Well, I received mine today, finally. I would say, even with the limited time I've spent playing with it so far, I'm impressed with its reception. Check this out:
https://soundcloud.com/jason-low-20/02-25-16-40
The above clip was recorded while in motion on Highway 22 just south of the traffic circle at Highway 8, using only the stock antenna, with the radio sitting in a cup holder in the truck. The HP1 didn't hit on the signal because it was scanning another section of my favorites list, but if it had, I'm confident it would not have been as clear (based on past experience receiving digital signals that far outside the city).
I took a set of charged Sanyo Eneloop XXs and a pre-configured SD card with me when I went to pick up the radio, so that I was ready to go right away. I even had the latest firmware update on the card, and the radio automatically applied it prior to powering up.
The profile on my SD card is configured to receive everything (all service tags enabled and max range (50 miles) set from my home's lat/long), so my HP1 mounted in the truck was hitting on more conversations than the 436 did. Tweaking the profile will of course help with that. (Several BC systems were enabled when I set the range at 50 miles, as well as Lacombe - talk about optimistic!)
As people have said, the format for the audio recordings' metadata is not the same as it was on the HP1. I saw a post elsewhere on the forums that implied that almost all the data you would ever want to know about a recording is saved in the file, but it's not supported by my particular media cataloging program. (I can see the fields in the file if I view it in Notepad.) I'm looking for a metadata viewer right now.
The speaker is plenty loud, especially when the radio is in a cup holder like it was on my trip home from the post office.
Battery longevity, alert capabilities, and other stuff will have to wait until I've had the thing a bit longer.
