Uniden Bearcat SR30C, 500-Channel Compact Handheld Scanner, Close Call RF Capture, Turbo Search, PC programable, NASCAR, Racing, Aviation, Marine, Railroad, and Non-Digital Police, Fire, Public Safety

This unit replaced another brand that broke at the antenna connector after a year of use. This model received local police traffic that the unit did not. It is also smaller and seems better built.

Brought this thinking that I could start doing a hobby I’ve been interested in for a while. I couldn’t figure out even after doing YouTube searches on it to get it out of all lock mode. Also couldn’t figure out how to get my local police feeds. Returned it a week later. After I sent customer support a message which they only say they respond via email, though they do have an 800 number. Call the 800 number and all it says is to email them. Not worth the money.

So, it may be weird that I like to fall asleep to a scanner; I have had a few through the years. This one is easy to setup, search and scan. Well worth the price.

…and good enough to do the job. This fills that bill. Probably not for you if your interest is police traffic. Not si ple to program on the scanner, but is easier to program from a PC. If you are some distance from the rail traffic, consider 6dB antenna.

I had an old Radio Shack scanner I had used for years, but my grandson is into airplanes, so I decided to give that one to him and replace it. There arent a lot of options, but I had heard of Uniden, so decided that was the way to go. My old Radshack unit wasnt easy to store frequencies in. I had to look at the manual every time. But at least I could understand the manual, and once configured, all I had to do was turn it on. The Uniden unit so far is a nightmare. I havent taken it out to see if I actually have frequencies stored, and I can see no way to find what is stored, if anything. Im not sure how to get it to scan the frequencies i have stored. I keep locking the screen for some unknown reason. I was supposed to be able to hook it up to my computer, but that doesnt work. Maybe if I can ever figure it out, Ill be happy, but right now, not so much. Im not sure if he scanner is that complicated, or the documentation is that bad. Maybe a little bit of both.

Works as advertised. You might want to watch some YouTube tutorials on programming the scanner.

The ONLY problem you are going to have with this scanner is programming it according to the instructions in the manual, because theyre not great. However, there are a ton of YouTube videos about this unit; watch one and youll be like yeah, this is super easy. The only reason I can think of why youd want a more upscale scanner is if your local police department uses digital radios - more and more departments go that way every year - and you want to listen to the cops. This one wont do that; the one that will is $339.49. This radio will tune in any kind of auto racing, plus weather, aviation, marine and railroad traffic. This can be programmed from a Windows PC; as I am a Mac person thats not an option for me, but programming it from the front panel is easy to do. This does not support Bluetooth out of the box. If you have a good pair of Bluetooth headphones, Amazon sells adapters for less than $20 that will interface your headphones to this scanner. For MOST purposes these are fine. For auto racing they are not - it is very loud at the speedway and you need isolation headphones, such as the Race Day Electronics headphones I bought from Amazon. Those are awesome. I use them for woodworking as well as going to races and they work well both places. BIG recommendation: buy Ni-MH batteries because that will save you a lot of cash. The scanner will recharge Ni-MH batteries so you dont need a separate charger. Program it before you go to the speedway so its ready for you when you get there. It will cost you $47.95 to rent a scanner at a race, and it must be returned when you leave. If you buy this scanner and a set of headphones, youll be saving money at your third race. AND its yours! Also consider: they dont rent scanners at airports or on Amtrak trains and that traffic is a lot of fun to listen to. Its really worth it to have your own scanner.

GOOD VALUE..

My mom wanted this to listen to. She don’t get out much because of the corona virus, so this gives her some kind of entertainment on what’s going on in the outside world of her town. Made her happy, and she could set it up herself, which was my main concern because I’m in a different state than her.

Seemed to work well for nascsr. Used the computer to program it because typing in individual frequency for 50 drivers was taking forever. Had to play with the settings quite a bit to get adequate reception. Instructions could be a little more clear. Overall it did its job of picking up the NASCAR driver radio broadcasts.