Home Patrol Problem

[marksmith]

I don't know if I'm missing something or not.
Got the radio, installed sentinal, downloaded update to Sentinal, Updated Firmware and Database, Wrote to the radio. It scans but never gets anything. I narrowed the list by using favorites to just one system in Anne Arundel County Maryland. Not receiving anything. I even entered 154.010 which is the tone dispatch frequency as a Quck Frequency Entry, and I'm receiving nothing, while all my other scanners are humming away so I know that the frequency is active.

Something I have not done correctly?

 

[marksmith]

As an additional check, I put squelch all the way to the left (off) and tried to find a weather channel.
Nothing.

Do I have a bad radio?

 

[Division200]

home patrol

Make sure you have checked off the types of radio traffic you want to listen to...... police, fire, ems,, etc. if they are not activated then you will not receive signals

 

[fxdscon]

Make sure the ATTEN button is OFF.

 

[marksmith]

Attenuation is off (I picked the 154.010 signal because you would get a strong signal no matter what).
I also have a large number of service types selected, and definitely many that appy to the services in the specific (strong) system I was trying to receive. I was able to write back and forth to the radio fine, and even figured out all the favorites capabilities, etc. Really nice radio.. too bad it won't receive anything. Send back for a replacement.

 

[rwier]

Don't get mad at me, but no one has mentioned the volume setting. Top left (not on the screen). Do you see the volume scale move while pressing the up and down buttons?

 

[PAUL1944]

Attenuation is off (I picked the 154.010 signal because you would get a strong signal no matter what).
I also have a large number of service types selected, and definitely many that appy to the services in the specific (strong) system I was trying to receive. I was able to write back and forth to the radio fine, and even figured out all the favorites capabilities, etc. Really nice radio.. too bad it won't receive anything. Send back for a replacement.

I had a problem simialiar to yours, but I was able to put in all the Police, Fire, etc to scan ok, but did not work in the favorites when I transfered them in, also the single freqency I made a folder for it would not transfer at first then it did and then I could not get into it. Finally a screen popped up saying to delete all avoids, I did and it went back to the same screen again and froze up. I turned the radio off for about an hour turned it back on ( did this sevral times too) screen was still frozen at that point, battery was fully charged, did everything you did with the firmware, etc) I also sent the it back. This is really a cool radio and I can't wait for my replacement, I hope it works ok. I've done scanning for over 30 years and have a number of scanning radios I never had any problem with. I found out later, there is a re-set button, I already sent it back, I think it's in the battery compartment. The manual they give you on this radio is written very poorly and doesn't cover much, For a person who know nothing about this type of radio may have a lot of problems. Overall if this radio works properly it is a fanastic radio.

 

[marksmith]

Volume wasn't the issue. I did turn it up just to confirm volume worked. When I took the squelch all the way off I would get noise, it just would not receive any signals. No weather stations (there's at least 3 that should be receivable), and it wouldn't receive the strongest signal in the area - frequency used specifically on VHF to tone out fire stations. I figure if it wouldn't get that, something was definitely wrong. I had all Fire, Police, EMS service types selected and it was scanning a favorites list made up of one Motorola system. I could step through all the channels by tapping next. Everything was there. Just nothing being received. I packed it up to send back for a replacement. Hopefully the next one works.

 

[bfpdb]

The HP1 is a Very dissapointing Scanner especially for $500 bucks, my first one wouldnt receive anything, the second one wouldnt receive either until i downloaded a fav list and selected all the diff systems, it now works but is very DISAPOINTING, will probably get rid of it if i can recoupe some of the cost.

 

[n2pqq]

Are you in a rural area that would require a better antenna ?

Did you double check the antenna connection ?

Do you have another scanner to compare it to ?

Did you try using the scanner in a different location ?

Did you try setting range to 30 miles ?

Maybe a full reset of radio and reinstall software on computer.

 

[RBMTS]

Hi Mark
It is quite possible that you have a bad antenna or possibly a bad scanner. If you don't even receive the weather channels then something seems to be amiss. Unscrew the antenna and see if the center pin is still in the antenna itself. Might you have a different scanner or radio that has a SMA antenna that you can try?

Don't get discouraged. In spite of a bad opinion or two, you will find many users reporting the HP-1 is a great scanner. Personally I use mine all the time and I have 6 other scanners. I use mine almost exclusively for travel. It was used to travel cross-country from the east coast to the west coast by car. I rarely touched my other scanners since the HP-1 selected everything for me automatically. With a GPS the HP-1 was almost hands-free as I moved county to county, state to state. There was no way I could have pre-programmed my other scanners to do that.

So don't loose faith. You will probably be very happy once you get it going.

Randy

 

[4436time]

If you don't even receive the weather channels then something seems to be amiss.

I agree.

Don't get discouraged. In spite of a bad opinion or two, you will find many users reporting the HP-1 is a great scanner.

So don't loose faith. You will probably be very happy once you get it going.

I've had a couple issues with mine, probably self-inflicted, but I love it.

 

[marksmith]

Thanks for all of the suggestions on antennas, comparing reception with other scanners I have, and all the others. This is a great forum. Unfortunately, I had an antenna from another scanner I could try, and it made no difference. Changed all the range settings etc. Pretty sure the radio was just bad. Not a rural area.

The good news: The replacement radio arrived today. I fired it up and it runs great. I get Baltimore City (digital) and County trunked, Anne Arundel County Trunked (part digital), Howard County Trunked (digital), and all are coming in with at least the signal strength of my various other digital and analog scanners. The reception of this unit is impressive, right off the stock antenna.

I am specifically interested in the radio for travel with GPS, partly due to it's small albeit unusual size. Can anyone recommend a good puck GPS for use with this unit? Also, if you are using the unit as a mobile, is it necessary to use an external antenna or does the stock one support reasonable reception? I presume it's probably OK in metro areas, but I might need an external for VHF HI/LO.

 

[daveturner80]

gps for Home Patrol

I use a Garmin GPS18X PC puck and it works great.
You have to get a null modem and gender changer to adapt it to the gps puck.
I have mine on the dash and never had a problem.

 

[marksmith]

Thanks. Got all the auto stuff ordered (GPS, Null Modem, cables, holder, etc). Looking forward to watching this unit move from system to system on a trip.

Also - another great option in this unit is the built in audio recording. Have had a chance to record a few different events now, and then edit the audio files stored in the named directory for that save. What a pain this used to be, and it was generally not friendly once you had the data files.

For anyone who has had an initial bad experience with this unit - keep some patience. As you can tell from this thread, I got a bad one out of the first box, and it was frustrating. Being a long time scanning enthusiast (with many old and new in the stable yet) this was newer technology and it gets to you when you can't make the radio receive anything. When the replacement radio came, I was very impressed and it was worth the patience of getting a replacement rather than just sending the thing back. I'd put this in the top 2 of the 10+ scanners I currently use. There are drawbacks to it, but there are a whole lot of positives too.