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.

I started off with Crystal scanners. I left off years ago at triple trunking. This scanner is awesome. Yes there is some learning curves, however Im up and running and less than one minute. Im able to get my surrounding channels I need. Set the range turn up the squelch, Im good. I will continue to update as I go along, but so far all good. Well not the fact that I got to upgrade and pay for it.,,,DMR, not that important to me. However, to others it is a big deal. The fact that it is Wi-Fi and there is an app that does work is awesome. It works. I love it. I still got to figure out how to get connection from the outside. I was going to forward the ports, but could not type in the colon at the beginning of the app you know, the IP address colon the number Port you assigned it to. Ill figure it out. Dont want to stick it out there in a DMZ.

Amazing piece of equipment but might not be ideal for everyone. The 536HP (and its sister 436 handheld) incorporate Unidens HomePatrol technology that esentially allows for anyone to turn it on and listen to just about anything you choose based on your zip code (including APCO 25 trunked systems in use by many agencies). However, programming the unit to isolate your favorites can prove to be a nightmare as many reviewers have noted. The old methods of programming banks with your favorites is complicated and essentially requires that you use software to achieve what used to be possible with direct entry. Specifically, Uniden has a free software application called Sentinal (PC only, no MAC) that allows for programming and managing the various profiles lists and systems that correspond to your listening requirements. Within those categories you must also customize in order to match the units performance with your desires. Once programming is completed in Sentinal, the choices are transferred to the units micro SD card via the included cable. The entire process can be frustrating for those without the willingness or patience to persevere. Having said all that there are various third party resources that can help you understand the process if youre determined. If you make it through all that youll be rewarded with what I believe to be a remarkably competent piece of equipment that will provide what is arguably the best consumer grade wideband base station listening experience on the market. But for its complexity I would have easily given it 5 stars.

Like most people haven’t listened to my old scanner for 25 years. Bought this about 2 months ago and inputted the daylight savings time frame, the date and time zone and zip code that I’m located in and that was it. I live in Weirton,WV and also down in a valley and I have it sitting by my chair on the end table with the antenna the came with it and it picks up around 50 mile radius I’m guessing, I think it’s incredible the range it gets with this antenna. Someday I will sit down and figure out the downloading off the internet, but really as far as I can see within a few hours it had picked every emergency system up. Seems like an excellent quality radio if you ask me, I’m no expert though.

The BCD536HP is a good radio that could be better. It does a great job on P25 systems and is decent on DMR and NXDN IF you buy the upgrades for them, which boost the price by $50 per mode. The Whistler TRX-2, which is about the same price, does DMR and NXDN with no extra charges. If youll primarily be monitoring DMR or NXDN radio systems, Id suggest going with a Whistler, if youll be listening to P25 (especially simulcast systems) this is the radio for you. If it werent for the extra cost of the upgrades, Id probably have given it five starts.

Date of manufacturer was 2013, guess they did not move off the shelves. Did not operate on power up, could not find any stations at all. Figured due to date of manufacture, it was obvious to me that it was out of date because the local police and fire frequencies were not correct. Tried to do database update, but the new database required a firmware update before it would load the DB. Did the FW and then the DB and all was well. Set my zip code and we were off to the races. As for the remote SW for my iOS iPad. It works but they really put no effort into doing a great remote app. As for the Sentinal SW for the PC, it uses dated methods of organizing the various functions. This app is in search of a well organized GUI..... Electricly it is a very good scanner, good sensitivity but could use bit more selectivity. Only negative is that when using an external speaker, the plug for external speaker does not turn off the internal speaker. This causes audio level problems and reduces the ability to control the audio in graceful way. Once you get past the growing pains it is a fine performing scanner, but I can’t justify 5 stars.

