I bought one about a month ago based on the recommendation of a friend who has
long been into scanners. I love it. I live in SW Connecticut and the range is
amazing. I get Long Island, NYC, up near West Point, well into Connecticut and
NY State. The only department I'm aware of that is encrypted is my own home
city's police department. But all the surrouding PD's are clear, as are fire and
EMS. Even the Connecticut State Police are broadcast in the clear. This is the
best money I've soent on a "toy" in a long time. My only complaint is that even
though I live in area close to three major airports, there's not a lot of
aircraft frequencies in the databas. That's something I hope will be corrected
with updates in the future. The only change I've made on the Home Patrol is I
switched out the antenna that came with it to a Watson WSMA-801, which was
another recommendation from my friend. It's about an inch longer and the
reception is great. One thing I did that I'm glad I did is that the sound coming
out of the HP isn't all that great, but it has a line out plug, so I plugged it
into my computer speakers and WHOA! it's like sitting in dispatch it's so loud
and clear. The only screwy thing is that the line out on the scanner takes a
2.5mm plug and my line in is 3.5mm. I couldn't find one locally so I hit up eBay
and found them cheap and qith free and quick shipping. I can't recommend this
little scanner enough. I'm glad I bought mine.

Just so happens I was born and raised in Connecticut myself, but
reside in Oklahoma now. Your favorable review mirrors many of the ones
I've read so far for this rig. People are loving it for the most part,
although there are those who think it's way over-priced and generally
resist the idea of auto-programming scanners. My problem is this
encryption nonsense putting the thrill out of commission. I suspect it
won't be an issue with city police activities in my area for some time
to come, but how much longer can I count on that when the local EMT
company has already taken the plunge? I realize no one can answer that
except myself after I've made the purchase, but that's why I'm
ambivalent about dropping $500 to find out. I understand that GRE is
poised to release its own auto-program handheld for about the same
price at the end of this month, but again, it still boils down to
taking a big risk on ending up with an expensive paper weight and
that's what's bothering me.

After all, I had a beautiful unblocked MK3 I paid over $600 for that
was rendered pretty much useless for anything other than listening to
HAM operators, TV broadcasts, broken police transmissions and local
two-way radios, and consider myself mighty lucky to have sold it for
$250. Thanks for your reply.