Home Patrol-1... My Review
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Safe_T
Just curious how did you know which tower you were receiving on the HP-1? All the one I had said was Indiana SAFE-T and there was no indication as to which tower was being received. And if you say that was the one displayed on like a 996 and you got the same transmission, how do you know it came from the same tower?
Just curious how did you know which tower you were receiving on the HP-1? All the one I had said was Indiana SAFE-T and there was no indication as to which tower was being received. And if you say that was the one displayed on like a 996 and you got the same transmission, how do you know it came from the same tower?
You can tell what tower is being received by selecting the system and hitting the "sites" button, it will show the active one at the top.
Don, when you set the location via using a zip code, the scanner automatically assumes a range, I am not sure what it is but when I punched in your zip code on mine and looked it came up as 10 miles. Now would that be a 10 mile radius around the area for the zip code, or a 10 mile radius from the center of the zip code? I don't know and maybe some of the more knowledgeable folks can comment on that. Santa Clara Co. is bordered by Alameda Co. and Santa Cruz Co. Since neither are a round shaped county, which is impacted by the problem of only being able to define circles in the DB, why do you find it strange that your circle and each of those circles intersect?
As for Yosemite NP, well that is a problem that the regional DB Admin needs to address. Since there is no location data set for Yosemite, indeed none set for the agency "National Parks" in the DB (CA state), I suspect that anyone that falls within the circle of the state will have the Yosemite NP frequencies show up in their HP-1 selected database. However, based on the size and shape of Yosemite, once the location data is set, I suspect Santa Clara will still fall within the circle covering Yosemite.
No.
Well, thanks for that informed and finely presented objective view. :roll:
DonS
Member
I wasn't using the default range. I set the range to 3.0 miles, presuming that this would affect what's selected. I do understand the problem with circles (e.g. a circle that includes California also contains most of Nevada, and a circle that contains Santa Cruz County also includes a pretty good chunk of Santa Clara County).
However, I was thinking that a "new" user might be confused and/or frustrated when he's more than 9 miles from another county's boundary, that county is on the other side of a mountain range, and the scanner spends time trying to receive traffic from that county, even though he's attempted to set his range to 3.0 miles and has tried selecting his location both by city and by ZIP Code.
I suspect California is especially challenging for the circle/range -based selection process. The state is nearly 800 miles long, 200 miles wide, and contains some very large and irregularly-shaped counties.
I hope not. A circle that encloses the park boundary and a 12 mi. dia. circle centered on the City of Santa Clara are separated by more than 100 miles.
None of this is intended to disparage the HP-1. I do understand the limitations of the circle/range selection as well as the actual location data in the RRDB. My own experience, though, suggests that users around here would end up "avoiding" the majority of systems and counties selected via the ZIP Code / range mechanism.
I have had that issue in some spots... I was near Toledo OH for Christmas and the HP enabled several systems in Canada with the nearest transmitter 30-60 miles away, even though I had range 0.
Absolutely, but there is certainly no reason to do this "on the fly". I'm in Phoenix, and I am in the process of constructing favorite lists for AZ, CA, and NV. My naming convention is by highway designation, and the lists contain only frequencies that I would want to listen to while travelling.
For instance, I am travelling South on I-5 and monitoring my favorite list "TRAVEL I-5" when I turn East onto I-10. Tap "Menu", tap "Manage Favorites Lists", tap "TRAVEL I-10, tap "Use This List", tap "Yes" (to confirm).
Now I am monitoring only frequencies that I want to hear while traveling on I-10, no reason to "avoid" anything. Add the function of the GPS and the number of actively scanned frequencies becomes quite managible.
Not directed at anyone in particular, but I can see using the whole DB as a curiosity/search mechanism, but I think anyone trying to do serious listening while using the whole DB does not understand this radio.
