Uniden Public Safety Receiver (Home Patrol- 1)

The Uniden Home Patrol-1 is an amazing piece of technology. A touch screen scanner that requires very little user input, and has the entire US frequency database in its memory. For the most part, the HP-1 make scanning as simple as can be. You hook up the scanner to your PC, and run the Uniden Sentinel Software. The software downloads the latest frequency database from RadioReference. You upload the the database to the scanner, and you're good to go. Just enter your Zip Code, City, or GPS coordinates, and the HP-1 will scan all the agencies in your area. You can even hook up an optional GPS unit to automatically follow your location. You set the range of the scanner from 0-30 miles to limit how far away the agencies are that the scanner will attempt to scan. You can also select the type of agencies you wish to listen to. I find the "location" setting to be hit or miss. It seems to think that towns that are 40 miles from me, are actually less than 1 mile from me. It also thinks agencies in my own town are more than 10 miles away. This is due to the database, not the scanner. The database has been getting updated on a daily basis, to get it more accurate and up to date. I find that setting up your own "Favorites Lists" works well in listening to what you want to.

As for the hardware itself, the HP-1 is a very solid performer. The receiver has great sensitivity and selectivity. I've listened to APCO-25 digital systems, EDACS, and Motorola analog trunking systems. All of them were configured correctly without any user input. Audio quality is good, but not great. It is about what I expected from a very small speaker. The small SMA duck antenna performs surprisingly well, especially on UHF. The touch screen is bright and easy to use. Battery life with the included 2300mAh batteries is good. I get over 8 hours on a single charge. The scanner is capable of replaying and recording transmissions. A very cool feature. The scanner also comes with a home charger/adapter, car charger/adapter, and home stand. The stand is a nice touch. The HomePatrol-1 is a nice addition to my collection of scanners. People that don't like to program their scanners, or would like to use it in different areas, will probably enjoy it also.

Update: A few months ago, Uniden introduced a new "Extreme Upgrade" firmware update for the Home Patrol-1. They are charging $100 for this upgrade, and it adds some new features to the scanner. So basically in order for you get all the features of the Home Patrol-1, you now have to spend $600, or you'll have a crippled $500 radio. In my opinion, this is a dangerous practice. Many in the Amatuer Radio Community are outraged about this, but everyone has to decide for themselves whether or not they have an issue with this. As a matter of principle, I will not be paying another $100 for a firmware upgrade, and I lowered my rating from 5 stars to 4 stars. I will also think twice about purchasing another Uniden radio since I'll never know whether or not Uniden will be charging for future upgrades.

Could I be dreaming? Is this really true for this price? All these features with a touch screen? Long and the short of it is this is an amazing breakthrough in digital scanners at this price point! I am a news videographer who has worked in many different markets for various stations and has had a number of different scanners through the years. The Home Patrol 1 beats many of them hands down from both a pro and amateur level. Yes the unit needs some work but I expected that as this is such a new product.

The Pros: Right out of the box you can set it up to work via zipcode, city, GPS(need the proper connection), or area (the HP1 automatically picks up what signals are in the area). These methods work extremely well right out of the box but do have some issues which I'll get to in the Cons section.

For this price it comes with everything, home AND car charger, preloaded frequencies, stand and software all in a touch screen package. Hands down this can't be beat.

The touch screen is brilliant and relatively easy to navigate. Set brightness, auto dim, contrast and power save to your liking and your off.

Having all the frequencies preloaded on a 2gig micro SD card is great also Plus the fact that Uniden updates the list on a regular basis which is taken care of just by plugging the unit into the computer and hitting update in the software.

Squelch, attenuation, range, inputting frequencies, favorites, gps connection and yes even recording are all here.

The In Between: My understanding is that Uniden knows about these problems and are working on fixing them.

While having the ability to set zipcode, range, area etc. is fantastic the unit gets a bit confused and leads to excessive work out of the box. I put my zipcode in and it loaded states that were over two hours away. Same thing with entering range, I set it for 15 miles and it loads frequencies from over forty miles away. So then you have to work on locking out channels left and right.

You can set up what you want to listen to such as fire, police, transportation, rail, etc. but the problem is even with certain departments chosen it will just load everything up. For example all I wanted was police, fire and ems yet it loaded up rail, airports and transportation anyway.

