Review on 📻 Uniden Bearcat BC125AT Handheld Scanner: 500-Alpha-Tagged Channels, Close Call Tech, PC Programmable, Aviation, Marine, Railroad, NASCAR, Racing, Public Safety by Deejay Devarashetty

I had a 25 year old Radio Shack Scanner with 10 channels (not 10 bank) and it was time for an upgrade. I live in rural Northern California and am a retired volunteer firefighter. My wife and I rely on our scanner to keep up to date with local emergencies. I chose the Uniden BC125AT after helping a friend program it. I found a number of things that helped me in my decision: GOOD • Good sound. The filtering in this scanner made it possible to filter out static noise from various electronic devices in our house. • Compact size and comfortable to hold. • Programming and labeling of alphanumeric channels. The ability to add captions to each channel that appears on screen during the broadcast makes it easier to understand what's really happening. I can immediately know what the control center is sending. • The free Windows software available on the Uniden website (link in the user manual) allowed me to quickly and easily enter the desired frequencies along with the name for each channel, save them to a file on my computer, and then upload the file to the scanner. With ten separate banks of 505 channels each, it was easy to create separate banks for fire, police, aerial fire suppression, and even separate banks for local city emergency resources. After programming a friend's device, I received mine within two days and it only took a few seconds to download the data onto my BC125AT. It's very easy to disable each of the banks, so you can disable all but one bank, for example, where you program local fire resources. • Scan all banks, scan one bank, or select a channel to scan. In an emergency, it's nice to only hear the main fire control channel, and this feature is easy to select. • Multifunctional "volume control”. The rotary knob has many functions including volume control, noise reduction adjustment, scrolling through channels stored in banks. • Adjusting and reducing screen brightness POOR (or at least not that good) • The included batteries are decent, but Uniden's charger only sets the time in hours. Insert a fully charged pair of cells and connect the Uniden. If the charger is set to charge for six hours, it will charge for that period. This will overheat the batteries, which can shorten their lifespan. Yours are quite warm to the touch, but not dangerous yet. I recommend keeping a set of charged spare batteries and swapping them out when needed. • It charges via USB cable and only charges the batteries when the device is switched off. When the BC125AT is powered on, the batteries will not charge. When switched off, charging will continue and work for the duration selected in the menu system. • When I bought this, Revain's warranty information link was to an old Uniden PDF page from 2010 that said the unit had a 3 (three) year warranty. THAT IS NOT RIGHT. The printed manual that came with the scanner (© 2012) states that it has a one (1) year warranty. I called Uniden today (06/08/2018) and this information was confirmed. • User manual could be better. It's a powerful unit and can do many things. Accessing most menu systems requires a few keystrokes. In the manual, these descriptions are described in somewhat more complex text than necessary. Flowcharts for each function would be MUCH better. I know I've written user guides and created flowcharts for similar programming systems and features. CONCLUSION I only give this device 4 instead of 5 stars because of the outdated battery charging system. Other than that, it's a very good scanner for less than $100. I recommend purchasing an extended warranty so you have more than a year of protection. A NOTICE. The accompanying PDF warranty file found on the Revain sales page when purchasing this scanner states that the warranty is three (3) years. NO, THAT IS NOT SO! This PDF is from 2010. The ©2012 User Guide that came with the scanner states that the warranty period is one (1) year. I checked this with Uniden customer service.