If youre familiar with the menu system on Uniden/Bearcat scanners over the past 10 years, you will not have to relearn everything from scratch with this unit. I love the extra long lines of text that can be used for naming Systems, Sites, Departments, and individual channels/talkgroups. There is an extra layer of complexity introduced with the Favorites feature which can make enabling/disabling groups of channels with just the numpad+.+E keys a tricky mess, but the Favorites feature itself is cool. A Favorite is like an entire set of systems/groups/channels in a scanner grouped into a bucket, where you can now have multiple of those named buckets to enable/disable at will, like Local Only, Vacation Spot, Imported from RadioRef, I Love Railroads!, etc. Having those Favorites saved to the included SD card is cool, as well as the HomePatrol feature of preloaded sets of systems across the entire US and Canada, scannable and selectable by Lat/Long. The USB dongle is included, and the Uniden Sentinel software is free for updating the firmware and the SD Cards national database. I have been using BuTels ARC software with prior Uniden scanners, and there is a version for this scanner too. There is a useful multi-color ring LED that can be lit for specific types of services or individual channels; note that youll never see it light up if you only ever scan with the built-in national database. When I programmed channels I set it to light up blue for Police, red for Fire/EMS, green for Public Works, and more for other services. I set it to flash for my hometowns channels, which is easily visible from across a room. I also tried out Unidens Siren app on Android to listen to the scanner remotely within my house through WiFi, which is a cool concept but a bit buggy right now; occasionally the app gets stuck or stops streaming audio even though the system/site/channel continues to follow along in realtime. The app cannot handle higher-latency network connections, so if you connect to your scanner from outside your home through a VPN, the app will show system/site/channel but will not stream any audio. There is a purchasable, third-party Windows desktop app that can do this called ProScan; there may be others. For a relatively small receiver this thing is heavy! I like that it has a 13.8VDC input for the AC Adapter, and a 3-pin 13.8VDC jack commonly used for mobile receivers.

This unit is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, its got fantastic build-quality. It works as it should, scans channels and lets you listen. The buttons and knobs work well. Its a quality unit. Or is it? It might be me, perhaps Im old and stupid, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand how to use the favorites system. In a web browser, youre on a page you like, and you hit a button and save it as a favorite. Later, you can go back to it. But this thing has no such button. Instead, it has an elaborate and over-complicated favorite-list system which is impossible for me to understand even after watching countless YouTube videos. The problem is you cant just say Hey, this is interesting, fave it! For goodness sake, Im a computer programmer and I *still* cant understand how to operate the user interface of this thing. Why cant I, for example, just quickly set a frequency / operation mode of my choice like I can on a regular radio? So now it sits here gathering dust instead of being used because the UI is so annoying.

As I expected, this was complicated scanner to set-up, but I have another one, the BC346XT which is also very complicated. You cant have a very serious and capable scanner and push one button to make it all work wonderfully. After hours of learning a new language and learning to run the software that programs the scanner, then programming the scanner, the thing works wonderfully well and is very versatile. This is NOT for the faint of heart but for serious scanner enthusiasts that dont mind learning a lot about programming, software, and the language of the receiver. However, once programmed it does some amazing things like on a certain channel you ask it to -- it will pause on it, increase the volume while there is voice, and flash any number of light colors that surround the control knob to alert you that a certain radio channel is on. It follows the new and old digital trunking system that Nashville, TN uses and handles all the agencies very well. Overall it is an excellent product. I knew it would be complicated, so should you. Go into the purchase with that in mind and you will be amazed. Do not try and program it without a computer either, not even sure it is possible.

Having been a scanner enthusiast since the 80s and having owned other Unidens as well as Icom and other top flight units, it was nice that upon opening the box it was fairly apparent this was deserving of its stature of being their top of the line. All metal construction with solid feeling buttons and switchgear. Setup was literally no brainer. One simple starts by turning it on, setting the date and time, then entering a zip code. You can easily begin listening to an already present full database of frequencies in any given area around the entire country The good stuff comes when you load the FREE Sentinel software that also come pre loaded on the removable micro SD card. It provides the ability to easily program in Favorites of channels you group to listen to according to taste. I arranged all my Country Police on one, then the Fire on another, then also Business and such. Great instructions on how this is all achieved is easily watchable on Youtube so no worries on getting familiar with this unit. The sound is good, but a but on the muffled side as the speaker is on the bottom. I happen to have a great external communications speaker from years ago that I use on this and its audio is flat out superb. There is plenty of power (5 watts) off this unit so if youre serious about the sound quality it will easily drive any speaker well. Love the large rich contrast display that shows tons of info on what youre hearing. It is actually VERY intuitive to use if you have any experience using scanners. Otherwise if you dont its still easy to just use the full database and all you need to do is choose the Service or type of thing you want to listen to, such as the various headings for Police, or Utilities or City stuff. It is indeed easy regardless. The quality is most certainly there. Much better than TV to listen for hours.

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.