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 should have done my due diligence BEFORE buying this item. The equipment works well enough BUT the laws have changed dramatically since I was a kid. Most police agencies now use only encrypted vehicle-to-vehicle transmission. Seems like many emergency crews (fire and rescue, marine and air too) are going the same route. So not much traffic to pick up. No longer possible to listen in on the day-to-day chatter among police or fire crews in my area. (Southern California). Before YOU buy this unit, Google the frequencies in your area so you know how many are encrypted ... its likely that you wont be able to pick up much real-time emergency chatter anymore either.

well it is a good handheld scanner, indoor use or handheld works pretty good. pick up police frequency with no problem. loud and clear. store frequency is easy. scan function is good. HOWEVER, dont try to use it in a car. i keep it in my car and while the car is moving in town, the result is not good anymore. so if you would like to use it in car, consider using an additional long car scanner antenna for it. i m guessing it would helps a lot. but overall, this is a good scanner.

The scanner works fine, as portable scanners go. However, after about 2 years, the display went wonky, so I can only see pieces of the numbers to know what channel a call is coming in on. Im a news reporter, so its helpful to know what agency is being called out to a situation. I was looking through here, thinking I would just buy a new one, when I saw that there is downloadable software that can be used to program the scanner! YAY! Except that its only for Windows, and I have all Apple products. So, unless youre on a Windows platform, dont get too excited about the software. Not sure why software for an analog scanner has conform to either windows or mac, since the scanner is clearly neither.

Nice little unit, worked as expected. The only comment is the programming of the unit was a pain in the a*&. I ended up using the computer / USB interface to program it. I had to learned the hard way to save my work on my computer before sending it to the scanner, and remember every time I added new channels I had to work off of the old setup / profile or I lost the channels I had already setup. Nice little option for the money. I would have given it five stars if the programming was easier. I never did get one channel programmed off the units keypad itself, and the instructions really didnt help me.

This thing works perfectly. Im using it to feed a scannerradio.com feed for a local PD. Yes, its an incredible under utilization for a scanner like this, but Im providing a service to my neighbors and thats okay for me. Either way, its one of the least expensive scanners that can do what Im doing, and I find it works great. Word of caution, scanning correctly can actually be kind of difficult to get setup correctly. Its not really meant for people that dont have some computer-type skills, or someone available to them that can help set it up.

Basic scanner. Still love it

I bought the Uniden BC75XLT after doing a lot of research on scanners. I bought it to use at NASCAR events. I have never used a scanner before purchading this one. It was very easy to use and set up. I felt like a pro in no time. I was listening to weather, police, fire within minutes due to the presets in this scanner. I got a list of frequencies for nascar and was able to easily program and store each frequency to correspond with the car number. I took it to a race a week ago and it worked flawlessly. I recommended it to a lot of people who are looking for scanners.

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.

It is the best scanner for your money.

Scanner works great, using it as a back-up to my Bearcat BC355C. Only 2 drawbacks really: 1/ The rechargeable batteries only last a day (perhaps I need new ones) and 2/ Sometimes I miss and hit the wrong key and the radio goes into the Lock-Out mode. A bit annoying, as I have to go find the manual to unlock it. Sometimes even when following the guidelines in the manual I cant get it unlocked. I swear, one day Im going to use a hammer. And finally, dont expect too much from the stock antenna. Like any other similar type it has its limitations. If you want to hear more, connect the radio to a ground plane base antenna, when you are at home, of course. Dont risk walking around outside with a ground plane antenna, people will think yourre nuts. UPDATE - 2018 . The lcd display has started to go. The first digit is no longer there, so 123.45 reads 23.45.