Railfan Technology > New Radios Coming From Whistler

Found this on Radio Reference tonight... Sounds like the addition of NXDN may be coming: https://www.whistlergroup.com/usa/news/cat/Press-Room/post/DMR/

Perhaps the 'check is in the mail' but it sounds like the manufacturers are working on it. According to the press release, NXDN and other modes will be a free upgrade when available. The press release says new radios will ship in June, 2016.

 

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

I'm making my annual pilgrimage to Dayton tomorrow.  I'll be talking to some of the manufacturers.  Hope to have a report posted by Sunday evening and hope it has some promising news.  Will be sure to talk to Whistler if they are there.  They were last year.

John

 

Thanks John! I have two PSR-600s and a PSR-500. the only reason I'm interested in the WS-1098 is because of the detachable control head. I'll be curious to hear what they have to say...

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Does sound good.

I would also like to know what their timeframe is on the update to NXDN.  I know that most railroads are still analog, however, when they make the switch, I want the radio to be able to receive the NXDN signals.

Thanks
Pat
WA5VRO
South Austin, TX

My comment is that Whistler will have to get a whole lot more aggressive on pricing, if the current models that they offer are any indication.  Right now, they are in the territory of the street price to buy an Icom full NXDN commercial mobile or portable radio.  I strongly suspect that the Icom NXDN radio will also have better receive specs than a wide-spectrum, multi-mode digital scanner.

As to the railroads cutting over to NXDN, a full cutover will likely still be a few years in the future, but I have no doubts that it is coming.  NXDN digital simply offers too many useful features that analog does not.  Unlike Motorola P25 digital, which is an expensive pig of a platform, NXDN is pretty robust and much more affordable--a likely reason that the railroads chose NXDN as their future digital platform.  The railroads, especially the Class 1's, have been aggressively purchasing NXDN-capable equipment for well over half a decade now.  Once their remaining analog-only equipment reaches the end of its life cycle, that is when you will likely see a massive cutover to NXDN.  My date guess--just a guess--is probably around 2020.