How many people 'replace' scanners? And how many people wear out their radio?
It is a fine radio to add to your collection.
It is interesting that as part of the talk, folks haven't talked about some pretty 'advanced' features that advanced users have been asking for. It supports a USB port for faster configuration upload. It has a voice recorder.
It supports multi-site trunking with what appears to be an unlimited number of TGIDs.
Granted, there are some missing features too. No nearfield rx'er. No tone/NAC decode display, filtering is supported. No priority.
In use virtually every day: HP-1, BCD396T, BCD996T, PSR500, PSR600, and PRO-2042. Six or eight older models given away to friends or family over a 20 year period, and more than I can begin to recall have went to the scanner bone pile, going back in time to....hell, let's just say forever.
Now I realize that if given some sort of an examination (test) by, for instance, rdale, I could not possibly achieve the score commensurate with an "advanced" user. And, I agree that this is rightly so. However, I do believe I have earned the right to think of myself as an "advanced" purchaser.
Due to the very unfortunate characterization of the radio in advertising and other promotional activities, anyone who would like to hold themselves out as an "advanced" user can not possibly deem this radio as acceptable. I mean, if (paraphrasing) "Now your grandmother can join the scanning community! All she needs to know is her zip code" is on the box, surely only a dummy would purchase or recommend such a radio.
Personally, I monitor deep within the radio cesspool that is Maricopa County, Arizona. I use the 996 and the 600 in my vehicle. The are both programmed exactly the same. The overlap on the partial coverage of the P25 system gives me about 75% good coverage, 25% broken up, of the Phx PD transmissions. Indoors I use a similar setup with the 396 and the 500.
With the HP-1, for the first time I am hearing entire 20-30 second long dispatches from the Phoenix Police Department, indoors, without an outside antenna (Oops, I forgot about all the years before digital, lol). And I was doing that within 30 minutes of opening the box!
When ever I make a positive statement about this radio on a forum (example: “Try it with Arc Patrol, you might like the results") I get a response like "Well, I guess you could get software, and make favorite lists, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of the radio?”
I wonder, what percentage of purchasers of the 396, 996, 500, and 600 would consider not using third party software? But no, not with the HP-1.
The HP-1 is the first scanner that I can recall that appears to be developing a societal schism. The HP-1 is rapidly becoming the psychological "Sarah Palin" of the scanning community. For one group, the radio is "the greatest thing since sliced bread", an opinion that the other group considers absolute proof of scanner incompetency.
Hope my rant doesn't get me banned from these fine forums, lol.
Thanks for listening,
Rob
PowerPatrol will add the ability to edit channels and systems, as well as import them. I still have to add editing and file saving functionality and then I can get some kind of a beta out.
