Anyone Using a HomePatrol in Orange County?

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KE4ZNR

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kingfishracin--
I know you are somewhat new here at RR.com but You have multiple threads dealing here and in the Uniden forum dealing with
your question. That is called cross posting and is frowned on here at RR.com. Please keep this in mind in the future when you decide to post. Thanks! :)
My main concern though is that we try to help you above and beyond the guidance you have gotten so far in the Uniden thread.
As others have alluded to in the Uniden thread there are several things you need to consider:
1) Making sure your HP-1 is receiving the closest site. In a few mins I will setup a
Home Patrol Sentinel file configured specifically for Orange County. I will respond back to this thread with a link to the HP Sentinel file. I would ask that you import it into Sentinel and report back on how reception is then.
2) As others have said your antenna could be an issue as well. One of my radio geek motto's is "Antennas make up 60% of your radio reception, The Radio makes up 30%, and the extra 10% is just blind luck". If you are using the stock antenna consider that could be an issue as well.
Let me switch over to WinXP from my linux partition so I can setup that Orange County/Hillsborough Sentinel file for you. Give me a little while to get that squared away.
Marshall KE4ZNR
 

kingfishracin

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Thanks Marshall. Sorry about cross posting. I was also trying to figure out how to get the NCHP for my area in the HomePatrol. Thanks for your help as I said before I am new to this.
 

KE4ZNR

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No problem. :)

Here is the Orange County HP File:

1) Right click on the following link and select "save as". Save it to somewhere on your computer that you can find it.
http://qsl.net/ke4znr/OrangeCoHP/Orange%20Co%20Test%20HP1.hpe

2) Start up Sentinel and in the upper left corner select "File" then "Import from hpe file..".
3) Navigate to where you earlier saved the hpe file from above and select the file. A confirmation box should pop up letting you know the import was successful.
4) Select Only the "Orange County Test HP1" favorites list and let it scan for a little bit. Let us know how reception is on this favorites list.
For NCSHP:
Copy the instructions above but right click and save the file this time:
http://qsl.net/ke4znr/OrangeCoHP/NCSHP Orange Hillsborough Only.hpe
I still believe this might be an antenna issue. Have you tried seeing how reception is on the Laws or Chapel Hill sites? They are the neighbor sites to the Hillsborough Site.
Marshall KE4ZNR
 

kingfishracin

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Thanks Marshall. I have tried the Laws and the Chapel Hill sites with the same results. I tried them one at a time with all others avoided. According to the gps coordinates of the sites, provided by the HomePatrol, Laws and Hillsborugh are only 2 miles from my house. The Chapel Hill site looks to be ten miles from me.
 

KE4ZNR

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Try the files above and let us know how it goes.
From everything you have said so far it does appear to be an antenna
situation where a better antenna will most certainly yield better reception
results. Are you still on the stock rubber duck that came with the radio?
Marshall KE4ZNR
 

kingfishracin

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Yeah I am still on the stock one. Any recommendations? I have read about a 800mhz from Radio Shack that gets good reviews. I am having problems with the file I am going to try a different pc.
 

kingfishracin

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Sorry I cant get the file to work. I can right click on it and pretty much my only option is save target as.. I save it to my desktop then opened Sentinel went to file, import then the window opens that says "select favorites list" and there is know way to get it to import.
 

OCO

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Sorry I cant get the file to work. I can right click on it and pretty much my only option is save target as.. I save it to my desktop then opened Sentinel went to file, import then the window opens that says "select favorites list" and there is know way to get it to import.

KFR:
You're almost there on importing the .hpe file.. When it asks you what Favorite, it's asking what Favorite you want to import the .hpe file into. Create a new one and then it'll allow you to browse to where you've saved Marshall's file and import it...
Here's the "how-to" on export/import of .hpe files. Don't feel bad, I got tripped up on this also....:D
 

kingfishracin

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Still having the problem. I guess I will start looking into a new antenna. I did see on the front page of the Orange County paper that the counties VIPER system is in need of repairs.
 
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