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.

The interface is very complicated, but its a good scanner, and works for my needs (monitoring Airband).

Great sensitivity, even with the supplied antenna. (Better still with a better antenna.) The user interface is clumsy, especially to adjust the squelch, but its not too hard to learn in a day or two of using it. Sound quality is good. Its a really good basic analog scanner, especially considering its small enough to easily take just about anywhere. I do have a couple complaints... it takes 7 or 8 seconds to turn on and boot up before received audio starts coming from the speaker. I think thats too long. And, there isnt much useful info on the display while its scanning your programmed frequencies. It only says Bank 1 or Bank 2 etc. while its scanning. You cant change the name of the bank to something more helpful, like HAM or Aviation for instance. So you have to remember what youve programmed into each bank. I hope your memory is better than mine. It has to stop on an active frequency before the display will show the channel, the frequency, and whatever label youve assigned. Otherwise just the word SCAN scrolls across the display. These complains are minor, but still a bit annoying. BTW, one reason I bought it was to see if having a CB radio in the car would be helpful for long trips. After a weeks driving on the interstate while scanning the CB channels, the answer seems to be no.

I am going to write a good honest review on this scanner and not rate it a perfect 5 just because I bought it! First off, I will list the negatives. 1. It only comes with a USB cord for recharging it or powering it. I think that is disgusting that Uniden is so cheap they cant throw in a $5 AC Wall Charger with that cord. Yes, you can hook that cheap cord up to a PC providing your PC is left on and charge or power your Uniden. But it is just so much simpler and easier to plug it into an outlet! 2. It only is made for 2 rechargeable or alkaline AA batteries. Most of the older scanners or even new ones have 3 or 4 batteries providing more using time before recharging or changing them. 3. I am old fashioned and would much rather prefer an AC-DC power supply over this USB thing! Yes, it requires a learning curve and can be complicated until you have the patience to take the baby steps and learn all the functions. If you realize you are the kind of person that has a hard time programming a DVD recorder or VCR, this is not for you. You should have known better before you bought it! Now for the good points: 1. The volume is surprisingly loud, crisp and clear for that small of a radio. 2. It has a very nice, large display screen that you can easily see and read. 3. I think it is fantastic that a $112 scanner can be programmed to have an alpha-numeric display for all your frequencies. It is so nice seeing what that frequency is, instead of trying to remember the numbers. 4. It also offers Ctcss which is a simple code you can program with each frequency to block others from interfering on that same frequency. 5. For those of you that can handle a scanner with a learning curve, this scanner has many things to offer you once you get into the programming modes. You can customize the close call for various bands to monitor and activate the DND, (Do not Disturb) so it doesnt interfere with frequencies you are listening to. A 4 is a decent, honest review on this scanner considering the positives and negatives I found. There is only one handheld Analog Scanner I would rate a perfect 5. That is the former Gre-Psr 310. That scanner pretty much done the same as this one except it went all the way up to 1300 MHz and this one only covers to 500. The Gre 310 had more batteries which allowed it to stay on longer before charging or changing. It also had a regular power receptacle on it for charging or powering the unit instead of this USB thing. Whistler is now taking over Gre/Radio Shacks line of previous scanners but doesnt have that model in their lineup yet. When they do, I would take that model in a heartbeat over the Uniden BC-125 even if it was $50 more. For the money, this Uniden 125 is probably the best ANALOG scanner CURRENTLY on the market.

