Actions

Working with Scanners with Secure Digital (SD) Cards

From The RadioReference Wiki

Revision as of 07:39, 16 November 2016 by Ka3jjz (talk | contribs)

Welcome to the Working with Scanners with Secure Digital (SD) Cards article. This article should be a repository for hints, tips, known issues and fixes regarding the use, formatting, loading and other issues that involve SD cards that are used in the following scanners:

GRE Radio Shack Whistler
PSR-7007 Pro-1077
Pro-181,5,8
PSR-8002,5,8 Pro-6682,5,8 WS10802,3,8
WS10882,3,6
TRX-12,3,4
PSR-9009 WS10952,3
WS10982,3,6
TRX-22,3,4
  1. Released around the time the PSR-800 was, but lacking additional/advanced features SEE #5.
  2. Project 25(P25) Phase I and II decoding.
  3. Capable of DMR decoding, with a free Upgrade to the latest Firmware via Whistler's EZ-Scan software.
  4. Capable of NXDN decoding, with a free Upgrade to the latest Firmware via Whistler's EZ-Scan software
  5. Ability to be Upgraded for DMR (and add P25 Phase II to Pro-18) decode with a Paid Upgrade with User paid shipment to Whistler, returned by them. Once, returned, continued forward support is possible via Whistler Repair and EZ-Scan Software, with all the newer additions and features of a WS1080.
  6. Variant with Keypad
  7. Trunking w Analog Voice Only
  8. ALL THE SAME after UPGRADE except silk screening
  9. Never released publicly, subsequently became WS1095


In addition, Uniden's HP-1, HP-2, |BCD436HP and |BCD536HP all use SD cards.


This page on Secure Digital cards from Wikipedia has a great deal of useful information and explanations on the various terms.


If a particular tip is specific to a particular model, please be sure to mention that in the description. Details Matter - the more details you supply, the better this article will become.


General Tips and Information

  • Many of you have questions about Boot/Load times of the Whistler SD card scanners
    • At boot, the code looks through the entire File Allocation Table, counting “free” clusters. This is necessary so that we know how much free space is available on the card at startup. The number of clusters that must be counted is directly related to the size of the card. As a result, a change in card capacity at a minimum will impact the “Init SD FileSys” time. In addition to card size, the “Verifying Data” time is dependent on the usage of the card and is heavily dependent on file system fragmentation, used space, etc. Thanks WhistlerWendy


  • My SD Card has failed or I want to replace it with a larger capacity second memory card. What SD Cards are compatible?
  • How do I format a SD Card for Use?
    • Some microSD cards up to 32GB are supported, as long as it uses 512-byte blocks and is formatted correctly:
      • 2GB or smaller: FAT16, 32kB clusters
      • larger than 2GB: FAT32, 32kB clusters
    • SanDisk and Transcend cards from Class 2 to 6 and up to 32 GB are known to work correctly. Some 4 GB PNY cards have worked while others have not. Other brands have been known to cause issues and could not be recognized by the PSR-800.
    • Larger capacity memory cards (16-32 GB) have been reported to take longer for the PSR-800 to read, boot up and become operational.
    • The SD association recommends using their SD memory card format tool. They say Windows does not properly format SD cards. Their tool can be found here