Homepatrol mobile setup

[dmg1969]

I got the Homepatrol mounted in my vehicle and am happy with the results. I used a RAM mount attached to the flat portion of the dash using the Radio Shack Super-Lock (plastic Velcro as I call it). I know some will criticize that, but I have always had good luck with it securely holding scanners as heavy as a BC355N while mounted on a vertical surface.It is positioned so that the bottom of the HP-1 mounting bracket rests on the trim above the radio/climate control stack. That way, not all of the weight of the HP-1 is on the RAM mount.

Wire management was the only thing am not thrilled about. Aesthetically, I would like to have hidden them, but that would require drilling in the top of the dash, which I tried to avoid. That is why I opted to secure the mount with the Super-Lock. If I find that it is not adequate, I will have to nut up and mount the RAM mount with screws. And, if I do that, I will just drill a hole for the antenna coax as well.

The antenna coax was not long enough to reach the dash, so I had to use a 6' coax jumper. I ran the coax jumper from the scanner down to a convenient gap under the steering column and then inside and under the shifter console to mate with the antenna coax with a coupler.

Tomorrow, it gets it's trial run on the way to work. And judging by the snow were supposed to have, it should be busy.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[dmg1969]

So far, I am impressed with the reception of the HP-1 while mobile. It seemed to pull in better in the poor reception areas I travel through on my trip in to work. I really like it.

 

[kjfswkr]

Looks like a very nice install.

73'

kevin

 

[popnokick]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11B554a Safari/9537.53)

Even better on VHF Low than your BC125AT? That's good to hear because I know lowband mobile has been a challenge.
Only reason I shy away from top-of-dash mounts is the damage done by the sun in the summer. But, if you can pull it off the dash when you park in the sun... Problem solved.

 

[dmg1969]

Thanks, kj.

Yeah, popnokick...I will pull it when it gets hot. I couldn't pay VERY close attention because of the road conditions this morning. I had it on, but low so I was not distracted...the roads were very bad. But I noticed no static filled transmissions from the neighboring county that I monitor (UHF). I go through areas to and from work where their signal becomes pretty choppy. I also noticed no areas of static on my home county's VHF low fire band. I usually hit one or two areas where it locks onto a signal and is constant static. If I push the squelch up, it goes away. I had none of that this morning. I love this radio.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11B554a Safari/9537.53)

Even better on VHF Low than your BC125AT? That's good to hear because I know lowband mobile has been a challenge.
Only reason I shy away from top-of-dash mounts is the damage done by the sun in the summer. But, if you can pull it off the dash when you park in the sun... Problem solved.

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

Looks good. Very nice job on the wire management with the little clips.

 

[dmg1969]

Thanks. It works for now until I decide if I want to feed them down through the top of the dash. I like the location. Very convenient for not taking my eyes off the road and really don't have to stretch to reach it if I want to lock it on a channel.