Customer Ratings & Reviews

Love my new scanner, especially the customizable channel naming for each frequency.. its loaded with tons of features, and im still discovering new things that it can do.. it is loud enough for indoor use, but if using in a vehicle, suggest that you have an AUX port to plug into your car audio.. im using rechargeable batteries that usually last about 7 hours, could last a lot longer, but i have it programmed to light up brightly when it receives a signal..

My first programmable scanner. Very difficult to program. Drivers not available for scanner cable. I had my scanner programmed professionally. Now I'm waiting to receive so good scanner conversations and broadcasts. May need a better external antenna. I bought it with free gift cards I had, hopefully it will prove to be a good scanner.

instruction booklet confusing. Had to call Whistler Co. Took over many calls over a week period. Finally spent about 2 hrs. on phone with Whistler. got it working. Sometimes I have to remove and replace batteries to get it to work. Does not always work when turn on. Also mainly only get one company scanning. Have not got police yet. :Maybe to many items on scanner but afraid to remove any it might take all off. Also have to say the person at Whistler was great, helpful and professional. But spoke with him almost daily for a week. Don't want to bother him again. Will recommend only if person really understands computers. So will check yes below but sparingly.

The scanner was on sale at a great price. It is a well optioned unit that can pick up just about any frequency. Was a little tricky to program. If you get one don't be intimidated by the program sequence.Just keep at and you will succeed.

Very easy to program, and easy to navigate. Has lot of nice features. Could use a better antenna. Gets lots of static and sometimes cuts out (interference with other frequencies). Most of the time works flawlessly.

Took me about 4 hours to get everything the way I needed it to be. Pretty happy with the results however, it just takes a while to input all the local codes. Watched about 4 videos to understand how everything works, I highly recommend to YouTube the videos for instructions. You’ll confuse/frustrate yourself if you don’t watch the videos.

The Whistler 1040 is a very well made, versatile, comfortable to handle, easy to read, good looking device. It is also, NOT--repeat NOT--a scanner designed for the novice and when you think of it, shouldn't be a beginner's introductory radio. That said; BEST BUY was superb in the return process. Couldn't figure out how to use it or program the 1040, even though there is plenty of help online and by phone in doing so. Just wasn't a "plug and play" device.

programming is a little bit on the hard side. Had to purchase additional antenna for it to pick up.

I think the scanner is overall a great choice. I did not find it hard to program after watching some YouTube videos...just seems intimidating at first.

Bought for my wife. Now I use it all the time. We fight over it. If it was a bit less expensive I would buy another

Scanner fairly easy to program manually. Might be a little time-consuming to program manually and if you have a lot of frequencies to program your fingers might get a little sore because of the the buttons, but overall it's easy to program. Also when handling the scanner I noticed that the plastic body is a little slippery to grip so you will have to handle with caution. You can program it through the computer which I'm sure will be really nice feature with this radio although I have problems with my computer trying to program the scanner. Overall I like the scanner. I would recommend it.

I love that it scans DMR P25 Etc. but i can never pickup great signal and plus my county just went E so i can’t listen anymore.

It receives well. Complicated to program for digital and/or trunking. Unless you have an advanced radio background, you're probably going to end up having to buy software to program it and pay an additional fee to a website to access the needed info to program it with.

...but a little confusing for a beginner like me. Won't work with Mac OS so make sure you have access to a Windows PC for programming. If you get frustrated, step away for a while and come back. It's confusing because it has so many cool features for a relatively inexpensive price.

As many other people have shared, programming this scanner is a nightmare. We had four adults (all familiar with technology) use the instruction book to program this scanner and every one of us failed. Programming it through the computer is a joke - horribly complicated and we found it impossible. When we did finally get one channel to come in, the volume was HORRIBLE. It was a local channel (so it should've been a strong, clear signal), we had the volume turned all the way up, and still had to pick up the unit to bring it closer to our ears to hear the transmission. I expected the volume on a handheld to be great since they're designed to be carried around, but that is NOT the case. We returned this scanner for a refund. We then purchased a Uniden model. It was MUCH easier to program and the volume is excellent. Please note that the Uniden we chose is a base model instead of a handheld, but the quality is perfect compared to this handheld unit. We highly recommend the Uniden model, but cannot in good conscience recommend this Whistler handheld unit.

Good scanner overall, bought it for my son for Christmas. I was a little skeptical because I have always purchased Uniden products for previous scanners. I would say the most difficult part was programming. I would suggest using the online services for it is worth the minimal charge. It saves lots of time programming and is very quick to import all the numbers and labeling. So far so good.

Love my radio! But I had to have someone else set it up for me. Took him a couple of hours! Works great

Works great. Sounds great. No complaints so far. So much better than the old scanner we had.

Once programed, i use it every day I love the portability and it picks up channels great.

Good scanner. Not too easy to understand all functions. Software is a must to program.