What is the Best Police Scanner?

A lot of people come to us and ask ‘what is the best police scanner?’. We are going to make the answer simple for you; it is the Whistler TRX-2. Yes. It is a little more expensive than competing radio scanners but, trust us, if you want a police scanner that will last ‘for life’, then this is your best option. Let’s take a look at why shall we?

Top Rated Police Scanner – Futureproofing

We don’t know if you are aware, but radios around the world are going through a change. The way in which they broadcast is different. In the past, we would use analog signals. This was great and all, but it was time for technology to move on. We needed something ‘better’. Enter digital.

If you pick up an analog radio nowadays, you are getting something that is just useless. You may be able to use it for a couple of years still, depending on where you live, but analog signals are being phased out. Yep. Police budgets are being spent on something useful for once.

The Whistler TRX-2 is a digital radio scanner. This means that it picks on those new-fangled digital radio signals. Since digital is the future, this is the exact type of radio that you need. The Whistler TRX-2 can pick up on all the main digital radio systems. Far more than similar digital radio scanners on the market. Basically, you will have more listening options available to you.

Everything You Need is Included in the Box

We don’t know about you, but we are getting pretty tired of picking up a ‘sick’ piece of gear, only to find that it isn’t really useable unless you buy a few accessories (normally an antenna). Everything you need is in the TRX-2 box. Nothing more to buy, which is just as well since you will need to drop a heap of cash on it at the start.

That being said, you won’t want to be using the included antenna with the TRX-2 for all that long. Yeah. It is going to do a good job for a while, but this is the first bit of gear you will want to upgrade. You will be surprised at just how much extra range you can get with a better antenna. You will be surprised at just how great everything sounds. Later on, you will probably want to get a separate loudspeaker to take your Whistler TRX-2 to the next level.

The Top Police Scanners Have Location Customization

The Whistler TRX-2 does not have a GPS built-in. Although, we find that it is to the benefit of the device. Adding a GPS would have made the price way too high for most people.

You can, however, get the scan list for your local area by tapping in your zip code. Providing you have kept your device up to date, it will find the channels in the area and just scan through them for you. It is a painless set-up.

Easy to Use and Update

While this is a device used by the pros, it is simple enough for the inexperienced to get to grips with. Honestly, the Whistler TRX-2 has one of the best user manuals we have ever seen included with a radio scanner. It is chunky and tells you everything you need to do. However, the device is so intuitive that you probably won’t need to use the manual for some of the more basic features.

There are some more complicated features built into the device (see the next section) but, honestly, even these are going to be easy to get to grips with once you have flicked through the manual a little bit. It involves a touch of programming, but Whistler has devised their own way of doing things, so you just need to be able to think logically more than anything.

In addition to this, Whistler TRX-2 regularly provides software and channel list updates. All you need to do is connect up to a computer and everything will be done automatically for you. This is awesome. We are getting tired of radio scanners that you need to program the channel list yourself. We love it when the hardest and most boring part of owning a police radio scanner is done for us.

Of course, you do not have to go by the automatic updates if you do not want to. If you wish, you can add your own channels discovered through sites like RadioReference.com [1].

Create Your Own Scan Channel Lists

This is one of our favorite features of the Whistler TRX-2, and one that we wish was included on other radio scanners. Do bear in mind that you will only be able to access this feature if you have access to a Windows computer. One of the few downsides of the TRX-2, to be honest.

The problem with using this radio out of the box is that the job it does of giving you radio channels is just far too good. Once you have tapped in your zip code, it will find every scannable radio channel for you. Every one. This means that when you use the scan feature, it may be going through a few dozen channels at once. This is a slow process. It is also pretty slow when you turn on the device and load up the scan list for the first time.

If you can create your own scan channel lists, you can narrow down that process. It will scan faster, which means you can keep tabs on conversations a little bit easier. In addition to this, it also means that you will only hear the channels you want to be able to hear. No useless chatter. You have full customization too.