Uniden BCD536HP HomePatrol Series Digital Phase 2 Base/Mobile Scanner with HPDB and Wi-Fi. Simple Programming, TrunkTracker V, S.A.M.E. Emergency/Weather Alert. Covers USA and Canada.

Looking at some of these reviews, you cant tell which Uniden product the reviewer bought. Theyre all bundled together. Mine is the Uniden BCD536HP. First of all I noticed it was heavy. Dont know if thats good or bad, but I like it like that. As soon as you get it turned on, keep your finger close to the avoid key, because youll be using it a lot, until you get some of the items weeded out. This is by far Unidens top of the line scanner. It will take some getting used to, but its the best sounding, and the best overall functioning scanner Ive ever owned, and this one makes number thirteen. This police scanner hobby is kinda like chocolate, you always just want another. You can get by with just a zip code to get started, if thats what you like. but you will have to spend some quality time later with your 536, but you have all the tools with sentinel software, and the cable included in this package.If you just want to plug and play the Uniden Home Patrol is the way to go. Everything you ever wanted to know about a frequency shows up on the Home Patrol screen, but I wanted a challenge so I bought the 536. I know my way around a computer just a little, but I can read and look at you tube. There are a lot of videos that will help, and you might as well get a subscription to Radio Reference as well. Its a great help, and has tons of freqs if you need them. Spend the money, you cant take it with you. .

Amazing scanner. The most advanced scanner with the most options I have ever had. Currently I have 5 scanners and 4 of them are Uniden. The most important thing to determine before you buy this scanner is if the police, sheriff and fire departments in your community transmit an encrypted signal. This scanner or any scanner will not work for you if the signal is encrypted. In Georgia, Clayton, Henry, Fayette and Spalding Counties encrypt their signals. I live in Clayton county and the other counties I listed surround me. I am returning it. It is a heart breaker for me and my wife. We have been listening to police scanners for 20 years and now nothing will work. I guess it is more important for the police department, sheriffs department and fire departments to keep everything from the public than it is for the public to know what is happening in their community. This is a sad day for government transparency. I guess the local politicians think it is better if you do not know what is happening in your community.

Typing in your zip code to start scanning is very easy, but this scanner picks up so many transmissions from so far away that it is overwhelming. There is no easy way to bypass the transmissions you dont want or select only the transmissions you do want. The scanner itself is very good, with clear sound and long range using just the included antenna. If you are willing to pay extra the company offers to sell you a new sd card with your choice of county options, but after paying so much for the scanner in the first place it shouldnt cost extra to be able to program the scanner correctly. If you want an easy to program scanner to listen to only the agencies you want to hear, this is NOT it.

This is an expensive unit. Setup was quite easy and when I entered my ZIP code it immediately began scanning. There are many possible complexities and it will take me some time to explore to see whether I can fine tune and expand my searches. UNFORTUNATELY, THE UNIT DOES NOT COME WITH A WI-FI DONGLE AS STATED. Considering the cost of this unit, this is a considerable disappointment and unacceptable.