Like all cheap electronics this scanner has convoluted cryptic programming. It has those annoying multiple function keys that force you to do all manner of key pressing. You know the routine, press 1 then 4, then 5 which turns the 8 key into enter, but if you press 1 then 5, then 4, the 8 key becomes a delete key. In this case, you have to press and hold the HOLD key, enter a channel number, then press E (for enter). There is no acknowledgement of your entry. If you make a mistake entering any data, your only option is to clear the entire entry and start over, so you had better get it right the first time. If you are lucky enough to program your channel, you cannot simply go on to the next, you have to exit, then start all over from scratch. By the way, the instruction manual does not tell you that the volume key is used to scroll through the menu, as well as scroll through the alphabet when you enter labels for the channels. Speaking of the volume knob, it serves three separate functions depending on how many times you press it, and as usual there is no indication of what mode it is in, you just have to rotate it and see what happens. I programmed a few channels to scan interesting frequencies at Fort Lauderdale Airport. When I was finished, I pushed the scan button, and nothing happened except for a message that said all channels were locked out. I returned to the set-up menu and scrolled down to the unlock all channels and selected it. Still nothing. In other words, I now have a $115 chunk of useless plastic cluttering my house. This is definitely not a user-friendly device, so you had better keep the user manual within easy reach if you expect to use this scanner in the future. The only problem with that plan is that the user manual really sucks. It explains how to do the basic set up (sort of) But it offers no help if you want to change any settings once programmed, for that you are on our own using trial and error. As for me, it is winging its way back to Amazon as I write this review. I am not looking to learn a whole new programming language just to use what should be a simple scanner.

Is a decent analog radio

From Pittsburgh PA I can hear transmissions as far away as Interstate 80!!! And this area is full of hills and valleys, but this little radio was still able to pull those signals in. Scanning through the channels I hear a whole new world of conversations I didnt even know existed. I especially like the ability to scan for strong transmissions close by. It locks on and lets you know what is in your area. This feature can be turned off so that you can just run up and down a frequency range without being interrupted by strong signals you would rather ignore. A bunch of namable programmable channels means I wont lose interesting signals I may find while roaming through the hundreds of frequencies. A word of warning to you guys who like to just pick up a new toy and run with it... Read the manual!!! It will save you time and frustration! Once I understood the way Uniden had their menu scheme laid out, working with this radio was easy. This is my first real professional scanner and it took me a little bit of time to understand what I had purchased. But once I got the hang of it, I didnt want to put it down! Im still learning all the features, (havent tried to connect it to my computer yet), and can hardly wait to take it out to a sporting event. I know it is almost trivial, but the detachable antenna makes for easy travel. That was a nice touch. I can put it in my pocket with no worries about breakage. Uniden packed a lot of good things in this little radio for a fair price. I’m very happy with this purchase.

This scanner is inexpensive for what it does. I purchased the scanner only to monitor ATC and other aircraft since I am a SUAS pilot. It works for what it need it for. The charging is a bit slow, but not a huge obstacle for me.

YouTube setup helped- but it was still difficult to set up, in our rural area we have quite a bit of static I purchased a “better antenna but really didn’t help”.

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.

The BC125AT is a fine analog only scanner. The sensitivity on receive is very good. Almost as good as my Icom R30 which is hundreds of dollars more. The scan rate is typical of other scanners and I dedicate one of my BC125AT scanners for military air on 225-380 Mhz AM and it works very well for that. Of course, using good quality coax like LMR-400, a military air band tuned antenna on the roof, or a discone, and a 225-400 MHz filter really helps. Additionally, most scanners /receivers are plagued by interference from FM broadcast stations that transmit using an incredible amount of watts. Every scanner user should have an FM Broadcast filter inline on their coax. The FM filters range from $20 to $100. *The BC125AT is not a digital scanner. It will not decode P25, DMR, NXDN, D-Star, C4FM, etc. It will never have a firmware upgrade to enable that. It will also never decode encrypted audio. I never charge my batteries in my scanners. I adjust the battery settings to alkaline so that it never charges the batteries even if rechargeable. I use an external charger for my batteries. I also use an external USB battery bank to keep it powered up for long periods of time when remote. At home I leave the BC125AT powered on 24/7 via the USB power port. It also programs using the same USB power cable. For programming I use Scan125 made by a guy in the U.K. The software is free. The only thing I regret is not buying one earlier. It works well enough for my needs that I purchased another. Military air to air or air to ground communications are quick. With two or more scanners one can split (not share) the frequencies in order to increase odds of hearing something. I do not use the antenna that came with it. I always use after market antennas. An all around good one is the Diamond RH77CA. For military air I use a Diamond RH951S. I swept it with an analyzer and the results were so good I purchased another, compared to the RH77CA and many other handheld flexible antennas.