TRX-2E Overview, Features & Package Contents

Summary: A tour of the Whistler TRX-2E EZ Scan digital desktop/mobile scanner: what it can receive, what’s in the box, its main features and how it differs from the US-market TRX-1.

What the TRX-2E Is

The Whistler TRX-2E is a digital trunking desktop/mobile scanner with a detachable remote control head, a backlit LCD and an SD card. The “E” is the European edition. UK support comes from Moonraker (see TRX-2E Legal, Safety, Warranty & Support), and unlike the US TRX-1 it starts up by asking you to choose a UK, Australian, New Zealand, South African or French bandplan (the addendum for CPU version 7.3 lists more; see TRX-2E Bandplans & Frequency Coverage). It covers 25-88, 108-512, 806-960 and 1240-1300 MHz on the UK bandplan.

Like the TRX-1 it uses Whistler’s Object Oriented Scanning: everything you can scan or monitor (a conventional frequency, a trunked talkgroup, a service, a defined search) is a scannable object programmed and managed in the same way. See TRX-2E Objects, Scanlists & Scan Sets.

Differences from the TRX-1 guide: the TRX-2E guide has no Set Location, library browsing or library update procedure, and no NOAA weather, SAME or SKYWARN functions. Its WX key is instead assigned to a country-specific Service Search. The menu screens still show Set Location and Browse Library (carried over from the US guide), but the guide never describes them and doesn’t list a library on the card. Treat the TRX-2E as a scanner you fill with your own frequencies (see TRX-2E Loading Frequencies From Squawker PC & Squawker Online). The band plans addendum covers both the TRX-1E and TRX-2E.

What It Receives

• Conventional: AM, FM and narrow FM, with CTCSS, DCS and P25 NAC squelch codes.
• Trunked: Motorola, EDACS (wide and narrow), LTR, APCO P25 Phase I, P25 Phase II and X2-TDMA.
• Digital voice: DMR (MotoTRBO Tier II) and NXDN.
• Encryption: the scanner detects and masks encrypted voice audio.

What’s in the Box

• Desktop/mobile scanner with remote head
• Pull-up BNC antenna
• USB cable
• SD card (installed in the scanner), with the PC software on it
• Special 6.5 ft (2 m) LAN cable for the remote head
• Remote head mounting bracket and screws
• Mounting bracket and hardware kit
• DC power cable
• AC adapter
• User guide and quick start guide

Main Features

• Functional keypad and backlit LCD display
• Detachable remote control head with magnet mount
• Decodes Radio ID and Talkgroup ID data
• Upgradeable CPU and DSP firmware
• USB 2.0 (or earlier) interface and EZ Scan PC software to customise settings
• 200 scanlists (plus 20 scan sets), multi-system trunking
• Spectrum Sweeper, built-in service searches and limit searches
• Signal strength meter
• Programmable Alert LED and programmable audio alarms
• V-Scanner II storage system for multiple configurations
• Audio recording to the SD card, with playback
• Built-in clock/calendar
• Discriminator (IF) output to the headphone jack
• Headphone and external speaker jacks