First a word of caution: Please be aware that many of the reviews on this page are not for the BCD536HP. Many are for older models of Uniden scanners that have very little in common with the BCD536HP. Why these reviews are here I do not know, but they are. Now for my review. This is a great scanner, easily the best Ive ever owned, and I have owned quite a few dating all the way back to the 1970s. That being said, I will also say its easily the most maligned piece of electronic equipment Ive ever heard of, and that reputation is not entirely unwarranted. This scanner debuted in early 2014 with early adopters finding a number of problems, including defective headphone jacks, and problems with SD cards becoming corrupted. Uniden made good on the headphone jack issue and repaired or replaced the affected units that were returned. The SD card issue seems to be hit or miss, but many who have had the problem have reported that replacing the SD card that came with the scanner with a new one has helped or eliminated the problem entirely. More recently some users have reported that the LCD backlight has dimmed over time. This is worrying, and I find myself trying to use the radio with the backlight either off, or set to its dimmest setting in order to preserve the life of the backlight. Again, this may be an issue that affects some units and not others, but I don’t want to find out the hard way. Another worrying issue is the clock battery. Some have reported their clock battery going dead after a period of months and have been unable to recharge it, or get it to hold a charge. If the clock battery is dead, the radio will require you to enter the date and time each time you turn it on, so while this doesn’t kill the radio it will suck some of the fun out of it. And then of course it took Uniden a year to finally release the Siren app for iPhone, something that was touted as a major new feature when the radio was released. OK, so all that stuff sounds bad, and it is, but I still think this is a great radio. The Siren app is out now and mostly works, at least within your home WIFI network. The headphone jack on my radio is fine. I’ve re-programmed the radio multiple times and had no card failures (I’m using a 32GB card I bought new, keeping the supplied card as a backup.) My clock works fine. The Uniden Sentinel software that comes free is bare-bones but usable. It updates the radio’s firmware easily. The radio scans quickly, it’s UHF and VHF sensitivity is better than I expected it would be based on user comments I’d read. The radio looks and sounds great! It does not look like the “Pinto” of police scanners, which let’s face it, it kind of is. it looks more like a BMW. Very nice fit and finish, very nice design. The feel to the controls is nice & solid, and the very nice display offers more characters to use for your Alpha Tags than ever before. It’s really a wonderful, even refined, radio. I would easily give it 5 stars if it weren’t for all the design and quality control issues that have plagued it, at least did in the past. Now I will say I think a lot of folks will be disappointed in the “Home Patrol” aspect of this radio. Yes it’s touted as a major feature, and yes you can enter your Zip Code and be scanning your local police and fire in minutes. But what I’ve found is it tends to load up a lot of stuff you will not enjoy listening to, which forces the scanner to work its way through a lot of unnecessary channels, slowing the scan cycle way down. Yes, you can hit “Avoid” on stuff, and yes you can select only the types of communications you’re interested in. All that will help, but scanners work best when you PROGRAM THEM. When YOU put in exactly what YOU want to listen to. So my advice is to take the time to learn how to program the radio properly with Sentinel, or with the Butel software (a subscription at radio reference will help if you use Butel). You will enjoy your radio infinitley more when its set up properly. If this is your first scanner, and you live in an area with complex communications systems, you should expect that learning how to program it is going to take some time and effort. It will be time well spent though, and there’s lots of resources online to help. The Marks Easier To Read manual online is a good place to start. Also RadioReference.com is a huge compendium of help and information and informative users. Hope that helps.

This is a high end, scanner, and worth its money

Easy to program from face of radio if you hold on channel and add. Watch video on YT. Search through the full database and see what you want to listen to. Just turn off full database and your saved list will load fast. Audio is ok-good but an expert speaker would be better.

Great scanner, easy to use with zip code based HomePatrol feature is great. Setting up your own lists with the software is a little tricky the first time but I was successful in completeing the task. It Has good receiver sensitivity even with antenna attached to rear of receiver. While I dont use the feature a lot the Siren App for my iPhone works great for monitoring the scanner within my Wifi network. The use of the app is very easy to understand. Wifi setup of the scanner was very easy and straight forward. Maintaining the frequency database and loading updates into the radio is very easy and straight forward, as are firmware upgrades. There have been two firmware upgrades that I have done so far in the last few weeks that I have.owned the scanner.

Programing needs the manual. It was nice that they include a separate paper manual. Manual is a must read to get more then 60 percent of the features. Last scanner was a 1999 Radio Shack top of the line. Did a lot, but not any thing like this one. A lot for the money and a computer is needed to make the most of it. This is a desk top, does not use internal batteries. All needed wiring comes for house and car.

This is the 1st scanner I have had in several years and the advancements are outstanding. Once I figured out how to use the software for programming, I simply set up a favorite with only the agencies that I wanted to listen to. I pick up all the surrounding counties, State Police, DOT, Game & Fish, EMS. It is pricey, but well worth the money for anyone that likes to keep up with what is going on with first responders.