Review on Uniden BCD536HP HomePatrol: Digital Phase 2 Scanner with Wi-Fi, TrunkTracker V, Emergency/Weather Alert - Covers USA and Canada! by Ricardo Mercado

First a word of caution: note that many of the reviews on this page do not relate to the BCD536HP. Many of these are for older Uniden scanners that have very little in common with the BCD536HP. I don't know why these reviews are here but they are. Now let's get to my review. It's a great scanner, probably the best I've owned and I've had a few since the 1970's. That being said, I would also like to say that this is the most malicious electronic device I have ever heard of, and that reputation is not entirely unfounded. This scanner was introduced in early 2014 when early adopters discovered a number of issues including faulty headphone jacks and SD card corruption issues. Uniden fixed the headphone jack issue and repaired or replaced damaged units that were returned. The SD card issue seems to be random, but many who have had the issue have reported that replacing the SD card that came with the scanner with a new one helped or fixed the issue entirely. Recently, some users have reported that the LCD backlight dims over time. This worries me and I try to use the radio with the backlight off or at minimum brightness to prolong the life of the backlight. Again, this can be an issue that affects some units and not others, but I don't want to find out from personal experience. Another worrying issue is the watch battery. Some report that their watch's battery dies after a few months and they are unable to charge or top it up. If the clock's battery dies, the radio will prompt you to enter the date and time every time you turn it on, which doesn't kill the radio but takes 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. Okay, this all sounds bad, and it is, but I still think it's great radio. The siren app has already been released and basically works at least in your home Wi-Fi network. The headphone jack on my radio is fine. I've reprogrammed the radio a couple of times and haven't had any card errors (I use a 32GB card that I bought new and keep the one that came with it as a backup). My watch works perfectly. The free Uniden Sentinel software is simple but useful. It simply updates the radio firmware. The radio scans quickly, its sensitivity in UHF and VHF is better than I expected, this is based on user comments I've read. The radio looks and sounds great! It doesn't look like the "Pinto" of police scanners, which, let's face it, it is. more of a bmw. Very good fit and workmanship, very nice design. The controls feel nice and solid, and the very nice display offers more characters than ever to use in your alpha tags. This is a truly remarkable, even exquisite, radio. I would easily give it 5 stars if it weren't for all of the design and quality control issues that have plagued it at least in the past. aspect of this radio. Yes, this is advertised as a core feature, and yes, you can enter your zip code, scan local police and open fire within minutes. But I've found that it tends to download a lot of stuff you don't like to hear, causing the scanner to cycle through a lot of unnecessary channels, slowing down the scan cycle. Yes, you can click avoid on things, and yes, you can choose only the types of communication you are interested in. All of these will help, but scanners work best when you PROGRAM THEM. If YOU insert exactly what YOU want to hear. So I advise you to take the time to learn how to properly program your radio using Sentinel or Butel software (subscribing to the radio reference will help if you use Butel). You will enjoy your radio infinitely more when tuned correctly. If this is your first scanner and you live in an area with complex communications systems, expect it to take some time and effort to learn how to program it. However, that time is well spent and there are many resources on the internet that can help. The online guide Marks Easier To Read is a good place to start. Also RadioReference.com is a huge repository of help, information and informative users. Hope that helps.