My Pros and Cons for the Home Patrol-1

[ST-Bob]

They say no computer needed.However you really can't really get what the radio has to offer unless you do.The screen is quite usless in a sunny car,which was found out today.Also noticed no real difference if using duckie or top of roof mobile mount.Vocabulary is differant-Law instead of police,also Federal and goverment which, state or what.Otherwise like most advertisements,gets you motivated and then "is this all their is?"Good luck,when cometh HP-2?

OK, not to point fingers but your post illustrates who the HP-1 is NOT aimed at. If you have umpteen years experience with radios and scanners then of course it doesn't fit your needs.

If, however, you don't know a scanner from an iPhone then the HP-1 is right up your alley.

A first-timer doesn't know it's "different" from other scanners 'cause he's never used one.
A first-timer doesn't go "is this all there is?" because he's coming from NOTHING and anything is a vast improvement.
A first-timer may not ever use it in the car and if he does, he has nothing to compare it to as he's got no history using monochrome LCDs so he'll never notice it's harder to read than XYZ scanner. He's never seen or used another scanner.

I have used other scanners in ancient times (before trunking) and I remember when there were no LCDs, just dim red LED or flourescent displays. The HP-1's display is as good as a touch-screen can get - at least comparable to touch-screen GPSs I've owned.

So if you've been scanning since before the CD was invented, no you're not going to like the HP-1. However, you're probably averse to change and have bad eyes, creaky joints, poor hearing and are on Medicare so nothing we say will help you love your HP-1.

 

[phask]

Or not I've been scanning sice there were 8 channels all requiring crystals.

Currently about 7 scanners in the house, 3 on most of the time, but the HP has became my "go to"

150 miles today with a GPS (1st time). As everyone know, only issue is geo tags need a lot of improvement.
As a power user, without favs. it's useless, but with it it's fine.

As a mobile user w/ GPS it great for unknown areas.

I'm too old to spend time ahead of a trip setting and turning on and off banks, or favs.

 

[Mark_Honie]

Posted by Phask:

<<I'm too old to spend time ahead of a trip setting and turning on and off banks, or favs.>>

Yeah!...And I'm too young to do it.

 

[MarMatthias]

And if there's no power for 2 weeks, how are you going to be running your scanner anyway??? Won't you be too busy cutting firewood to worry about a scanner?

Ever hear of Natural Gas? Works very well for cooking and heat....

 

[ratboy]

GRE's latest is the same way. It looks like a blasted MP3 player... I agree, if this is the future for Uniden and GRE, AOR may get a new customer... My biggest issue is what if you don't have a computer (or electricity, like a two week blackout), then all you have is a worthless $500+ paper weight.

Once it's programmed, you don't need the PC anymore! I'm guessing you've never used/owned an AOR scanner, as they are hands down the most difficult to use of just about any brand of scanner (A lot of this is no doubt due to Uniden and GRE owning most of the patents that makes using a scanner easy), and they do NOT trunk, so in many places they are crippled or almost useless. I've owned two AOR scanners, and that's something I'm very unlikely to ever do again.

 

[nosoup4u]

I've had mine for about a day and half now and have quickly developed a love/hate relationship with it.

My biggest issue is the favorites. I like to turn things on and off all the time. Seems like with this radio, if you want to add something to one of your favorites, what it does is copy the data there, so now it is there forever. I think a better method would be to be able to go in and just select which of the favorites you want to listen it.

I don't see this as a replacement for either of my XT scanners. Maybe my BCT15.

