Tag Archives: Whistler

CES 2016 – PART 2 – MIDLAND and WHISTLER BOOTH

In part 2 of CES 2016 we inform you about what was shown in the booth of Midland USA and Whistler.

MIDLAND

01Booth of Midland USA

The theme for Midland this year was all about being E+READY.
The booth was a kind of ‘EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS CENTER’ and showed mainly Emergency Solutions by Midland.

02Line of E+Ready products

The weather in USA is different from Europe. It seems the weather can change more rapidly to more dramatic circumstances. There are large areas that suffer from tornados. The long distances sometimes prevent for rapid response in case of emergencies. Popular outside the cities is NOA Weather channels. Even many CB Radio have weather channels were you can listen to the weather forecast.

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The range of Midland USA Emergency Solutions offers:
• Emergency crank radios
• Emergency portable weather radio
• Emergency portable chargers
• Emergency set of two-way radios

Midland Europe introduced some time ago a crank radio for the European market, the type is ER300.

04Midland Europe crank radio type ER300

FLYING COW

To show how huge a disaster can be Midland showed a ‘flying cow’. A kind of tornado was created in a showcase and a small cow was flying around in the air. Mother cow was standing on the ground and looked desperately to the young cow flying around. Funny idea but no idea or this will help selling the emergency products. But at least it caught our attention. But for those who want to be storm chaser Midland offers some good products.

05Tornado Showcase

06aThe Flying Cow                                                      Sad Mother Cow

LIKE EUROPEAN GB1

07More interesting than the flying cow was the little truck in the Midland booth. Mounted in the vehicle was the Midland MicroMobile Two Way radio type MXT100.

Midland MICROMOBILE™ GMRS Two-Way Radio is the latest innovation from a leader in Consumer GMRS Two-Way Radios. With an ultra-compact design which mounts just about anywhere, the MICROMOBILE™ is great for RVing, Road Trips, ATV/UTV activities, and on the Farm or Ranch.
A Full 5-Watts of Power with an external magnetic mount antenna, offers
extended range capability. Best of all, the MICROMOBILE™ provides the ability to talk to other Midland and most other GMRS Two-Way (Walkie-Talkie) Radios.

In Europe we have a similar model radio from Midland called the GB1. In USA it is a GMRS and in Europe it is a PMR446. The frequencies for both models are different and can not communicate together. What is similar is the fact that the antenna from both models is fixed to the radio by a coax cable.

In future Midland USA will introduce new versions of MXT100 with higher output power. For higher output a license is needed for GMRS in USA.

WHISTLER

The Whistler brand is not well known in Europe. They sell many different electronic devices like radar detectors, power inverters, navigation and scanners. New on the booth were wearable electronic flashing lights to mount on shoes, helmets etc.
Our attention was mainly for the scanning receivers.

08Scanner part of Whistler booth

A few years ago Whistler took over the scanner line from GRE. All models are built for the USA market and not specific for Europe. In UK you find will find some traders that import this brand, but Uniden is by far the leader for scanning receivers in Europe and USA.

09Wayne Willson

The scanner specialist from Whistler is mr Wayne Wilson. He is a friendly man, always present at CES to answer questions from visitors about the scanner line.
He has been working during many years for several scanner brands and is now the Whister scanner specialist and manager.
In USA the scanners are distributed by a selected group of retailers, mainly HAM related.

NEW WHISTLER MODELS

10WS1088 and WS1098

Wayne proudly talked about the new scanners WS1088 and WS1098. Both models cover some of the recent trunking systems used in USA. Whistler does not have a solution or plans to introduce a scanner that will cover the European TETRA network.

So far Part 2 of CES 2016, next time what we saw and heard at CB Distributing and new comer on USA market President USA !

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW IN LAS VEGAS

01
Every year the first important show for consumer electronics is the CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is one of the few cities in the world that has so many hotel rooms that it is no problem to house a show with 200.000 visitors plus thousands of exhibitors and regular tourists.

At the Hong Kong version of CES you will find much more suppliers for communication equipment than in Las Vegas. But at CES some of the brands have a more impressive booth than in Hong Kong.

COBRA

02Cobra active on CB, Marine, PMR, Radar Detectors, Dash Camera
and Power products.

Each year at CES, Cobra has an impressive booth. End of last year Cobra was sold to an investment company. That companies also purchased BELL, a big name in radar detectors. Within the industry there is a lot of speculation how long it will take before they will make it one brand and most of all: which brand will win the battle?

03At the Cobra booth an impressive car with Cobra equipment

04Radar Detector, Dash Cam and Smart Phone for easy driving


COBRA CB: HARLEY- DAVIDSON

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For the American CB market Cobra took the Cobra 29LX and turned this model in the 29LX HD version. For Harley-Davidson freaks a must have in the car or on the motorbike.
Cobra is leading on the CB market in USA, but at CES they did not show many models. Let us hope they will have real news on CB next year.

COBRA MARINE: FLOATING MODEL

New for USA marine market is the HH500 FLT BT. Expected is that a similar model for European market will be introduced soon.

06Floating VHF Marine Radio

MIDLAND USA

07Midland Booth at CES, displaying CB, Action and Dash Cameras, GMRS/FRS and Blue Tooth applications.

Midland USA is the number 3 for CB in USA. But they are leading for action cameras and GMRS/FRS, this is a quite similar standard as the European PMR446 regulation. Also the Blue Tooth applications for motor bike drivers are very popular in the USA and Europe.

08Blue Tooth applications from Midland, quite similar to European series. On bottom a few types of CB Radio.

At CES Midland did not show many CB radios, they gave more attention to Blue Tooth products and Action and Dashboard Cameras.

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10Midland has a wide range of portable radios


MOBILE GMRS/FRS

In Europe we have PMR446 portable radios. For us it is not allowed to have mobile versions of PMR446. In USA Midland introduced at CES a new mobile GMRS radio. It is a very compact radio and we can only dream about changing the European standard for PMR446.

11Mobile version of USA PMR446 version

UNIDEN HAS NO BOOTH AT CES

Uniden is the number 1 in USA for scanners and number 2 for CB. But since some years they have no booth at CES. The sales persons are available at CES to talk to customers but not on their own booth. For the industry it would be great if they decide to have booth at CES again.

But you can find Uniden products at the booth of CB Distributing. These people are always present with a booth to meet their customers from the West coast of USA.

12CB Distributing showing CB and scanners from all USA brands

CBD showed from Uniden two new radar detectors. These were brand new on the market. But also the new Cobra 29LX HD could be seen at the CBD booth.

13Rene from CBD proudly shows the Harley Davidson Cobra CB

GRE / WHISTLER

GRE used to be the number 2 for scanners in USA. Over 1 year ago they went bankrupt and were purchased by Whistler.

14Whistler showing their GRE scanner models. One of the models is linked
to a laptop. On the laptop a file from “Radioreferences” to transfer data
to the scanner.

Whistler is still using the brand name GRE and they still are 2nd on USA scanner market. Some models are also available on the European market. But on European market Uniden is by far the most popular brand for scanners.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW

At CES you find a large variety of all kind of consumer electronics. Consumer communication products are hard to find at this show nowadays.
But for those interested in electronics it is a unique show in a unique city.