Amazon Ratings and Reviews

Whistler WS1065 Desktop Digital Scanner (Open Box)

$257.04

$401.98 36% off Reference Price

Condition: New; Open Box

Top critical review

See 100 critical reviews

18 people found this helpful

A piece of garbage

By Juby Thomas on Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2023

These stupid scanners are too hard to program. The manual doesn't describe anything properly. They send you to some site to look up frequencies and become a subscriber but it doesn't show you how to do anything. The site has no proper software download area. When you finally find it, it is some old DOS program and requires payment unless you want to use the demo version for a month. Other than the free weather report, I didn't really hear anything and all You-tube videos of this item are basically idiots mumbling. One guy didn't even show the unit and just grunted in a daze. The manual's PC requirements mention Windows XP and believe it or not Windows VIsta...Vista...for an item sold in 2023. They're selling them on the Whistler site and the latest Windows supported or mentioned is Windows 8. It didn't recognize any COM ports when I tried the cable. The manual also describes the settings of switches and menu items but doesn't say what it means, like "priority", or "AGC-controls the AGC function , which is what?" Some reviews have mentioned that this is the fun of finding out, but I don't want to spend over $200 on something that does nothing. What is the point of making something so difficult to use or even know it's working?

Top positive review

See 100 positive reviews

16 people found this helpful

You'll need help programming this.

By Lawrence Wescott on Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2020

This is incredibly hard to program manually, but true fact: Scanning isn't what it used to be. Back in the day, you bought a Regency Scanner, popped in a few crystals, and you could listen to your local EMS no problem. Now, there's P25, Digital Trunking, and on and on and on. Whistler doesn't even try to pretend that you can program this manually: you need to get a program like Win500 and a subscription to Radio Reference, download the freqs and settings for what you want to hear, and load them into the radio. VERY SIMPLE PROCESS - easier than buying a crystal and installing it into the radio! I bought a TRAM discone antenna to use with this scanner and I'm hearing stuff from very far away - Boston is 60 air miles from my house and I can listen to their Fire/EMS if I were so inclined. Good scanner, good value, and if you want more features you'll have to spend a LOT more money.