Home Patrol External Speaker

[QwKiE]

Has anyone yet bought a good external speaker for there Home Patrol that can be used in the car. If so where did you buy.

My Home Patrol sounds fine in home, but not quite enough volume for the car.

I have a set of ear buds from my mp3 player they sound excellent, but who wants them in your ears while driving. Any good info would be appricated.

 

[JASII]

Uniden Bearcat Speaker ESP-20

Maybe you should take a look at the Uniden Bearcat Speaker ESP-20.

Uniden Bearcat Speaker ESP-20 Product Reviews

 

[CoolCat]

Any amplified external speaker should work fine. Radio Shack sells a nice 8-watt model: RadioShack® Amplified Communication Speaker (Model: 21-130).

I have an old(er) Radio Shack 5-watt amplified external speaker that I have used for years (currently have it in my truck hooked up to a 996XT) and it sounds good. I assume the current 8-watt model linked above is even better.

Good Luck

 

[sfreiman]

Maybe you should take a look at the Uniden Bearcat Speaker ESP-20.

Uniden Bearcat Speaker ESP-20 Product Reviews

I second this opinion. I use these speakers with my scanners and shortwave and have to say that they can't be beat for the price you can pick them up for on ebay.

 

[TPC2075]

Replying to Qwkie's Question about external speaker.

I use my stereo amplifier and stereo speakers while I have my Home Patrol 1 mounted on my dash and my
HP 1 Sounds great nice and clear and louder then the HP 1 does with out having an external speaker.
if you have a stereo cassette am/fm ,you can buy a cassette adapter with an earphone plug on it that can be
plugged into your Home Patrol and then as you drive you will be able to control how loud you want your radio

you can buy them at big lot stores , 99cent stores , frys , radio shack if you must .


TPC2075

 

[CoolCat]

Maybe you should take a look at the Uniden Bearcat Speaker ESP-20.

That speaker is nice, but it is has no built-in amplification. The HP1 is basically a handheld scanner, and has only a low power headphone output (unlike desktop/mobile scanners that have an external speaker output jack) .

While you would hear audio with a non-amplified model, it would be very low. To overcome road noise, you really need to use an amplified speaker (or hook up an in-line amp to a regular external speaker like the ESP-20).

 

[TPC2075]

Home Patrol 1 ,External Speaker .

There are all different ways to hook up an amplified external speaker system ,yes you can look for an amplified speaker from Radio Shack or Uniden or you Can Buy an adapter Cassette with wire & plug at the
end of the wire that goes into the HP-1's jack that will allow you to hear your HP-1 as loud as you want it you
control it yourself. your car stereo system must be on however and you will not be able to use your stereo for
anything else as your HP-1 is plugged into it. I do this most of the time and with great audio and no interference from anywhere.
CoolCat

yes by doing this you would be using your stereos amplifier ,hooking the HP-1 by plugging it into an adapter
that you'd place into your cassette player and then plugging the wire end of it with the plug into the jack of the
HP-1 ,then turning your cars stereo on and adjusting your volume to your level of hearing.

TPC2075 have a great week to you all.....

 

[jkahn]

But the inital question was has anyone found an ACCEPTABLE external speaker to use with the HP-1?

The ESP-20 is not amplified and probably would not be good for the HP. I have a RS that is similar and it works great on the 996T, but is worse on the HP than the built in speaker. I would like to use the HP in the car, but I don't like to crank it all the way up and take a chance on blowing the speaker in order to hear it marginally over the road noise. I have 2 built in lighter plugs on my van and I already have a three way adapter in one for the 996T radio and (Garmin 12X) GPS, and the 396T or HP-1's DC adapter. The navigational GPS is plugged into the other lighter outlet, so I don't have room to grow for a powered speaker without adding another adapter to the second outlet, and I already have "wire overload".
I got a couple of AA battery powered IPod speakers a few years ago that might work well enough, but they don't have volume controls of their own and if the radio is silent for more than 2 minutes, they will turn itself off!

 

[CoolCat]

I have 2 built in lighter plugs on my van and I already have a three way adapter in one for the 996T radio and (Garmin 12X) GPS, and the 396T or HP-1's DC adapter. The navigational GPS is plugged into the other lighter outlet, so I don't have room to grow for a powered speaker without adding another adapter to the second outlet, and I already have "wire overload".

You don't need a cig lighter outlet to power an amplified speaker. It can (and should) be hardwired. Your 996T should be hardwired as well (that's why it comes with a DC wire harness).

