Uniden HomePatrol-2 Color Touchscreen Simple Program Digital Scanner, TrunkTracker V and S,A,M,E, Emergency/Weather Alert, APCO P25 Phase 1 and 2! Covers USA and Canada, Quick Record and Playback

I really like how all the white noise is filtered out. You only hear the transmitters voice, nothing else. The 3 level display of system, department and channel with customizable font size gives you instant data on who you are hearing. So, when it is live and running, its not nearly as disruptive and intrusive as they were 20 yrs ago. This tech has definitely improved with age. Very neat and compact, with the stand you can place it anywhere convenient. Very easy to pick a channel or dept and lock on to it. The cons (personally speaking): - Batteries take forever to charge and do not last as long as advertised. This could be inferior batteries it came with. Am getting more and a charger. Will see if they last longer. Good idea to have extra batteries so you always have 4 charged up and ready to replace discharged batteries with. - Setting up. This was excruciating for me. Was a tough learning curve. We wanted local county police, sheriff, HP, Ems and fire. I made favorite list over and over till I realized I had to include state VIPER system to get all local departments. All in all, I spent 4 days off and on before I finally derived a fav list with everything we wanted on it. - Does not come with a standard power supply jack. At best you have to plug in usb cable and listen to it while you charge the batteries. Would be nice if it had a 6v power supply jack that you could bypass the batteries with. (I may be missing something here regarding use of usb charge port). - The onboard menu and functions available to manually program it are not intuitive at all to me. I am an engineering professional in CAD and network software for 30 yrs now. When I say it is not intuitive, it really is not intuitive. (but that is also my personal opinion). In summary. Its a very nice piece of tech. We are happy to have it. The pros outweigh the cons for sure. The price, well, like everything tech; if you want the best dont complain about the price. You make the decisions for your life, so dont blame others for your choices.

I really wanted to love this scanner......in fact based on other reviews I was fully looking forward to giving the product 5 stars.......First off, it IS and excellent scanner!!! Probably the best and quickest set up out of the box I have ever owned....That being said, the actual operation of the machine is rather lame......Great sound, range, reception.....BUT for some reason it will not remain operational while charging via computer......It is a bit tiring to leave the unit on for several hours only to have the batteries deplete and have to shut the unit completely down to re- charge It will NOT charge while in operation (via usb/computer)......There is an after market AC power source available which I intend to try....but it is odd that Uniden does not provide one.......This is a great little scanner!!! Too bad the ergonomics of its operation get in the way of its possible 5 star rating!!!

Ive owned several Uniden scanners over the years and currently own the Uniden 436HP and the classic BR330T. I recently started looking into putting a scanner into my truck that I could also easily swap between vehicles. That immediately disqualified Unidens standard mobile offerings. Sure, I could have mounted one of my handhelds but reading those screens while driving is next to impossible. This is where the Homepatrol 2 fits in. Besides having a very readable screen, it can easily be moved between vehicles and home when needed when you have the appropriate mounts. I was already familiar with Unidens home patrol concept. Its a small learning curve but when it clicks, it all makes sense. In short, the HomePatrol 2 (HP2) has a massive data base of frequencies available to you via an included microsd card. How you organize those frequencies for your listening purposes can be accomplished in two ways. You can either just put in your zipcode and choose what service types youd like to hear (police, ems, fire...) or you can use Unidens Sentinel software to organize the frequencies into favorites lists which is like a new way of setting up banks. Ive created several lists for my home area but will sometimes use the zip code method if Im visiting a new place. This is very handy as in the old days Id either have to program the scanner before I left for a trip or Id just use the search function to find something to listen to. Now, theres no guessing no matter where I go which is great. Admittedly, as someone who has been scanning for 30 years, I do feel like I am somehow cheating thanks to how easy it is to set up the HP2 but I think I will get over it :) As far as hardware goes, this is a solid feeling unit. Its a little heavier than I expected it to be and thats fine because this is not something you would likely be carrying around like a handheld. The speaker sounds good (not tinny). The touch screen is responsive and accurate. The scan rate is zippy. I ran it next to my 436 and they were pretty much on par with one another. The screen is one of the selling points of this scanner for me. Its easy to ready and provides a lot of data. If youre considering this scanner and want to future-proof yourself against the eventual expansion of some agencies to P25 Phase 2 systems, Id recommend this unit. If youre not concerned or know that what you listen to does not require that system capability, go with the HP1 (previous model.)

This product is what every review says, type in zip code and go. No programming…..easy set up

Easy to program but when you put yr zip code in itll give you everything full data base. So I have a lot of agencies on avoid like DPW Education Freqs bus services corrections high school security utilities company cable and miscellaneous things that come in on the data base. But overall its a gem I love it.

I am very happy with this scanner. I debated purchasing it for a few months due to the cost. Seriously, this thing is expensive! We moved to Galveston recently and I thought it would be great to know what is going on and it is. This is the type of scanner that I had to have to hear the broadcast here. I was a little disappointed in the beginning because I was only getting a few channels but I discovered it was user error. I needed to make some adjustments like making sure EMS-Talk and the other Talk options were highlighted. It is now giving me what I expected. We were full-time RVers and I wish we would have had it when we were traveling because it is so easy to change the location. It is easy to use. My only complaint is the price.

Great product, simple to use, easy to set up. The downside is not a product issue, it is a technology issue. The hobby of scanning is dying due to APCO phase II technology. Here in the failed state of Illinois, law enforcement is transitioning to Starcomm21 Phase II. The scanner states it can receive these transmissions, however, it is distorted, garbled and incomplete. I was really hoping that this would be the solution, however, it just does not play well with the technology shift. The unit still functions flawlessly when scanning analog or Phase I signals. The other issue that scanning is facing is encrypted transmissions. Once again in the failed state of Illinois, our law enforcement is hiding behind encryption by using the excuse of officer safety. Even though scanning has been around for 50 plus years. At least I can still monitor fire frequencies.

This radio was unable to receive first responders in my area. The manual could only be understood by a person with a Phd in engineering. There are so many instructions to do mostly useless things that youll go through dozens of pages just to find something relevant to its reason for existence...locating police, ems frequencies for listening.

This is a fantastic radio. So easy to use! The unit is heavy/sturdy and built well! I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in scanner listening.

Touch controls are excellent. Really like zip code programming off of my computer using downloaded s/w from Uniden. Having a computer is important. Charging and Non-Charging mode is harder than it needs to be… Mobile use needs a special mount.