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 like this police scanner. I can get calls from many miles away and close to my home. Its nice to hear all the calls and sometimes hear the outcomes of calls. It has good sound but we wanted more so we added a speaker for better sound and quality to hear in other rooms of the house too. It is hard to get the programming just the way you want it, but with persistence it is workable. It came tightly wrapped and in perfect condition. We have been listening to this radio for up to a year now and no problems. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to hear the calls digitally.

Good scanner but as with any radio Id suggest to use an external speaker for better sound quality. I just received it so Im still learning how to use it. But so far its a good scanner. The one thing they should add to it is an ignition wire for it for when installed in car since they say not to wire it to your vehicles ignition since I could corrupt the SD card when it shuts off if you dont shut off manually first.

The BCD536HP has all the the makings of the top of the line scanner...except inexplicably Uniden fell asleep at the wheel. The units build quality is top of the line...sturdy and rich feeling. The advertised features...who could ask for more?! The problem is they dont deliver on some of the features (at least not as of yet...as I am hoping a few firmware updates down the road they will). No App and no Analyze Mode feature even though those are two of the selling points . Worst of all if you buy this unit and are not located near the hub of what you are trying to receive...you absolutely will need to buy a better antenna. This is unforgivable. How is it possible that my 1980 Bearcat 210 can pull in clear stations that just show up as noisy scratchy inaudible transmissions on the 536???! Not sure if this is a bad antenna or worse poor sensitivity internal to the scanner. Either way...think external antenna unless your transmission source is close by. One would think that shelling $600 for this would get you a decent antenna. I want to love this unit...it has the makings of a great scanner...I just cant understand why Uniden skimped on the antenna / reception sensitivity and did not deliver a product that has the advertised features working ...unbelievable! For now I just like it and hope that firmware updates will deliver what was promised and then may be I will love this after all.

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.

Not cheap, but wow! Can actually work right out of the box, and with your zip code it sets itself up for everything in your area ... of course, you can make personal lists of what to monitor as well quite easily (but you need a PC or laptop to do it easily). very happy with this Christmas give I gave to myself. :)

Like the self programming. Dislike sound quality, attached extension speakers did help. Needs a sound leveling system, some channels come in really loude and others I can hardly hear. Try to find a happy medium.

Easy to set up

Great scanner. It does what the instructions states it does. Hook up antenna, plug in AC adaptor, and turn it on. It asks what the date is and enter it, what time it is, enter that, your time zone #, and enter. It will show nothing to scan. Hit the ZIP (zip code) button and enter your zip code, it will upload all frequencies within a 20-mile radius, and scan. Super easy and works great. Uniden got this one right.

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.

Ive had this scanner for a month now and have had zero problems with it. I never tried the zip code programming as I installed the Sentinel software first thing, updated the database and firmware and was off to the races from there. Programming the unit with the Sentinel software is very simple. (Sentinel software is included on the SD card that came pre-installed in the unit.) My only complaint is that DMR functionality is a paid upgrade. Would highly recommend downloading ProScan and using it instead of Unidens Siren app because it sucks. I run the scanner 24/7 piping it through my desktop computer with the ProScan software functioning as a web server. I can listen to the scanner from anywhere in the world through the browser in my phone. Buyer beware though, if your local public safety system is encrypted you are out of luck so do your due diligence before buying.