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Reviews For: Uniden Home Patrol

Category: Receivers: Scanners

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Review Summary For : Uniden Home Patrol
Reviews: 36MSRP: $500
Description:
The Uniden Home Patrol is a new scanner that includes the scanner database preprogrammed into its memory. This allows local programming via zip code or city county state locations. Updates can be downloaded. Easy setup and start scanning all services or just select law enforcement or others.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.uniden.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00363.6
N7WR Rating: 2014-01-18
Good Value Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought a Home Patrol when they first came on the market and was happy with it but didn't use it as much as I thought I would so I sold it. Now that I am retired and use my own vehicle (I used to have a "company car")I decided to get another one as I would use it more than I did in the past. I bought one that was refurbished and under warranty. Installed in my truck it is used daily and I have been very impressed. I have it mated to a Larson tri band antenna on the roof of the vehicle. I did add an amplified mobile speaker as without it the volume was not enough to overcome the audio from other radios and road noise. I live in a large valley surrounded by mountains. I routinely can copy the Washington State Police (over 60 miles away), the Idaho State Police (over 90 miles away) and, of course all of the more local stuff. I am impressed with the sensitivity of the receiver. When traveling our of area it updates the frequencies scanned based upon input from my GPS. Certainly serves my purposes well

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Earlier 5-star review posted by N7WR on 2011-08-21

I will have to disagree with some of the scanner buffs who downplay this receiver because it does a lot of work for you. I've been in public safety for over 48 years and use public safety radios and scanners a lot. I have had a HomePatrol in my county emergency vehicle since they first came on the market. I have done the firmware and database upgrades as they become available. I liked it so much I bought one for my personal vehicle and use it mobile with a Larson 2/440 antenna. I live in Eastern Oregon and copy public safety traffic from Idaho, Washigton and even Norther Nevada. Some of the repeaters are over 200 miles from me. With the ability to create favorites yet constantly be where the action is based on GPS inputs I think this scanner is hard to beat.
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Earlier 4-star review posted by N7WR on 2010-11-22

Good receive sensitivity, certainly innovative, and easy to use. I will take it with me on those few occasions I travel outside my rural home county. The data base for this rural region is incomplete so a lot of manual entry is needed.
SHORTWAVER Rating: 2013-08-03
Happy With Purchase Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've been using the Home Patrol for a couple of weeks now and feel that I can offer some feedback on it's operation and my experiences with it.
Initial out of the box review is that it seems to be well constructed and has some "heft" to it. It comes with a AC power adapter as well as car adapter-a nice touch. The included rubber ducky antenna may be good to get you started but i have mine on a cheap RS antenna in the attic. I would recommend that you either attach the scanner to a outdoor antenna or at least a good portable antenna like a Diamond RH77CA. With my attic antenna, i am picking up signals 20+ miles out. The audio is acceptable, but not as good as my GRE PSR-500 handheld scanner.
The shining star of this scanner, I think, is its screen. The abilty for you to clearly see all information from the transmitting station is a great feature. My GRE scanners are great but i can never see who I'm listening to unless i am very close to the radio. with thhe Hame Patrol, I can be almost 10 feet away and still see that information. That is worth it to me.
Of course, the fact that you only need to put in your zip code, and be scanning away, is pretty cool also.
K4SDW Rating: 2013-02-15
Good Scanner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had been thinking about buying one of these scanners ever since they came on the market. I read everything I could find about these scanners, watched all the You Tube videos, etc and then decided against purchasing one because I felt like the Grecom would work better. I order the Grecom 800 digital scanner and it was not very easy to program. I did not like it at all and it would only pick up 800 Mhz frequencies at certain times or if I moved the scanner to other locations around the house even though I am 10 miles from the transmitter.
I thought I would sell it and try one of the home patrol units.
It was so easy to program. I wish it did come with the Extreme Package, especially for the price of $500.00. I plugged it up and downloaded the sentinal software onto the computer then updated the scanner and entered the zip code, set the range and after defining the frequencies I wanted to listen to in my area, the scanner worked great. I am even picking up some stations over 100 miles away. The Highway Patrol is broken up into districts here and I can pick up dispatchers from the other districts. I have to keep them locked out but it works great. I am enjoying this scanner a lot. I just ordered an outside antenna just to bring in the weaker mobiles better. The rubber duck antenna that comes with the unit works better than I had expected it to work. I think some of these scanners are like others, you get good ones and bad ones, but I got a good one. I would buy another one.
W0NTS Rating: 2013-02-12
Bad choice Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had been using a Radio Shack Pro 96 but fell for the hype advertising for the Home Patrol. Big mistake.The Home Patrol data base is lousy as is it's audio. I feel it is crazy to have to spend another wad of money for upgrades for this piece of junk. This morning it will go back in the box and eventually find a new owner. I am again using my Pro 96 which in my opinion beats the Home Patrol by a wide margin.
VA3CR Rating: 2013-02-11
Like the Scanner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This radio could be a 5 and it trys hard to be. It now works very well for me and wasn't too hard to get it to work that way. Only shortcoming is the rubber duck antenna doesn't receive well, so I put a MFJ1717S on and it works as well as my other scanners. Also recommend you use the software to get it to stop scanning stuff you don't need (that's a lot of deleting) by creating a favourite for your area. Display and everything else meets or exceeds my expectations. Also the radio appears to be very well built.
VE6BGM Rating: 2012-11-20
No problems Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Tough to rate anything a 5. But no problems for over 12 months.
KA3OUC Rating: 2012-11-20
Great Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The HP-1 is a good scanner. Works fine by my. All you have to do is just invest a little time reading and playing before jumping to conclusions. I have also found that Energizer batteries work best over the stock batteries.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KA3OUC on 2011-01-16

Got the radio back in December and have done some testing with it. This radio will do EXACTLY what it is supposed to do. All you have to do the just READ(what most users fail to do)the manual. I live about 50 miles away from Philadelphia, and it picks up Phiilly station just fine.
WA6SPA Rating: 2012-11-20
2 Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
HomePatrol has a lots of problems…too many. Just my opinion...
K5CPF Rating: 2012-08-20
Almost (but not quite) perfect!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I got my device today. Installed the latest Sentinel, downloaded the latest firmware and database and punched in my zip code... BOOM!!! I was instantly monitoring the services I wanted to hear! The touch screen interface and computer software make it simple to tweak.

I actually have pretty good reception with the included antenna, even out in the suburbs with tek-shield roofing!

Unlike some previous reviewers, I will not rate the device low because Uniden created an upgradable platform and charges for the major upgrades; I guess they'd rather have to buy a new scanner.

I do take away 1 for not being able to decode "Phase II TDMA". From what I've read, it will take more than a firmware upgrade to do that.
KC2IGY Rating: 2012-05-19
Crippled out of the box Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
There are many things I like about the Uniden HP-1. Uniden's decision to charge $100 extra to unlock all the radio's features is not. I have since sold my HP-1, and bought a GRE PSR-800. I did find the HP-1 performed well, and had nice features, but I'm not going to give Uniden another $100 on top of the $500 I already paid, to make my radio function the way it is capable of. I'm glad to see other radio enthusiasts feel the same way I do.