Anyone in the Greater Dayton Area using a Home Patrol?

[BigJimbo]

After watching some of the online videos for this radio, I'm curious to see how one works here locally.

Anyone running one around here?

I have a pretty good idea of how it functions on Moto II systems as seen in the videos, but how does this work on MARCS? Assuming it site trunks, how does it manage talkgroups and sites while combined with a GPS?

 

[KB8KOJ]

I use one in Dayton and travel with it too. I don't use the GPS locally. If you know what's in your area and use (have mastered) other scanners you'll eventually set up favorite lists similarly. Traveling wise the GPS is really slick. I never really get a chance to play with it (safe driver here). It seems to work well just traffic after a few clicks. Haven't traveled too much with GPS in Ohio but it seems to work. MARCS Multi-site isn't a strong suite on Unidens IMO. GRE plays nicer from testing. That said... The HP-1 does work on MARCS. Just like any scanner... tons of county systems and conventional freqs coupled with many departments turned on causes missed transmissions. This how I like to travel with it. I haven't locked it down on MARCS and driven 100 miles in Ohio. But I will next time.

How it works... You select the "Service Types" you want to hear. These are broken into categories like Law Dispatch, EMS, Business, Ham... it keeps going and you can make your own now.

You set your range. Up to 30 Miles. It loads much more than 30 on that setting. Shows KY and IN with that setting from Dayton. Location is given to unit by either zip code entry or NMEA stream.

Based on service types and location.... the frequencies, trunked systems, sites and talkgroups are loaded into working memory and is scanned.

Different way of thinking. You don't really care about trunked systems. More about department types/channels and range you want to hear. Realistically, most experienced users like us do care. And it's easy to 'hold' and only scan 1 county system or a MARCS site. Make your scan lists.

Great for driving or visiting a new city. Fun to play with locally by locking all the constant traffic stuff. And just listen to the obscure

 

[wa8pyr]

Traveling wise the GPS is really slick. I never really get a chance to play with it (safe driver here). It seems to work well just traffic after a few clicks. Haven't traveled too much with GPS in Ohio but it seems to work. MARCS Multi-site isn't a strong suite on Unidens IMO.

I've used the HomePatrol pretty extensively with GPS while traveling, and it works just fine. I had no trouble at all monitoring MARCS or local agencies.

I've found using it while driving to be safer than the other scanners as it just does it's thing automatically; no need to take my eyes off the road to enable or disable scan lists. I do have favorite lists set up for areas I travel to regularly as well as routes between Point A and Point B; just select the appropriate enroute list, and leave the radio alone.

 

[BigJimbo]

Thanks KOJ and Tom for your great responses.

If I've got this right, let me give you a scenario and see if my thinking is in line with what the HP does:

In Dayton, GPS connected, range of 30 miles, MARCS only, with Law-Talk talkgroups selected.

The HP will scan all MARCS sites it adequately receives and will stop and decode any of the law-talk groups that are active on one of the scanned sites at that time. So if a Dayton Post TG is active, that's what I get, if a Trooper from the Toledo Post is passing through with Post 48 selected in his radio and affiliated with one of the scanned sites, I will hear their traffic too. As I move about, the HP picks up and drops off sites, but decodes whatever law-talk groups it receives within the scanned/active sites.

Do I have that right??