 

[dcisive]

I've been into scanning since the early 80's and typically have always had top of the line portable and base scanners with nice antenna arrangements as well. However I was out of it for a while and the plethora of trunked systems took over in my area. I simply had neither the time nor patience to deal with the details, but wanted to get everything possible. Until the HP-1 there really was no clear cut answer. I'd had top AOR, GRE and Icom setups before, but didn't want to have to dink around with programming everything from scratch. The HP-1 pretty much answers all of my dilemmas. My wife enjoyed having the scanner around as well, so I jumped on the HP-1 as soon as I found out about it late in December. It sounded too good to be true, but thus far it has delivered the goods in spades. Perhaps in our area (Northern Utah) it is ideal as there are several different systems about, but also a "unified" system which is well implemented. It's pretty much nonstop action around here, and Friday nights are amazing. So all in all I'm thrilled. I did, like most of you, change the antenna to a Wilson duckie style I had. I also had several others I extensively tested back and forth and overall the Wilson had a slight advantage over the Watson 889, which I formerly loved and preferred. It is on a SMA/BNC 90 degree adapter so no bid deal. Great reception in the entire area with no gaps. I don't use the battery power much but when I did it worked faithfully for longer than I needed it. Overall the integration with my laptop has been seamless. I live the great number of options available in the various menus which allows for considerable dialing it in to one's taste. Overall I find it was well executed. I guess I'm just at the age and disposition now where I do indeed prefer to just plug it in and get it all without the fuss.. The HP-1 delivers in that regard for sure. I'm also very impressed with the audio quality. At half volume it fills up my entire living room easily.

 

[MarMatthias]

Once it's programmed, you don't need the PC anymore! I'm guessing you've never used/owned an AOR scanner, as they are hands down the most difficult to use of just about any brand of scanner (A lot of this is no doubt due to Uniden and GRE owning most of the patents that makes using a scanner easy), and they do NOT trunk, so in many places they are crippled or almost useless. I've owned two AOR scanners, and that's something I'm very unlikely to ever do again.

I've looked into them quite heavily before I got my 396XT. The Icom R20 has no digital and has screen up the cell phone block region so that some public frequencies in my area are blocked. I've looked into the AOR and its software to do trunking, the software requires two scanners.

While I would agree that most of the time, once programmed you are set, there has been cases in the mid west (1998 (Omaha: 1 million people without electricity for 2 weeks) and recently) where the entire public safety systems switched to emergency frequencies. Even with out electricity, I was able to get the frequencies in my radio quickly.

 

[mattl3320]

here what i like about the hp-1 endless data base as long as u update u have all the states in the us in there. and if the power goes out u have a base scanner with battery back up for scanning with if power goes out and there aa which most gas and dollar stores cary in there stores. and if u have several sets of rechargeable on hand ur good to go for one to two weeks at leasted. the car charger is a nother thing that i liked about this radio so if your out of batteries u can use your car if u need to. I do agree about the cradle it sucks big time.

 

[MarMatthias]

here what i like about the hp-1 endless data base as long as u update u have all the states in the us in there. and if the power goes out u have a base scanner with battery back up for scanning with if power goes out and there aa which most gas and dollar stores cary in there stores. and if u have several sets of rechargeable on hand ur good to go for one to two weeks at leasted. the car charger is a nother thing that i liked about this radio so if your out of batteries u can use your car if u need to. I do agree about the cradle it sucks big time.

The car charger is definitely a good idea and faster then solar.

 

[RomeRon]

Would someone tell me what features the GRE PSR-500 & 600, RS Pro 106, Pro 197 have that the Home Patrol 1 doesn't have, Is it true that the HP1 doesn't have a scan button and you have to listen to a transmission that you may not want to hear if there is something happening on the police freqs and it stops on public works.
Thanks
Ron

 

[ST-Bob]

The Pro-106/197 and GRE PSR 500/600 are functionally identical. These are non-location-based scanners and will try to pick up anything and everything whether in range or not.

The HP-1 doesn't have a dedicated scan or manual button. Its interface is all through the touch screen. You can easily make the scanner skip a channel one of 3 ways.

1) For a momentary skip, press the bottom bar which is displaying the channel name then press it again. The HP-1 continues its scan till it finds the next active channel.

2) Deselect the service types you don't want it to stop on. For example, if you're interested only in police and fire but not public works, enable only law-dispatch, law-talk, law-tac, fire dispatch, fire talk and fire-tac service types. Leave Public Works deselected and it won't stop there.

