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

In the old days you could buy these and instantly be listening to emergency calls. This was difficult to learn and will not pick up the new digital signals (unless someone can show me otherwise). Returned

So Far so Good! Listening to my local Tower almost right out of the box (with some reading of the directions)

The Bearcat BC75XLT is a great starter scanner for the beginner. I am finding this device to be a huge asset when it comes to knowing what is going on around me. Search my name, the make and model of this scanner on Youtube for a complete in-depth video presentation. Features I like about this radio: * Searching through the VHF/UHF frequencies is very fast. * 300 Memory Channels * Priority Channel mode. * Close Call mode. * Great reception when compared to my other HTs. * Customized Search feature that can be done directly on the radio. * Ten Service Bands, makes finding certain frequencies that much quicker. * Delay...oh how you need this. * Good build quality. * Uses 2 AA batteries, either Alkaline or NiMH. * Smart Charger built in for the NiMH batteries. * USB power can supply the radio enough power to run without battteries. * USB connectivity to the computer for downloading and uploading data to the scanner. Free software download. * Included USB cable. * Headphone jack is excellent, no noise, clean sound. * Nice and evenly lit LCD display. * Scanning stored channels is a breeze, and can be customized. * Temporary and Permanent lock out feature. * Informative Manual, lots of detail. Features that could be added or improved on: * A separate squelch knob would be fantastic. * A monitor button. * A full stop on frequency when searching. This would be nice so you dont have to have your finger resting on the hold button all the time. Overall, for the cost of this portable scanner, I am very impressed and recommend this as a first scanner to purchase and learn with. Just enough to keep you busy for months. I am surprised by the amount of analog activity that still exists around me.

I bought 2 of these which were said to be used. They were brand new, still in the box. One still had teh plastic across the face, and the other didnt. Both worked amazing from the start and work BETTER than my Realistic Pro107. I put a stronger antenna (less than $4 on ebay) and can pick up over 50 miles away! I love the computer program feature which got me over 200 channels. I can now pick up everything in the surrounding area and can hear the ambulances! I also pick up fire, railroad traffic, and all the police, county sheriff, and highway patrol. Im beyond happy with my purchase from Amazon!

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.

Scanner works great, we bought it since we were going to a NASCAR race and wanted to listen to the driver and crew radios. Bonus was we also got to listen to the race broadcast (less commercials...it was great hearing the announcers tell what they really thought during the commercial breaks). The problem is PROGRAMMING the thing. While I could get 3-4 channels programmed into the thing, it seemed to be more by luck than by following the directions. I also couldnt really get it to prioritize the crew channels over the broadcast channel (since the broadcast was nonstop) even using the priority mode (at least Im pretty sure I had the channel I wanted on priority. I havent used it since the race (and I plan on using it to monitor police, fire, and railroad) mainly because I want to find either a video or instructions that make more sense.

Ive had mine perhaps a year or two. Bought it to listen to railroad chatter on trips. The first time I traveled, I wound up putting it away because I couldnt figure out how to use it at all and I was pretty annoyed. The second time I traveled, I figured out that watching YouTube videos helped (especially when adding the word railfanning to the search), as did writing the Uniden tech support, where an employee really went the extra mile to try to be helpful. An individual named Charles explained things in plain English and was patient with my ignorance. I still had a little trouble, frankly. Then I learned that I could use it easily enough at home with a bit of a shortcut--pressing the function key (which is orange) and then the Svc button. By pressing those two buttons, I did not have to program anything but I automatically got to hear transmissions within range of us. That is all I had to do. So this is something like simply playing movies on ones VCR, DVD player, Blu-Ray player, etc., without even trying to use all the extra functions. The manual isnt all that useful as a guide even though it does label buttons and so forth. I had to acquire somewhat of a knowledge base before I understood what the manual meant (this is not the first time I had this experience with a manual). To be fair, I just didnt know anything about scanners, electronics, ham radios, etc. As far as I could tell at the time, this seemed to be the highest rated radio of its kind (in its price range) and the most talked about, and apart from the expected updated model of this same unit, that still seems to be the case. At the same time, there is a bit of a hurdle when it comes to entry into this type of hobby. We do not receive police transmissions. It seems that those in our area are encrypted now, so we wont be getting them. In a fairly highly populated city, there is still a limited amount to listen to (I am using the stock antenna) but we do get weather reports and a few other things. If I expected nonstop talking and wanted to listen to it for an extended time, I would have been disappointed (but that wasnt my particular interest). We turn it on around dinnertime and listen to the weather, etc. for ten minutes or so. Realistic expectations all around may be the key to enjoying this radio, which we now do. Now that I finally know more about how to use it, I am hoping that I will be able to listen to railroad chatter on our next train trip. That is the real reason I got it and I havent been able to do that yet. There are a number of YouTube videos that explain how to listen--which I didnt know when I bought this. Its helpful but still not a straight path to success. As for the unit itself, it seems fairly durable and it appears to work as intended. The buttons do require some pressure when you push them to get a response but that seems more or less like a good thing. Be aware of the button you need to slide inside the unit to indicate whether your batteries are rechargeable or not (its not hard). I am not a patient person and usually return electronics that I cannot quickly figure out. So it has been a bit strange that I have picked this up from time to time and tried again to use it. All in all, would probably buy the same unit all over again. Knowing that all I had to do was pick it up and press the two keys I mentioned earlier would have been of considerable help. But, from my experience as a novice, this isnt really an easy hobby to get started with, and if one wants to, some trial and error, with a considerable amount of non success, may be called for enroute to this goal. Up until now, I sort of regretted buying it. Reading the Dummies on two-way radios and scanners (this is not a two-way radio but the book has some content on scanners) helped me understand some of the backstory that eventually helped me use this. So, I wouldnt say dont buy it but I would say understand what the path may be like if you dont have related expertise, and go from there.

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.

I purchased this for my Sisters Birthday. Unfortunately I ordered it in April. When she opened it yesterday on her Birthday May 30th, this will not work in our citys upgraded digital system. We are on the 700mhz digital system now and this only goes to 500mhz. My sister was a police officer and wanted a scanner to listen too calls. I am sure this is a nice scanner, but it will not work here in this Louisiana town. Please help not sure what to do now...

Fortunately, I have had a lot of experience with police scanners. This one worked right out of the box once I programmed it and put batteries in it. Was easy to program using the keypad on the unit itself. I have heard that it can be programmed using a computer, but I havent tried that yet. But it works fine and was easy to set up. For those reviewers that did not seem to be able to figure it out, all I have to say to that is you actually have to be smarter than the box the unit came out of. It is so simple. I didnt even read the owners manual when I set it up, and I was able to do it. There is nothing wrong with this unit and it is easy to set up, and yes, it works great. UPDATE: I just installed the software from the Uniden website to program this scanner using my computer, and I have to say programming the scanner using my computer is so much easier, especially when adding a new bank of frequencies. Anyone that has trouble programming this, Uniden does have a good YouTube video that will walk you through it, which you can also get from the Uniden website. I found it by using Google. Way to easy.