows is used instead, the card must be FAT or FAT32 with 32 kB clusters.

The card-handling rules and the Windows 10 driver quirks carried over from the PSR-800 platform are in the PSR-800 Programming volume. The RadioReference wiki keeps a page on USB connection problems under Windows 10 for the WS1080/WS1095.

2.6 DMR: site scanning, not control-channel tracking

The May 2016 free update added DMR to both models. Whistler’s DMR support covers conventional DMR and trunked MotoTRBO Capacity Plus, Connect Plus and Linked Capacity Plus, plus Hytera XPT — but it does not trunk-track them the way it follows P25 or Motorola systems. The TRX-2 guide, whose DMR implementation is the same design, says so directly: for DMR and NXDN “the scanner does not use the control channel. Instead, your scanner will attempt to scan all sites and all frequencies for each site to determine if there is activity to be monitored.”

Two practical consequences follow.

  • Enable only nearby sites. Every enabled site’s frequencies go into the scan, so a statewide Connect Plus system imported whole becomes a long, slow list. Whistler recommends importing or enabling only the sites in range.
  • Both descriptions are true. Whistler’s announcements list the trunked DMR types, and RadioReference’s wiki says these scanners “can’t trunk track” DMR. The scanner decodes those systems and matches talkgroups, but it finds calls by scanning frequencies rather than by following a control channel. It is slower to land on a call than a control-channel tracker, and it misses more.

Whistler’s forum representative described the WS series as treating all DMR as trunked, conventional included, at the time of the update. NXDN never came to the WS1095 or WS1098; the TRX-2 got it because it has more memory.

2.7 Remote control and control-channel data

Whistler published a Remote Control Protocol for the WS1080/WS1088, WS1095/WS1098, TRX-1 and TRX-2. Version 1.7, dated 1 August 2017, is in the Reference Library. Whistler provides it as is and gives no technical support for it. It defines three things.

Remote control. Remote mode is always active; no special setting is needed. Commands and responses are framed as <STX><msgCode><msgData><ETX><sum> over the USB serial port. The case-sensitive message codes include:

  • Get Status and Get LCD (a copy of the display);
  • Send Key (virtual keypresses);
  • Clock Set, Power Status and Version requests;
  • Get Active Channel Information, added with firmware released in June 2017.

That is enough for a PC application to show a live picture of the head and drive it — useful with the base in a rack or a vehicle and the operator elsewhere.

CCDump. With PC/IF CCDump enabled in the settings, the scanner streams ASCII control-channel data over USB while it monitors a trunked control channel in Scan or Pause. A To file option (with limit and trim settings) writes the same data to the SD card instead. Basic CCDump lines carry the system type, the TSYS object ID and the raw control-channel messages, colon-delimited. The document also defines conventional and weather dump formats. A terminal program or third-party application reads the stream at 115200 baud, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit (the document writes “115,000 bits per second” in one place, a typo for 115200).

Audio file format. The document specifies the header of the recordings on the SD card and the ARINDEX.DAT index in the REC folder. With it, a program can catalogue recordings by system, talkgroup and time without playing them.

Sources

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