Home Patrol Question

[Ensnared]

I have a question concerning the Home Patrol scanner. Since I don't own one of these radios, I was wanting to know if this radio has full access to the radio systems in the U.S. Now, I am obviously not talking about radio systems outside the realm of listening possibilities, i.e., Open Sky, etc.

For instance, does this radio have the same scanning capabilities as other Uniden digital scanners? I am considering buying one of these in the near future.

 

[UPMan]

It can scan every type of system that the BCD996XT or BCD396XT can scan.

 

[Essexscan]

I'm sorry about purchasing mine.... Sorry I didn't buy it the first day Uniden offered it for sale!!!

 

[Ensnared]

Pinched Audio

I'm sorry about purchasing mine.... Sorry I didn't buy it the first day Uniden offered it for sale!!!

I don't know the technical term for it, but the HP has a rather "pinched" audio to it when compared with GRE radios. I thought this radio would be better regarding the antenna and sound. But, since it loads the RR DB, I did not know if the same frequencies and talk groups would be included in the choices. I've never seen one of these radios in person. I've only watched some You Tube videos watching them operate.

Thanks.

 

[OCO]

You're judging the audio from Youtube videos? Not a valid demonstration of it's audio qualities - you've got analog audio coming out of the HP1 speaker being rerecorded with whatever microphone the camcorder has, in whatever the acoustic properties are in the room that it's in, uploaded with digital compression to Youtube and played back through your computer....... It would be nice if you could audition the scanners you're considering in person, but I realize that's not always possible.

 

[ratboy]

I don't know the technical term for it, but the HP has a rather "pinched" audio to it when compared with GRE radios. I thought this radio would be better regarding the antenna and sound. But, since it loads the RR DB, I did not know if the same frequencies and talk groups would be included in the choices. I've never seen one of these radios in person. I've only watched some You Tube videos watching them operate.

Thanks.

I wouldn't say the audio on the HP is "pinched", but it does sound a bit different than the audio on my PSR-500 sitting next to it. It's got a little more hiss than the PSR does, and there's a tad less bass, but for all intents and purposes, there isn't enough difference to really care about. Just my opinion.

 

[Ensnared]

Laughing Here

I wouldn't say the audio on the HP is "pinched", but it does sound a bit different than the audio on my PSR-500 sitting next to it. It's got a little more hiss than the PSR does, and there's a tad less bass, but for all intents and purposes, there isn't enough difference to really care about. Just my opinion.

Well, that was the only adjective I could find at the moment. Ha.

I am basing my opinion on the audio quality heard on You Tube. This did not take into account the chance that the systems being monitored were under optimal conditions.

A side-by-side comparison of the two radios, HP versus GRE-500/GRE-800 might reveal differences. But, I am not lucky enough to own two yet. But, I am saving my money for one of the radios.

 

[Ensnared]

Rr db

So, what I am hearing is that there is no difference in the HP regarding access to the RR DB, right? If the RR DB is current, the HP should rival other digital scanners which are programmed using a more direct method of programming. I have heard some people complain that their radios were not picking up certain agencies. Later, it was learned that the RR DB needed tweaking. I also want to thank RR for the fantastic work they have done to increase accuracy. Also, the Geo tags have really helped in mapping tower locations along various highways and locations.

 

[Jay911]

So, what I am hearing is that there is no difference in the HP regarding access to the RR DB, right? If the RR DB is current, the HP should rival other digital scanners which are programmed using a more direct method of programming. I have heard some people complain that their radios were not picking up certain agencies. Later, it was learned that the RR DB needed tweaking. I also want to thank RR for the fantastic work they have done to increase accuracy. Also, the Geo tags have really helped in mapping tower locations along various highways and locations.

The HP1 works off a subset of the RRDB, maintained by Uniden and automatically updated from the RRDB weekly - known as the "HPDB" to most.

The HPDB excludes the following which are present in the RRDB:
- Systems that have no talkgroups listed
- Systems with modulation that the HP1 does not support (i.e. P25 Phase 2/X2-TDMA, ProVoice, MotoTRBO, NEXEDGE/iDAS, etc)

In some cases, it's been discovered that the RRDB is slightly incorrect in terms of what is stored for a particular system, and/or the RRDB design needs to be slightly "tweaked". Example: If a system has some P25 Phase 1 (decodable) talkgroups and some P25 Phase 2/X2-TDMA (non-decodable) talkgroups, the only options for RR DB admins to label the system appear to be Phase 1 (exclusively) or Phase 2 (exclusively). There's no exception for "mixed mode" as there is with, for example, "analog and ProVoice" for certain EDACS systems. So most systems with Phase 2 talkgroups have been labeled Phase 2 Exclusive - and the HPDB doesn't include those.

The solution to the above involves one of:
- Changing the system definition to Phase 1, which will cause problems for people expecting to hear things (on the talkgroups which are actually Phase 2) and being unable to;
- Changing the Uniden behind-the-scenes download procedure to pull in Phase 2 systems from the RRDB into the HPDB, in which case you end up with problems like in the point above;
- Changing the RRDB structure to allow for "mixed mode" Phase1/Phase2 systems (and changing all programs which utilize the RRDB, including by vendors other than Uniden, to make use of this).

And of course, on the far outside, changing the HP1 to make it receive Phase 2 talkgroups. All kidding aside, though, IMO the ideal solution would be to change the RRDB structure (technically precise: change the one field to allow for a "mixed mode" P1/P2 flag), but it has to be done in a concerted way so that the software programmers for all scanner and other software (BuTEL, Uniden, FreeSCAN, Unitrunker, GRE, PRO96COM, etc) are able to issue updates that recognize the new flag. But that, presumably, has to be done on RR's timeline (Lindsay's availability and programming priorities, etc).