3) When the scanner stops on a DPW channel, press the right side of the appropriate bar and select Avoid. The default is temporary which means it will avoid that channel till the next power cycle. You may also set it to permanently avoid any channel. These can be managed through the included software or through the avoids menu on the HP-1.

There's no comparison between conventional scanners and the HP-1. Everything is different and in my opinion, better.

 

[RomeRon]

Thanks ST-Bob

My nephew was asking about digital scanners and he likes what he sees with the HP1, told him I didn't know to much about the HP1.

 

[daveharpe]

I think a better method would be to be able to go in and just select which of the favorites you want to listen it.

You can do that. Create whatever favorites you like, then choose:
Menu->Manage Favorites List->Select Database to Monitor->Use Multiple Lists

There you can pick whatever favorites you want to include in your scan.

 

[yehtkuhn]

junk

I have been in the hobby since 1963,even my first radio a Knight 30-50 mhz tuneable vacum tubes still works.I had about 45 different monitor/scanners.Still have around 24 left which I will be selling soon.Anywho I bought my HP-1 in Feb.11,it worked 9 months and just QUIT.As I don't have a computer and I thought all you needed was a zip code----NOT.My BC-245 worked 11 years NO problems.I want to rid myself of this joke and go to a much better product.The GRE-800

 

[daveharpe]

As I don't have a computer and I thought all you needed was a zip code----NOT.

If you do not have a computer, how are you accessing this forum?

 

[whooey]

If you do not have a computer, how are you accessing this forum?

Cell phone, perhaps? :lol:

 

[kruser]

The Pro-106/197 and GRE PSR 500/600 are functionally identical. These are non-location-based scanners and will try to pick up anything and everything whether in range or not.

The HP-1 doesn't have a dedicated scan or manual button. Its interface is all through the touch screen. You can easily make the scanner skip a channel one of 3 ways.

1) For a momentary skip, press the bottom bar which is displaying the channel name then press it again. The HP-1 continues its scan till it finds the next active channel.

The only gripe I have about number 1 is that when you do this, the HP-1 does resume scanning but it resumes from the beginning of the same group (or department) so if the channel is still active when it hits it again in a second or two, it will just stop on the same channel again. I've found no way to force the HP-1 to resume from where it stopped without just starting over in the current department again. It should resume from the point you double tap and then move onto the next group instead of rescanning the current group.

If you don't understand, just program in an active channel (like a weather channel) in a fav list and then double tap when it stops on that channel. The HP-1 will resume but it will go right back to the weather channel before it will ever advance into the next group or bank.
It should resume forward from the point you double tapped! As it is now, when you double tap, it will just stay in the same group or bank as long as your channel is still active. No amount of double tapping will make it advance to the next group. The only way is to set a temp or permanent avoid. This can make it very hard to get back to something interesting you just heard seconds earlier if it was in the group before the current one.

 

[KE4ZNR]

I have been in the hobby since 1963,even my first radio a Knight 30-50 mhz tuneable vacum tubes still works.I had about 45 different monitor/scanners.Still have around 24 left which I will be selling soon.Anywho I bought my HP-1 in Feb.11,it worked 9 months and just QUIT.As I don't have a computer and I thought all you needed was a zip code----NOT.My BC-245 worked 11 years NO problems.I want to rid myself of this joke and go to a much better product.The GRE-800

News flash: you still need a computer with the GRE-800. :roll:
Don't know how it ends up being a "much better product" as you still need a computer
to tweak it to peak effectiveness.
And you did not give us much info about the circumstances under which your
HP-1 "QUIT". Seems to me that you will be just as frustrated with the 800 as
you were with the HP-1.
If you are able to find a computer feel free to reply back in the GRE forum and let
us know how unhappy you are with that unit.
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[ratboy]

I sold my PSR-800, I hated the way it worked, and the "ez-Scan", and even though GRE said there wasn't anything wrong with it, it was pretty deaf. I'm keeping my HP-1, even though it went deaf and is presently at Uniden getting fixed. It was only about a month out of warranty, and I had just installed the extreme upgrade, even though I swore I wouldn't for $100. Hopefully it comes back working like it did when it was new. It was a decent radio then.