Rob
DonS
Member
Yes, you can certainly create favorites lists ahead of time. However, I was under the [possibly mistaken] impression that one of the big selling points of the HP-1 was "enter your location and start listening". While that's certainly possible, it seems to bring in a lot of "extra stuff" here.
Personally, I would not have used circles for things like states and counties. I would've used polygons. At least here, that would greatly reduce the "noise level" in what's imported when I enter my ZIP Code.
Personally, I would not have used circles for things like states and counties. I would've used polygons. At least here, that would greatly reduce the "noise level" in what's imported when I enter my ZIP Code.
DonS
Member
I presume you're referring to users submitting reports of problems with location data. If so...
For something like Yosemite National Park as described above, that's almost certainly correct. I don't imagine that the HP-1 would try to scan something that, after location data is set, is more than 100 miles away.
However, for things like [my experience of] pulling in 3 adjacent counties that cannot possibly be monitored from my location without some serious antenna gymnastics, I don't know that merely adding location info would help. I'm relatively certain that the San Francisco Bay Area has undergone quite a bit of location tagging in the last few months, but the HP-1's circle/range algorithms still result in scanning things that definitely cannot be monitored from here.
Again, I do understand the limitation of the circle/range idea. (That's why I would've used polygons for, at the very least, state and county boundaries. The data is available - I've been using it for several years for a totally unrelated application.)
i am exclusively using the HP1 the location issues are slowly being worked on, on the HP1 site if you post a location error it is corrected, people either like it or they dont, personally if they could cross a 396XT and an HP-1 i would be drooling, i just dont understand why the hatred
Homepatrol 1
Well I have to throw my 2 cents in, I currenty own a uniden 396T, pro-96, 2096 have owned the 106 but until I purchased the home patrol 1 its the best thing that could happened, guys no programing, save your money on buying the programing software, I put in my zip code, that is after setup, and upgrading ( which was very easy to do) and Im hearing stations that are better, then the other scanners, Now, I can hear say, marysville ohio marks, on my other scanners, which is about 45 minutes from my qth, but, not as good as the home patrol, it comes in strong with the stock antenna , and it gives the tag and police agency name or fire name it is on, you can set it to any of the search bands, police,fire, railroads, security, etc. so I just want to say, every one has there opinion, and that is good, but my opinion of the homepatrol is ,if you want a nice scanner buy one of these, beats programing and you save money and time there, I also, called uniden today ,and talked to a teck, he said they are releasing a new mounting bracket, for mobile, and base within a month or so,they also coming out with there own gps, for the homepatrol, so it will be on the market very soon, again, this homepatrol is a great scanner, thanks and god bless, Bill wc8i
Well I have to throw my 2 cents in, I currenty own a uniden 396T, pro-96, 2096 have owned the 106 but until I purchased the home patrol 1 its the best thing that could happened, guys no programing, save your money on buying the programing software, I put in my zip code, that is after setup, and upgrading ( which was very easy to do) and Im hearing stations that are better, then the other scanners, Now, I can hear say, marysville ohio marks, on my other scanners, which is about 45 minutes from my qth, but, not as good as the home patrol, it comes in strong with the stock antenna , and it gives the tag and police agency name or fire name it is on, you can set it to any of the search bands, police,fire, railroads, security, etc. so I just want to say, every one has there opinion, and that is good, but my opinion of the homepatrol is ,if you want a nice scanner buy one of these, beats programing and you save money and time there, I also, called uniden today ,and talked to a teck, he said they are releasing a new mounting bracket, for mobile, and base within a month or so,they also coming out with there own gps, for the homepatrol, so it will be on the market very soon, again, this homepatrol is a great scanner, thanks and god bless, Bill wc8i
We received shipping confirmation today. The custom mounting bracket should be here by the end of next week.
dick122
Member
Gps
Any word on the GPS cable yet?
Any word on the GPS cable yet?
A relatively small number of cables will be coming in at the same time. About enough to cover backorders for individual orders and from our major resellers who have placed orders.
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