Uniden Bearcat BC75XLT Handheld Scanner, 300 Channels, 10 banks, Close Call Technology, PC Programable, NOAA Weather, Aviation, Marine, Railroad, NASCAR, and Non-Digital Police/Fire/Public Safety

I saw some reviews that described this scanner as not being able to get good reception on distant transmissions or good battery life. Well,, I get aircraft traffic from an airport 10 miles away not to mention my local airport 5 miles to the south. I have had the radio on for 3 days for 2-3 hours at a time until the low battery alert came on. This is a nice little scanner and the volume is loud at full blast. I also live in an aluminum sided mobile home and it works great inside the house too. I have not done much scanning with it as I know each frequency that I want to listen to so cannot comment on this function other than it picks up our local police just fine.

There is nothing wrong with the actual device. Im using it to listen to railroad communications. I live about 3.5 miles from the rail lines and I get a decent signal after adding a different antenna. Its easy enough to carry in my car when Im at the tracks taking video or photos. The instructions are a little vague so I watched some YouTube videos and that helped out a lot. Im using regular Amazon brand AA batteries and am getting a decent run time. I also live next to a small airport so I can listen to some of the communications from the small aircraft. The issues I have are that most of the police/fire departments around my area have gone digital and thus, this wont work for them. So again, there is nothing wrong with the actual device. Just know what your area has before you get caught up in the Police, Fire advertising/description and avoid disappointment. I havent really had any good luck with weather info and quite frankly its just easier to use my smartphone to get actual weather information. So I dont see that as a selling point either. I do wish there was a way to have the back-light of the screen to be on longer than it is. Too often its hard to see what the station is when Im using the search mode to then lock in that station. Overall, its a decent enough first time scanner for me.

I really like the scanner and have used it a number of times. I mainly bought it for rail fanning and listening to train conversations. It seems to have an excellent range, but I have trouble understanding a lot of the conversation because the radio appears to pick up the signal but not at full strength. Not sure if it is a function of the radio or the transmission itself. Regadless, I am happy with it. The radio is well built and very sturdy. Antennae attaches snugly and easily. There is a fairly steep learning curve with regard to programming the unit, so I am working on that. This is my first experience with a hand held scanner, so I am part of the problem! I do recommend the radio, especially for the quality you get at that price point. Great value.

I bought this scanner based on the good reviews and fairly low price. I wanted something decent but not astronomical in price, but not cheep either. I have hardy been able to use it. I have tried so many different rechargeable batteries it isnt funny and NONE of them work for more than 5 or 10 minutes before the unit starts beeping and flashing the low battery warning. I take the batteries out and test them and they ALL show fully charged. Im not using cheep batteries either. I am a photographer and use expensive batteries in my equipment and even those dont work in this thing. Regular batteries with the switch on Alkaline work fine, but Im not going to go through batteries every other week to keep the thing running. The worst part is Unidens customer service. I have submitted two warranty claims with them because apparently the didnt get the first one because I never even got so much as an automated response after filling out the form. After filing a second claim, I did get an automated response with return instructions. I questioned the return shipping policy on a warranty claim and never got a response. Then my claim was marked as closed. I have been dealing with their warranty department for months and had I known they would be so bad, I would have just returned it to Amazon... now its way too late to do that. Having been in and around the fire service all my life, I always thought Uniden to be a reputable company. Now Im not so sure.

We bought this to take to a Nascar race for the ability to tune into the racers channels and hear what is being said. This was a pretty easy device to program. I simply looked up the Nascar line up, found a YouTube video to show me HOW to turn this, and then input the correct numbers as needed. It worked just fine and doesnt seem to use much battery usage at all.

For the price, this thing works great. I am a rail enthusiast, and this thing works great for use in the car when Im out looking for trains. The only thing I will say to detract from it is that the antenna that comes with the unit is not the best for any one frequency range just because of the design. An antenna designed to pick up such a wide range of frequencies is just not going to receive as well as one cut specifically for that frequency. Id recommend investing in an antenna more specifically attuned to the frequencies youll be scanning, but other than that, this is an excellent little scanner for the price!

Looked at all the reviews before buying. 1. The manual is almost useless. 2. I am in central NJ and those that say the scanner will not pick up police are incorrect. Only 1, which is out of my range anyway was encrypted. Was able to pick up virtually everything. Didnt matter about 800mhz. At first, I looked at the manual, turned the scanner on and DID get frustrated, All lock out and just static...You just need to start entering the channels you want! How to do it, you go to the INTERNET-Google: Program scanner (and your model),... mine was UnidenBC75XLT. Click video, which I like, or anything you like and you will see it is so easy. I now programed in to start 35 frequencies(police dispatch, fire, EMS, etc. which you, again, can find/search online frequencies in your area. I now am hearing things going on around me in real time that I would not have otherwise known about...Things like in my area yesterday...male shot in the face and chest, all units respond, MERCY respond, cancel MERCY, B and E broken sliding glass door, burglary in progress, car accident with vehicle upside-down and occupant still inside, etc. Good to know whats going on around us. (for my Uniden scanner which uses AA batteries,...better to get recharge batteries and charger because with continuous use they only last at the most 6 hours). But I always have fully charged batters ready to replace.

Nice little scanner that does the job - so far, so good. The instructions are very detailed, so you have to pay attention to them in order to get the scanner up and running properly. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the features before jumping in and trying to make it work. If you jump right in, you will become frustrated very quickly. Also, the antenna that comes with it did not pick up any reception in my location. I picked up the UpBright 16 Dual Band antenna, hooked it up and it picked up reception instantly.

Programming the device is a bit challenging. Programming thru a connected computer may be easier, but requires purchased software. Uniden should provide the software gratis. And the scanner SHOULD be usable while charging, battery life is short. Works well, good reception here in mountain valley until recharge requires shutdown.

Also, this particular scanner, is not a digital scanner, like it is listed. It is analog. I am on able to pick up anything, in my area. TI just wish as a blind person that the blind erson could program the scanner without sighted help. I dont remember the brand name of the scanner but you can program it and it talks