Homepatrol 2 Reviews

Are you looking for a good Police Scanner? How much are you familiar with Police Scanners?

Recently, we at gadgetsspy.com have bought and tested the Uniden Homepatrol 2, and have come to some significant insights and conclusions about this radio scanner. We analyzed the scanner’s design, the setup process, the software, and all the different features that come with it, so keep on reading this review!

In this review you’ll also get to see:

• General Design
• Setup
• Software
• Capabilities
• Other Features
• Final words

Our Opinion of Uniden HomePatrol 2

This will be a fitting choice even if you’re experienced in this field, so we’ll have firm ground calling it a high-end Police Scanner. The Uniden Homepatrol 2 will be helpful in accessing Law/Fire enforcement, EMS, or weather radio systems with the best performance possible.

General Design

The Uniden Homepatrol 2 is quite the portable little gadget. It comes at 4.2 x 3.8 x 6.4 inches and 1.15lb weight, so it is quite easy to store it in your backpack or suitcase and take it with you whenever you may need it. On the left side, you can find the antenna and the audio and headphone jacks on that same side of the scanner too. On the right side, you’ll find the USB and the GPS serial port beneath it. The front panel is comprised of the color display and the speaker. You’ll be surprised by the richness provided by the color touchscreen display on this radio, which will surely ease your setup process by much. Thus, the only buttons on the scanner are the volume knob and the power button on the device’s top. (1)

One of its greatest features is the scanner’s easy and simple design, where you’ll see no trouble setting your police scanner to all your nearby stations, using the easy-to-use setup process. One of the rare things about this product is the ability to listen to traffic that most of the other scanners don’t have. This does not exclude other law enforcement transmissions, such as SWAT for example. (2)

The reception of the Uniden Homepatrol 2 is quite dependant on your surrounding environment and the conditions it provides, as well as your location (make sure you check if police scanners are legal in your state). The police scanner features a stock antenna, which has quite good coverage, although it’s replaceable if range extension is the issue. The only issue with this scanner is that it does not decrypt any encrypted transmissions, like some of its competitors do.

Setup

The setup on this scanner is pretty easy and straightforward. Of course, as a first step, you’ll need to insert the 4 AA NiMH batteries that are included in the package. Then, you’ll need to charge the batteries using the USB charger cable in the box. (3)

When the police scanner comes on, simply follow the instructions on the screen, and put in the required information from the gadget. Although it didn’t happen to us, the scanner might ask you to connect it to a PC, if the database requires updates.

From here, just enter your Zip code of your area. Uniden has made sure the scanner does the rest by automatically scanning your area for frequencies in that area.

Software

This Uniden police scanner features the HomePatrol Sentinel software, which is a radio system database that gets updated weekly, which would prove useful in the long-term use of this radio. ​

The device’s software lacks certain things, such as talk groups or trunk systems, but they can be added if you connect your device to a PC via the USB cable included.

​One thing that we didn’t like is that in order for the GPS to function properly, you’d need a few additional components that are not featured in the scanner’s package. ​

WHAT WE DIDN’T LIKE

• A bit pricey
• Additional stuff needed for GPS use
• Charging takes too long

Capabilities

Reception

You can set the range in 2-mile increments on the Uniden HomePatrol 2, which would allow you to precisely set up the device’s performance. You’ll be able to tune in to two-way communications used by the police, fire department, etc.

With the flex antenna featured with the radio, you get fair reception and a decent range. Although, if you want something that covers a little more ground, you can easily replace the antenna with something more powerful.

Scanning

As we once said, the scanning is automatic, and it’s easily set up when you turn on the device. This Uniden device scans more than 1000 channels per second, so you’ll find your favorite channels in no time. Although, keep in mind that this radio scanner does not decrypt encrypted channels.

Battery

To be honest, we didn’t like the 4 AA batteries that this product features in the package. In that manner, we would suggest you get separate, compatible batteries. With them, on a full charge, we went for almost 2 full days of use.

The charging takes a little longer too. This home patrol needs to be fully charged before use, and the full charge time took us around 12-13 hours total. But after that, we were fully satisfied with the possibilities of this great scanner.

Recording

The Uniden Homepatrol 2 features a recording function which you’ll surely find incredibly useful. Doing this review, we tried it and we loved it!

With the recording function, you can record radio conversations and store them on an sd card. The function is easy to use, and we are sure you’re going to love this feature this scanner features.

Final Words

Uniden has done a great job with this one. This radio scanner does exactly what it said it does. It gives you the ease of use, is easily set up, and you can even record the radio conversations on it. We especially liked the home patrol software, which is very intuitive and simple. Perhaps the only thinker you’ll find here is the relatively high price of the ham radio.

You’ll get good battery life and decent coverage on a small, portable device that you can take anywhere with you. We at gadgetsspy.com, would recommend this home patrol system to anyone who’s on the lookout for a police scanner.

You may want to check our other reviews such; Galaxy 959 Review, Cobra Microtalk CXT 195 Review among others. 

References

(1) GPS – https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/gps-basics/all
(2) SWAT – https://people.howstuffworks.com/swat-team.htm
(3) NiMH batteries – https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/nickel-metal-hydride