Uniden BC355N 800 MHz 300-Channel Base/Mobile Scanner, Close Call RF Capture, Pre-programmed Search “Action” Bands to Hear Police, Ambulance, Fire, Amateur Radio, Public Utilities, Weather, and More, Black

The sound quality on this analogue scanner is great. If you are just wanting to listen to local radio broadcasts of workers going about their daily stuff it is the best because most of them use older, cheaper analogue radios. I use it for listening to the railroads and for railfanning. It would also be a great event radio. I actually own two of these, one in my house and one in my car. Get the antenna outside of your house or car for best reception. I use the provided glass mount antenna at home and just have it hanging on my patio about 10 ft off the ground. I bought a good Tram magnet mount dual-band antenna for the car. Both work better than anything else Ive tried that wasnt too expensive.

This is a hard review to write. I purchased this because as a CERT responder I wanted to know what was going on the Police, Fire, and Emergency channels. But so far the only channel I have received anything on is the Weather channel. I live near a large city in Southern Utah so it isnt like I am somewhere out in the boonies. Maybe the police, fire, and emergency people use a different range of frequencies than this radio is tuned for. I cant complain about the radio, but I am disappointed that I cant get the broadcasts I was hoping for.

Exactly as expected...

It is hard to figure out the search and scan. I read the manual several times and i am still confused. also cant figure out if it has a channel priority and it scans really slow.

it wasnt very clear on the product info that this was ANALOG ONLY. returning for a better DIGITAL scanner

Easier to set up than other reviews lead you to believe. Pages 52-55 of manual - read it carefully and you will get hang of it quickly. One drawback I (reason for 4 stars) is it scans one panel at a time (police, for example) and after a set time moves into the next panel to scan instead of across all panels at the same time. You can remedy this by enabling the closest but then CB chatter can take over if you live near an interstate. Having replaced a 20 year old 10 channel BC scanner with this all I can say is Wow!

This is a no frills basic scanner that works great for anyone in an area that has police and fire still on analog frequencies. Really simple to program; dont believe the naysayers that say it isnt. A simple 3 minute youtube video showed me how to do it. Its a bit time consuming and repetitive but very very easy once you know how. If you plan to listen to over 25 or so frequencies right of the bat, you might want to invest in a programming cable and download programming software. Also, it does have a TOTAL of 300 slots to program frequencies BUT 200 of these are under the Air/Marine slot. It is a bit confusing and if you want to listen to more than 100 frequencies and have to spill over to the Air/Marine presets, you will have to set the scanner to scan your private frequencies along with both the Air and Marine band presets. Its confusing I know, but it DOES have 300 memory slots. If some folks read the free downloadable user manual before purchasing, they would have known that. If you are listening to that many frequencies though, you should probably invest in a better, higher end scanner that has a larger custom memory bank. Its pretty small and takes up very little space on my nightstand and workbench. Worthwhile if you are like me and only listen to around 15 or 20 of the local police/fire/EMS frequencies. If that is all you are looking for out of your scanner, this will do the job. Upon arrival, the box included the scanner, a base telescopic antenna that plugs straight into the back (works well for me, your results may vary with location), a mobile mounting bracket with several feet of fused power wire, a DC cigarette power adapter for quick plug and go mobile installation, and finally a second antenna. The second antenna is basically a copper wire with suction cups on both ends and several feet of coax attached to it. According to the directions, you basically suction cup the antenna to the inside windshield on the passenger side of the vehicle or to the rear widow if you drive a standard cab truck. I currently use it in my basement window to gain better reception during the evening when I am working downstairs in my concrete surrounded shop space. Having an additional antenna stuck up in the window really helps improve the reception. Overall, its simple, it works, and its not crazy expensive because of too many bells and whistles I wont use.

Do a search online for what frequencies your town uses for fire and police. radio reference dot com is the one I used. Go down the list and find your town, to the right of your town , in the mode section if it says P25= this scanner will NOT work. means its Digital/private. This is a analog machine. If however it says FM under mode area for your town, you WILL get that station just fine, meaning its analog. You can buy scanners that pick up the P25 digital mode but they are alot more money. Hope this helps new customers in deciding as my town has the police in p25 mode and i cannot listen with this machine, but the fire is in fm so i can listen. ..........im still learning, but as for trying to GET TO A SPECIFIC STATION=... hit the band button and toggle it to the basic area you want say 100 to 200 , now hit scan, soon as your near the number you looking for hit the HOLD BUTTON, and use the up or down arrows to get to it. thats all, when someone talks on that , it will come on automatically. ........ as for saving a favorite to your bank... same deal as above, go to Bank, select the area you want example 100-200, search, soon as near number hit HOLD, use up down to get to number you want...Now hit the PROG button, then hit the PRIVATE BUTTON..there you can put it in the bank you want(it blinks to select a bank think you ca nstore 100 on here or something) now Hit PROGRAM again , and it saves it ..so next time you can just hit private and your saved banks of liked frequencies are over there, .. mine just wont work right with my saved ones but im not sure if it will listen to all my saved ones when one is activated or what yet as still learning this machine(grumbles lol) also that cc weird thing on bottom left I read will go to any live talk or something, non stop?, in reviews above, but i havent tried it out yet. Well thats all for now, if I figure anything more , ill update this post if need.

Will not receive some am frequencies.

Serurity guard