TRX-1 Loading Frequencies From Squawker PC & Squawker Online

Summary: What Squawker PC and Squawker Online can do for a Whistler TRX-1: live logging with Squawker Connect, the Whistler text export, and what isn’t supported.

At a Glance

• Squawker PC Connect supports the TRX-1 for live monitoring and logging, over the radio’s serial connection.
• Squawker PC Scanner Programmer does NOT support the TRX-1. The Programmer can’t read from or write to a Whistler scanner, so it won’t load frequencies into it. (The Programmer’s Whistler code is marked “not yet implemented”.)
• Both Squawker PC and Squawker Online can export a Whistler file (a plain text list) that you copy onto the scanner’s SD card.

Squawker PC: Connect (Live Logging)

Squawker PC is UKAFG’s Windows app. In Connect Settings you can create a profile with Scanner System Whistler and Scanner Type TRX-1, pick the COM port (or use Scan for Whistlers to have Squawker PC probe the ports and find it) and launch the profile. Squawker PC then follows the frequency the radio is on, using Whistler’s remote control protocol at a fixed speed of 115200 baud, and matches it against UKAFG’s frequency data so you can see and log who you’re hearing.

Whistler radios get no on-screen radio controls: you can watch and log what the radio receives, but you can’t press the radio’s keys from Squawker Connect. See the Connect guides: Supported Radios & Scanner Systems, Creating a Connection Profile, Connecting Your Radio: Drivers, Ports & Menu Settings, Launching a Profile and Radio Controls (Uniden Models Only).

The TRX-1 guide doesn’t describe the radio’s serial connection itself. Squawker Connect finds it by probing each COM port for a Whistler response, so if Scan for Whistlers finds nothing, check the USB cable, that the scanner is on, and that no other program has the port open.

Exporting a Whistler File (Squawker PC and Squawker Online)

Both programs produce the same Whistler export, and it’s the quickest way to load UKAFG frequencies into a TRX-1:

• Squawker PC: choose your data, then use the Whistler button in the Export panel.
• Squawker Online (ukafg.co.uk/squawker-online-search, part of Squawker Online): search, then click Whistler under the export buttons.

The result is a text file with a header line and three columns: Alpha Tag, Frequency, Mode (the short name, the frequency and the mode, using AM where none is given; Squawker Online cuts names to 16 characters). It carries conventional frequencies only: no CTCSS, DCS or trunking data.

Copy the file onto the scanner’s SD card. Put the card in a card reader (or connect the scanner by USB with it switched off, so the card shows up as a drive), copy the file across, then put the card back or disconnect. Make a backup copy of the card’s CDAT folder first (see TRX-1 Micro SD Card, EZ Scan Software & Updates). The TRX-1 user guide doesn’t describe this file or where the scanner or EZ Scan picks it up, so if it doesn’t appear, check the file loaded in EZ Scan or use Whistler’s support.

Other useful exports: CSV and Excel (six columns: User, Description, Short Name, Frequency, Channel, Mode) and Copy to the clipboard. Details are in Exporting to Scanner Software and Exporting to Files – What Each Format Does. More UKAFG tools: Common Scanner Frequencies, WTR Business search and Amateur Repeater search.

Loading a Single UK Frequency by Hand

For a one-off, or if the exported file doesn’t load:

1. Look up the frequency in Squawker Online (or the Whistler export).
2. On the scanner: MENU, Program Menu, Add Conv Freq, key in the frequency, set the RX Mode (airband is AM, most other UK voice services FM or NFM), name it, and Save Changes.
3. Put it in a scanlist and switch that scanlist on. See TRX-1 Programming Conventional Channels & Editing Objects and TRX-1 Objects, Scanlists & the Library.

Tips

• Check coverage first: see TRX-1 Specifications & Frequency Coverage. Nothing is covered from 174 to 216 MHz, for example.
• Keep a backup of the CDAT folder or use Backup Data before large changes.
• The US library is no use for UK systems, so build UK scanlists from your own frequencies.