Again Uniden knows about these problems and is working on them.

The Bad or Nitpicky: Being able to save favorites in the unit is a good thing to have but to make an entire list is a giant time consuming pain and your much better off making a list in the software which leads me to the next problem. The software is easy to navigate but has little to no instruction on creating and saving your lists to the unit. I figured it out and once figured out it is a snap but a little instruction would go a long way. In fact entering and saving frequencies in the software is easier than entering them in the unit itself.

The touch screen is a giant step forward but needs some tweeks. I like seeing County, Department, Frequency etc. and be able to one touch lock but to skip a channel requires a three touch process on the tiny bar on the right which while driving can be a pain. This needs to be a one button step like on other handhelds.

The squelch feature is great to have but on the other handheld units you have more finite control with a turn type knob.

Overall a fantastic scanner for the money, it really can't be beat. Yes there are some nitpicky issues but Uniden is working on addressing them and once addressed will make the Home Patrol 1 THE unit to have. Uniden needs to come out with the car mount like they said they were going to three months ago.

Any questions on the software or unit feel free to ask.

Buy Uniden Public Safety Receiver (Home Patrol- 1) Now

I'm in a small city in New Mexico and I'm sure that this scanner works perfectly in Dallas or even Albuquerque but it doesn't work where I am. The advertisements state that when you type in your zip code or city you can begin listening to fire, police, emergency transmissions etc. Unfortunately the transmissions come from a database and if your local police, fire, etc. frequencies aren't in the data base you hear nothing at all. The unit looks like you are scanning Police, railroads, etc. but it never stops.

I'd advise contacting Uniden before investing in this expensive unit if you are in a small town or city.

Read Best Reviews of Uniden Public Safety Receiver (Home Patrol- 1) Here

I've owned all types of scanners over my life having to jump to new technologies as radio systems have evolved across this land.

This particular uniden isn't geared towards the advanced user, you know who your are,the ones who are at ease with programming in trunked radio systems,modes,attenuations and the like. This scanner is geared toward general novice scanner users.....and it's a breeze to use for the most part...I really like it's ability to record audio unattended...and replay it displaying the agency and talkgroup just like as if it were capturing the transmission in real time. It's fun to use while sleeping in a hotel, then replaying what happened overnight in a town you're unfamiliar with... You tend to get a feeling of the more crime ridden parts of a community, (Ooh better stay off so in so street on my way to that meeting etc.)

Even though it really is intended for Home use...you can use it while mobile and even attach hockey puck style GPS devices(with a whole lot of wiring) so you can tool down our nations roadways listening where legal as you drive, it will track systems as you move from area to area... Please remember it's unlawful to use and even have a scanner in your car in a few states (MN,IN,KY,FL,SD,NY) ..So those of you who intend on tossing the unit on your dashboard like a GPS, while trucking cross country might run afowl of the folks you're listening to, so play nice..and follow the laws. Just cuz it's lawful to scan in your home, doesn't mean it's lawful nationwide to scan while mobile.

The audio of the unit at home is fine, while mobile it's not as loud as it should be...and an external speaker should be considered...and there's no easy way to mount the unit in many cars simply because of where Uniden chose to place the SMA style antenna. (it's a very poor location).

It has some advanced features buried in the advanced menu portion of the unit , if you want to manually program a frequency, or tell it to avoid specific systems or departments with in 20 miles or so of you...and as discussed in other reviews...the manual is just plainly poorly written and the software isn't the best either. But it's uniden's first real attempt at a scanner for the masses, living with advanced radio systems in their midst, using data from Radio reference to find it's way from city to city , department to department.

All in all a 4 out of 5 , NOT too highly recommended for folks who are used to the technological side of scanning, but rather those who live in a city with advanced public service communications systems and really just wish to listen to what's happening when a siren races past your home. Just pop in the zip, block out (avoid) the systems and agencies you don't want the unit to receive and you're off and running.

Enjoy and remember watch those mobile scanner laws....you don't want a Kentucky State Patrol person rolling a Crown Vic rear tire over your $500.00 HP 1 at the side of the road during a traffic stop.

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My objective was to find a user friendly scanner that did not require an advanced degree is math and physics coupled with years of programming experience, and a professional electronics background. This scanner is easy to use right out of the box, and meets that criteria. What a novel idea . . . a product easy to use and understand.

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