Uniden's New Product Called Home Patrol

[WM8L]

Avoids

Actually what you need to avoid are the sites you won't hear, they take all the time, not TGID's. You can avoid TGIDS too. I tend to avoid TGIDs like dog catcher, road crews, zoning and so on. I keep all police and fire active, never know what/who will be associated with a site.

Viper,

Thats what I have been working on. Its a slow process if you try and do it on the HP-1 but it goes good by setting it up using the Home Patrol Sentinel. I am setting up several different profiles and and more favorites.

The one thing I am wondering about, it seems like the avoids you set up tend to transfer over to other favorites. I Hope I am mistaking but when trying to load another favorite it some times advises that I have avoids on that are within range.

I am really looking forward to to getting my GPS and trying that out using the 10 mile range. I still don't know if that will shut down the id's and sites out of range on marcs. I think it will load the complete marcs system. Have you had any experience with the GPS set up?

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

Besides reading GPS data the GPS port will also respond to some Uniden Protocol Commands. I have not tried very much.

MDL	Model			Responds with MDL,HomePatrol-1.00

VER	Version			Responds with VER,Version 1.02.00

QSH	Quick Search Hold	Puts unit in Search Test All Band (A Test Mode).
                                Warning: Playing with Test Mode can be dangerous!
				QSH,[FRQ] works but other parameters unknown.

PWR	Get RSSI Level		Responds with PWR,401,04708625

STS	Get Current Status	Responds with STS,011000,<16 Spaces>,<16 Spaces>, 453.6500MHZ    ,<16 Spaces>,<16 Spaces>,<16 Spaces>,1,0,0,0,,,2,OFF,0
				Similar to other Uniden Scanners but only outputs frequency on the "Display" lines.

GLG	Get Reception Status	Responds with GLG,0460.4500,FM,0,183,Suffolk,Boston Police, Patrol and Dispatch District A-1/A-7,1,0,0,0,NONE
				This gives the three lines on the display

VOL	Volume			Responds with VOL,9
SQL	Squelch			Responds with SQL,2
WIN	Get Windows Voltage	Responds with WIN,87,04532250

73 Eric

 

[rbrtklamp2]

I received mine on Thursday. I ordered from scanner master, I have from them for years. i have just found them to be dependable. I also ordered the Spectrum Force GPS Receiver and the GPS Accessory kit. I have the weekend to play with them and i have to say this is one cool radio. I own Motorola XTS 5K's and 3K's and am using the current Uniden 396XT/996XT line of scanners as well as the GRE 500/600 series and the Radio Shack Pro106/197 series scanners so I'm not new to scanning and I still love mine. Its makes my work trips a breeze i just hook up the GPS Throw a mag mount antenna on the roof and you're off no programming or GPS coordinates needed(or needing to be preprogrammed in). I'm not saying that any of the current generation scanners are lacking I'm just saying that whether you are a long time scanner enthusiast or somebody who's just getting into the hobby. All I'm saying is if you drive a lot or frequently travel, Scanner veteran or not this is a great product.

Bob

 

[rbrtklamp2]

sorry kind of choked on the last couple of sentences there. LOL

 

[Viper43]

Viper,

Thats what I have been working on. Its a slow process if you try and do it on the HP-1 but it goes good by setting it up using the Home Patrol Sentinel. I am setting up several different profiles and and more favorites.

The one thing I am wondering about, it seems like the avoids you set up tend to transfer over to other favorites. I Hope I am mistaking but when trying to load another favorite it some times advises that I have avoids on that are within range.

I am really looking forward to to getting my GPS and trying that out using the 10 mile range. I still don't know if that will shut down the id's and sites out of range on marcs. I think it will load the complete marcs system. Have you had any experience with the GPS set up?

Never noticed the avoids going from one favorites to another, it should only affect one, the one you setup. If you set it up in Sentinel main DB and then sent it from the main db to a favorite it will do that, so set up the avoids down in favorites not the main db unless you want it throughout al favorites.

GPS, yup, works as it should, and it works on Ohio MARCS but you may want to look at this to get a better idea of how location control works: How it Works: Location, Location, Location

Hope that helps!

V

 

[WM8L]

Thanks Viper,

Over the weekend I had a chance to disapprove what I thought about avoids. The HP-1 may not have to be programmed like other scanners but I find something new with it every day. I have it set up good for a home favorite and what I want to hear but I am still trying different things when traveling.

What do you think is a good range setting when I set up my GPS? I am thinking something around 10 miles.

 

[Viper43]

All depends on how much you want to hear. I play it by ear so to speak lol

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

I did not go very far in using BCTool, but I was able to use K1PGV's ScannerCast with the Home Patrol.

I do not have the right audio cable for line out so I fed audio from the headphone out to the line in of my iMic. Levels were okay.

I set the gps baud rate on the HomePatrol to 115200 and connected the serial port of the computer to the GPS port of the Home Patrol.

Follow the steps for configuring a Uniden 996 for the ScannerCast program. Set the Control Speed (baud rate) to 115200.

The only problem is some of the tags coming from the HomePatrol are too big. The ScannerCast program will display an error message about the metadata size is too big and close. Reducing the amount of information sent in the tags seems to improve the situation, like selecting Group + Channel instead of System + Group + Channel.