You can buy fuse taps (some with built-in fuse holders) at Autozone,etc which make it very easy to power devices directly from your car's interior fuse panel (you can tap into an ACC switched fuse to have the connected devices turn on/off with the key).

And optionally, if you want to clean up your dash and hide all the ugly cig lighter adapters for your portable devices that run on lower voltages; You can use cig lighter socket pigtails or mount an under-dash socket panel to to hide the wiring behind/under the dash.

 

[jkahn]

I have a set of ear buds from my mp3 player they sound excellent, but who wants them in your ears while driving. Any good info would be appricated.

Certainly not the local Police in Maryland where it is illegal to wear them while driving!

 

[N8IYR]

YES and it worked well

I used a Radio shack amplified speaker. I used a stereo to mono converter at the HP-1 and the sound was great and load and clear. (if no adapter, it will only be as load as the built in speaker)

I tried a Motorola amplified speaker and while it worked too, but the clicking sounds from the APCO 25 scan was so load it was un-bearable. The RS Speaker I have is about 30 years old, but Im sure they havent changed it, so it should be great speaker for you.

I ended up returning my HP-1 and have a BCD996XT on the way due to going through 3 HP-1 units having intermittent audio issues.. No fault of the RS
speaker.

Good luck and happy Load Listening!!

 

[freqs]

Has anyone yet bought a good external speaker for there Home Patrol that can be used in the car. If so where did you buy.

My Home Patrol sounds fine in home, but not quite enough volume for the car.

I have a set of ear buds from my mp3 player they sound excellent, but who wants them in your ears while driving. Any good info would be appricated.

You live near me and I want to ask you how does your Home Patrol work in this area in the car and at home For MPSCS within the county ? The reason I ask I have isues in area's where the 106 cuts in and out so if the Home Patrol does better it may be something I would purchase . I take alot trips up North and to KY and Southern Ill and looks like it would be useful with that to

 

[QwKiE]

freqs

Give me a call I sent you private message.

 

[ST-Bob]

On P25 stuff near me (New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut) the Pro-106 does a better job of receiving digital modes than the HP-1 with the same antenna and same location. I believe the Pro-106 has a better optimized decode algorithm which may actually USE the forward error correction bits as opposed to what the HP-1 apparently does with them (ignores them?).

OK, that may be a little harsh but all I know is the Pro-106 receives digital a lot better than the HP-1. Of course it's not as versatile as the HP-1 and cannot be easily programmed to auto-track multiple sites and systems as you travel nearly as well as the HP-1 (which does it totally automatically with a GPS input).

I guess it's the problem of having two high-end scanners from competing companies. You naturally tend to compare and categorize the strong and weak points of each.

 

[bfpdb]

After all of this discussion has anyone decided what type of Ext speaker will work the best for a HP-1. I wont be using it in a veh but it needs more audio here on my desk, and what does come out has started being muffeled for some reason. audio level is full up , there isnt any other settings are there?

 

[ST-Bob]

Yes - use whatever sounds good to you and use a stereo to mono adapter before going to the amplified external speaker.

Be aware that the clicking that occurs when the HP-1 switches between conventional and digital systems will also be amplified. That's just something you'll have to live with, apparently.

 

[N8IYR]

After all of this discussion has anyone decided what type of Ext speaker will work the best for a HP-1. I wont be using it in a veh but it needs more audio here on my desk, and what does come out has started being muffeled for some reason. audio level is full up , there isnt any other settings are there?

YES,
Read my post #11 this thread!

 

[QwKiE]

speaker

I bought a radio shack 21-130 amplified speaker and the mono to stero adpter, and its in the car, I am very satisfied works real good, and I don't get the clikckig.

 

[bfpdb]

I got a new set of amp speakers and I get the clicking sound as well as a Huming sound. The longer i have the HP-1 the less i care for it.

 

[jkahn]

I bought a radio shack 21-130 amplified speaker and the mono to stero adpter, and its in the car, I am very satisfied works real good, and I don't get the clikckig.

I have not had too much of an issue with the volume of the HP-1's speaker in the car, to and from work on the DC Beltway, although I hate to use anything at the maximum volume setting because it cannot be good for the speaker.

I took a short trip (40 miles each way) right after receiving the unit (see my posted review) and while I was impressed with the distance it received good signals and the way it tracked locations, the car radio and the static from the XYL covered much of the speaker's volume for most of the trip, so an amplified speaker will be a must when we go on the road!