Uniden Home Patrol 1 HELP!

[dustman]

I just bought the Uniden Home Patrol 1. I live in Indianapolis, IN and want the MECA 1 system and the suburb of Lawrence (in Marion County) but putting in the zip code just gives me whole counties. I don't want that. How can I just get the Meca system and Lawrence

Also, are there any scanner modifications for this scanner?

Thanks,

Dustman

 

[phask]

No mods

You can create a favorite with what you want.

Do these MECA 1 system and the suburb of Lawrence load when you do it by zip? If so you can avoid everything else that you don't want.

If they do not load, odds are you are out of that range - increase your range setting. Are you physically able to receive them?

 

[torontokris]

options...

avoid everything else
make those 2 systems as a favorites list and listen to favorites
hold on one system (but then you can only listen to the one system not both).

 

[dustman]

Hello,phask and torontokris,

Thanks for the responses! Before I forget it, Radio Shack has droppped the price of the Home Patrol 1 to $424.999 until 6-22. Does everybody know or can I post it? That's a lot lower than anybody else except for some refurbished 60 day warranty units out of original packaging. I am trying to figure out the updating deal, I "avoid" a bunch of stuff, and say update, and it just says the current update is already on it, but my changes are not.

Dustman

 

[dustman]

Man! The batteries that come with the Home Patrol 1 aren't worth a dang! I got the unit last night, didn't have time to deal with it. I put the batteries in this morning at 9:30 and by 111:45 they were dead! I'm on A/C adapter now, You also have to buy an adapter if you want to use a BNC antenna. There is a cheapo screw on antenna on the radio, and if you don't have an angled antenna to put on it your antenna is going to stick straight out of the side to the left, which means you will also have to buy an L BNC male/female adapter (Radio Shack part # 278-116). They are $6 each, but if you buy the radio there you get a paper with the receipt for $10 off your next $10 or more purchase, you can pick up a couple for $2 aftter the coupon~. The radio's sound is great, crisp and clear, unit is neat. I have big hopes for it if I can figure it out! LOL

Dustman

 

[ST-Bob]

Dustman, you're finding all these things that have been known since the HP-1 first came out. Unfortunately, it is what it is. You will have to learn to love it the way we (who have had one since they first came out) love ours.

I found the learning curve for such a "simple" yet at the same time "advanced" scanner to be somewhat steep. Although it was marketed toward first time scanner owners, it was designed by engineers. Being an engineer I can understand how and why things were done the way they were but that doesn't make the marketing toward first-timers any more correct.

Even with it's simpler zip-code type location system, it's still going to be a fairly complex task to get it customized the way you want it. You cannot regulate (yourself) how the many systems in your area are entered in the database of channels and frequencies. Many will have overly large areas assigned to them in the database simply because nobody has stepped up to the plate and edited them as I've done in my home state. I became a RadioReference Database Administrator and spent countless hours refining the geographic locations and range of intended coverage for every public safety frequency in my county and several others.

Your best bet, as mentioned above, may be to pare down the number of systems you receive by copying the desired ones to a favorites list and just scanning that list. Keep in mind though that as systems change or are updated, they will not be updated in your custom favorites lists unless you do it manually. There's no software method for automatically updating your favorites lists.

In most cases this is not really a problem though (at least not too often). Most systems stay the same for many years. I would suggest you become familiar with Sentinel's favorites list editor. You can do all the avoiding and customizing from your computer keyboard rather than the tedious method of doing it on the scanner itself; then write the changes to the HomePatrol. Sentinel too has a steep learning curve, however. You'll have to do the homework - nobody can do it for you.