73 Eric

 

[btproducts]

Programming VIPER System in NC to Homepatrol

By far the most frustrating scanner I have ever had. The talk groups are not geotagged therefore I can hear nothing in Alamance County since they are on VIPEr except Burlington Police and Fire which is on Guilford County system. Just putting in the zip code isn't that simple. You can put it in but you might not get any local traffic. Programming the 996 and 396 was a breeze compared trying to get this thing to work.

 

[UPMan]

As Marshall outlined for you, you can get those channels today by adding them to a Favorites List using Sentinel.

Or, wait until tomorrow 9AM Central, refresh the database, and try with your zip code again.

 

[19rsc78]

I like the way it looks its stealthy. I looks alot like like a GPS device and is named Home Patrol. Devices like this that give scanners a good name. It gives the idea that we scanner people listen to keep a tab on crime in the area thus protecting our homes. I like it and everyone should have one. Cant wait to buy one. I like to see how it compares with a conventional scanner.

 

[W8DEC]

The Ohio MARCS system works very well with it but you do have to avoid out a lot you don't need as it loads the complete marcs system and will spend extra time scanning that system. I am hoping when I use the GPS with it using a 10 mile range may help.

I cannot find MARCS in the database. Did you have to add it?

 

[jbdx241]

I Live in WV and Marcs on my database

 

[KE4ZNR]

I cannot find MARCS in the database. Did you have to add it?

In any Ohio county look under "statewide" and you will find this:

Happy Monitoring
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[69stiles]

I've attempted to update my database a dozen times but still get an outdated version (over 30 days old). The sys admin for my area says check here as he has updated the database regularly. HP keeps saying I have the latest. The sys admin guy says he's scanning my area fine with up to date data as of this morning.

 

[n6mon]

Observations

Having now played with the HP-1 for a while, I have a couple of observations.

1) I would like to be able to customize the data displayed on the 3 lines. For example, the first line should have the text "County" after the name of the county. The 2nd line is nearly useless, as now implemented as it displays the service (e.g. "Police" when it SHOULD have the agency name.

2) I would like to be able to hold on a channel/talk group (by tapping on line 3) and THEN choose to scroll to another TG (units on a dispatch channel are told to go to a TAC channel, tap line 3 to hold the dispatch talk group and then scroll to the TAC channel).

3) There should be a menu choice to toggle the audio out from earphone level to speaker level. The default earphone level is insuffucient to drive an external speaker.

4) There should be a way to set this as a
"mobile" vs the way it is now, which is in reality a portable scanner without a belt clip. When installed mobile, it should ideally power up when power is applied and shut down when power is removed.

Despite these criticizms, I think that this is a good product with lots of potential, even if we are all paying for the privilege of being beta (alpha?) testers.

 

[KE4ZNR]

Having now played with the HP-1 for a while, I have a couple of observations.

1) I would like to be able to customize the data displayed on the 3 lines. For example, the first line should have the text "County" after the name of the county. The 2nd line is nearly useless, as now implemented as it displays the service (e.g. "Police" when it SHOULD have the agency name.

Been discussed many times. 3rd party software developers are working to provide the advanced options of name customization. That said: some of the Alpha tags need to be cleaned up/modified by RR.com database admins. Have a specific case? Click the "Submit Info" at the top of the page and submit verified better name labels for agencies so that it can be updated here at RR.com then in turn the HomePatrol database will be updated in one of the next full database updates.

2) I would like to be able to hold on a channel/talk group (by tapping on line 3) and THEN choose to scroll to another TG (units on a dispatch channel are told to go to a TAC channel, tap line 3 to hold the dispatch talk group and then scroll to the TAC channel).

You can do this already. Tap the < arrow to the right of the channel you are holding on and select "Prev" or "Next". If the channels/talkgroups are in the RR.com database you should have access to them.

Despite these criticizms, I think that this is a good product with lots of potential, even if we are all paying for the privilege of being beta (alpha?) testers.

I am sure Uniden had more than sufficient alpha & beta testing done prior to release.

Happy Monitoring (and HPing)
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[UPMan]

I've attempted to update my database a dozen times but still get an outdated version (over 30 days old). The sys admin for my area says check here as he has updated the database regularly. HP keeps saying I have the latest. The sys admin guy says he's scanning my area fine with up to date data as of this morning.

1. UPDATE --> Update Master HPDB...
2. Let it complete.
3. HomePatrol --> Write to HomePatrol...
4. Let it complete.

I suspect you are not doing Step 3/4.

 

[BillVette]

3. HomePatrol --> Write to HomePatrol...
4. Let it complete.

.

The first two updates I didn't do this so there was no up date to my HP 1, you must write to home patrol with the unit connected to your computer. I love this unit, I went away this past weekend and when I got to the hotel I entered the zip and was good to go. Having been out of the hobby since our county went digital and not sure if I had the ability to figure out the 396xt this unit brought be back. Thanks UP man!!!!

 

[UPMan]

Found that 69stiles issue was caused by his PC's date format. Sentinel does not like DD/MM/YYYY. I'm sending the info to the engineers so that we can make an update. Meanwhile, changing the PC's date format should provide a workaround for the current situation.