Uniden Bearcat BC125AT Handheld Scanner, 500-Alpha-Tagged Channels, Close Call Technology, PC Programable, Aviation, Marine, Railroad, NASCAR, Racing, and Non-Digital Police/Fire/Public Safety.

Bought this for the car to go along with my ham radio hand-held. This is a great little scanner for the money. Very easy to program with a PC and great battery life. It comes with rechargeable batteries, but like other scanners, the antenna has lousy gain, so plan on getting something better. I dont care about P25 or other digital modes, so that was not a problem for me. The keypad is very easy to use and once you know the layout you can easily operate it in the dark, while driving with one hand. Audio is plenty loud. It has an extra feature that is always scanning for near field transmissions, just in case you are wondering if there is a hidden transmitter close by. :-)

Bought for 86$. The scanner works fine but the interface is way too complicated from a fresh start. After many youtube videos, I was able to set up my channels and tune my banks the way I want. Have JFK, LGA, NYPD, and some military channels on separate banks and can scan what I want. I get about 10-15 miles range from aircraft that are IN THE AIR, and rarely on the ground at airports that are in the same range. Can listen to NYPD from over 15 miles away so thats cool. I wish I could listen to airport transmissions that happened on the ground like the Tower and planes on the ground with the standard antenna. Probably need a larger antenna for that though. Also, I wish I could charge and listen at the same time, i don’t think it can do that.

Will not hold a charge more than a hour. Rechargeable batteries are anything but.

After unsuccessfully trying to program it manually for over an hour, I finally got online, downloaded the software and programmed it that way. Took about 10 minutes... then I was all set up and ready to listen to local, county and state agencies while out doing crimes. (Note: pictured with long-range crime-spree antenna.)

Only picks up frequencies that are well below the usual ranges used by first responders. Frequencies need to be manually entered into scanner. If you know which frequencies you want to listen to, makes sure the scanner can pick it up. Otherwise, the unit isnt very useful.

My Uniden BC125AT now reads SCAN MODE ALL LOCKED! when I turn it on after just one day of pretty decent reception of my local railroads. When pressing the Hold button twice, it then reads ALL CHANNELS LOCKED OUT!. The owners manual makes no reference to this particular set of problems. I have erased all programmed channels hoping that this would clear it up but it did not fix it. I have a number of frequencies ready to load into it from my PC, but when I attempt to use the write to scanner function I get an error, which I presume is related to this problem. The error reads as follows: See the end of this message for details on invoking just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box. ************** Exception Text ************** System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Configuration system failed to initialize ---> System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: Unrecognized configuration section system.serviceModel. (c:WINDOWSMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv2.0.50727Configmachine.config line 134) at System.Configuration.ConfigurationSchemaErrors.ThrowIfErrors(Boolean ignoreLocal) at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.ThrowIfParseErrors(ConfigurationSchemaErrors schemaErrors) at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.ThrowIfInitErrors() at System.Configuration.ClientConfigurationSystem.EnsureInit(String configKey) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.PrepareConfigSystem() at System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.RefreshSection(String sectionName) at System.Configuration.ClientSettingsStore.ReadSettings(String sectionName, Boolean isUserScoped) at System.Configuration.LocalFileSettingsProvider.GetPropertyValues(SettingsContext context, SettingsPropertyCollection properties) at System.Configuration.SettingsBase.GetPropertiesFromProvider(SettingsProvider provider) at System.Configuration.SettingsBase.GetPropertyValueByName(String propertyName) at System.Configuration.SettingsBase.get_Item(String propertyName) at System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsBase.GetPropertyValue(String propertyName) at System.Configuration.ApplicationSettingsBase.get_Item(String propertyName) at BC125AT_SS.Properties.Settings.get_ComPort() at BC125AT_SS.Main.writeToScannerToolStripMenuItem_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.RaiseEvent(Object key, EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripButton.OnClick(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleClick(EventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.HandleMouseUp(MouseEventArgs e) at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEventInteractive(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met) at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem.FireEvent(EventArgs e, ToolStripItemEventType met) at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mea) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.ScrollableControl.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.ToolStrip.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m) at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam) ************** Loaded Assemblies ************** mscorlib Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3649 (GDR.050727-3600) CodeBase: file:///c:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll ---------------------------------------- BC125AT_SS Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 1.1.0.0 CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Uniden/BC125AT_SS/BC125AT_SS.exe ---------------------------------------- System.Windows.Forms Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3645 (GDR.050727-3600) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll ---------------------------------------- System Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3644 (GDR.050727-3600) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Drawing Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3644 (GDR.050727-3600) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Configuration Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3654 (GDR.050727-3600) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll ---------------------------------------- System.Xml Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0 Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3654 (GDR.050727-3600) CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll ---------------------------------------- ************** JIT Debugging ************** To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this application or computer (machine.config) must have the jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section. The application must also be compiled with debugging enabled. For example: <configuration> <system.windows.forms jitDebugging=true > </configuration> When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer rather than be handled by this dialog box. My expensive radio scanner is currently useless to me. There is no customer support available.

Bought a used one here on Amazon. Came with everything that would normally be inside the box, except they included the wrong kind of charging cable. I had an extra, so it was no big deal. It took me a few hours if messing with the scanner, watching YouTube videos and skimming the instructions to totally understand how it works. I went from having no idea what I was doing, to being able to use all its features in just a few days. Bummer that my local PD went digital, but I can still pick up some emergency services sometimes, government channels and of course railroad chatter. The range is a little more weak than I thought, but for an extra $20-40 you can get some real good antennas to improve that.

The scanner has been all around good. The small size and computer programming was what sold me and really no complaints from either of those after buying. The battery life indicator is basically just a beep when the battery is out so be prepared to carry an extra set. One thing that bothers me a bit is not having control over the squelch. Especially with the poor antenna you may be scanning for a long time and be missing nearby signals that you could detect if you were able to manually back the squelch down temporarily. Coming from an old desktop scanner this is a bit annoying but maybe I just need a better antenna. Its understandable that concessions were necessary to fit in the small size so maybe not a dial but at least some way to adjust this would have been nice. One other thing I would change is to be able to label the banks somehow in the programming. It would help to remember what is in each one.

I was reluctant to purchase this scanner because I owned one of the first that was produced. The first one I owned was not very good. Poor reception and was subject to power line bleed over and numerous other problems. The Uniden BC125AT is a wonderful scanner. Programing from the scanner itself is somewhat of a pain and takes a lot of time. If you purchase this scanner download the programing software. It is very easy to use and will save you a ton of time. Reception is very good with no powerline bleed over.

This purchase was made when the display on my old PRO-95 quit working. I decided I didnt need the 800MHz channels or trunking capability since I mainly use the scanner for listening to railroads. I was very happy with the BC125AT and the software that you can download for free. The first two banks I programmed in all the railroad frequencies and then the remaining ones used for police, fire, HAM, and CB frequencies. The software makes it easy to replace the frequencies with only railroad frequencies with one railroad occupying one bank. I like the fact that it uses standard AA rechargeable batteries that can be charged in the scanner. Seems to hold the charge for a long time, but am considering ordering batteries with higher mAH capacities for extra batteries. I havent had a chance to use the scanner with my railroad frequency tuned antenna on my vehicle, so I dont know how sensitive it is to pick up trains calling out signals from a good distance away. Overall, I am very happy with this replacement for my old scanner.