I recently bought the Uniden BCD436HP HomePatrol Series Digital Handheld Scanner to replace one I bought from Radio Shack many moons ago and when comparing them it is like night and day. I needed a scanner that would scan digital, analog, and Trunking systems and boy was I surprised by this handheld.
My Findings regarding the Uniden BCD436HP
When I received the Uniden BCD436HP and opened the box, it contained the handheld, the normal rubber duck antenna, USB cable, a hand strap, batteries, and SMA to BNC Adapter. Looking at the scanner as it looked to me quite complicated to use came with a great user manual. I read the manual and started setting it up and found it actually easy to use and in no time I was up and running.
The scanner is tall, comes with a large display, and comes with a backlit display the casing it is made of quality plastic and feels well made. Even, the buttons are rubber with noticeable labeling and the display covering seems curved and glossy. The handheld works with three 2300MaH batteries and use your PC connected with the USB cable to charge it. I decided on buying myself a separate charger to keep the scanner ready to use when needed.
When I finally got the scanner to work and set up to all the required channels from the police, fire department, and National Weather Service to name a few. The scanner has super signal reception without any background noise.
Easy to use
The Uniden BCD436HP Scanner is easy to use and comes with a four-gigabyte MicroSD card that holds the entire USA and Canada database of radio systems and provides you with hundreds of hours of audio recording. You enter your zip code or GPS and types of services and it picks up the channels you want to hear and tells the scanner where you are located and does the rest for you.
The scanner comes with pre-installed Sentinel Software to help make updates simple and allows you to create, edit, and manage your preferred lists. It is also front-panel programmable. While the easy scan control easily finds the channels, you want to connect.
Some of the features I love!
- One of the features, I find great on the BCD436HP Scanner is the Close Call® RF Capture with a Do-Not-Disturb that automatically tunes the scanner to nearby transmissions without interrupting the reception in progress
- Another great feature is the temporary avoid function that lets you quickly silence unwanted systems, channels, and departments allowing you to restore them to cycling power
Key Features of the Uniden BCD436HP
- The Uniden BCD436HP comes with flexible easy channel selection by using zip codes, GPS, and service types
- It has range control that lets you set how far out from your current location the scanner must search for channels in your favorite list and database
- The front panel of the scanner is completely programmable
- It comes with pre-installed Sentinel Software to help make firmware and database updates easy
- It is USB PC connectable
- The discovery modes help you find new channels on trunked systems and frequency ranges
- The analysis modes include RF Power Plot, EDACS/LTRLCN finder, trunked system analysis, and band scope
- It comes with instant replay that plays back up to 4 minutes of the recent transmissions recorder and also has audio recording
- The scanner has multi-site Trunking that lets you program it to share trunked system IDs across various sites without ID duplication
- It has 100 quick keys to enter your favorite lists, systems, and departments
- It has a programmable LED alert that offers you with seven colors and three pattern alerts when channels become active
- It also has encryption muting, system number tagging, easy scan control, custom search, three quick access search keys, and quick search
- The BCD436HP has 64 character text tagging for each system, department, site, talk group, search range, tone out, and SAME group
- The date and time are displayed with time stamping for recordings
- The scanner comes with a one-year limited warranty
Uniden BCD436HP Reviews
If you are looking for some great Uniden BCD436 reviews, Amazon offers you with more than 500 customers who have provided some great feedback. The majority of customers are pleased with the scanner as for some found it easy to use where others advised that if you are a beginner in using handheld scanners it might be a bit complicated with all the features the scanner has to offer.
One other customer had the following to say about the scanner, “He had examined many reviews before buying the BCD436, and was worried that it would be difficult to use and found out eventually once he started programming it that it was not as bad as he had thought. There are many features that he has not used yet and advised that the voice recording and replay, the USB charging, it is lightweight and works well. He also advises most customers who are thinking of buying the scanner to check out the YouTube tutorials as they help you when using the scanner and is very satisfied with the product.”
Pros
- The Uniden BCD436HP HomePatrol Series Digital Handheld Scanner scans pretty much any non-encrypted sources that include CB and Trunking systems
- The scanner is mobile and can be taken with you everywhere you go
- It comes with loads of features to use
- Reasonably priced
Cons
- Some say it is easy to use where others advised that most of the features will not be used at present time and need the software to use most of the features
RR System Compatibility
- System Types:
- Motorola Type I
- Motorola Type II
- Motorola Type III Hybrid
- Motorola Type II Smartnet
- Motorola Type II SmartZone
- Motorola Type II SmartZone Omnilink
- Motorola Type II VOC
- EDACS Standard (Wide)
- EDACS Standard Networked
- EDACS Narrowband (Narrow)
- EDACS Narrowband Networked
- EDACS SCAT
- EDACS ESK (not ProVoice)
- LTR Standard
- Project 25 Phase I
- Project 25 X2-TDMA
- Project 25 Phase II
- System Voices: Analog, Analog and APCO-25 Common Air Interface, APCO-25 Common Air Interface Exclusive
Conclusion
If you are looking for a scanner that offers you with some great features in listening to public services, fire, police, EMS, Government , Ham, radio transmissions and broadcasts then the Uniden BCD436HP HomePatrol Series Digital Handheld Scanner is the right mobile handheld to have on your side wherever you go.