Uniden BC350C 800 MHz Mobile Scanner
by Uniden
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List Price: Our Price: $107.14 You Save: $42.85 (29%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Uniden BC350C 800 MHz Mobile Scanner
Customer Review: Fun and interesting toy for an amateur like me
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought my first scanner from a local Church sale about two years ago. It was a crystal based Regency brand, that luckily had all of the correct crystals for the St. Louis area. I was hooked.
To this day I would never consider myself an afficionado or an expert, but I dabble around a bit, so take this review in that context.
I bought this Bearcat BC350C scanner as a birthday present to myself just a few days ago and it's a blast. Parts of the interface are undeniably clunky. Selecting to listen for just the Police or EMS/Fire bands is easy, but programming stuff is a bit icky. It's not complex, just slow - I'd rather be able punch in a frequency and store it, but this requires you to find a frequency first, THEN store it in the "Private" bank.
Anyway, for something you want to pop right out of the box and have work as advertised? Well . . .
Within minutes I was listening to a helicopter overhead ("What's the radar look like ... garble, garble"), picking up the local bus service ("She said she put a $20 bill in the box but I wasn't looking"), and hearing the local gendarmes being dispatched to quell a domestic dispute ("Subject is a white female, attempting to break into the house. Lots of shouting, both are unarmed"). I even picked up one of our neighbor's child monitors!
This really is best used while sitting down, rather than as a mobil unit; nonetheless, I dragged it into my car (hook up was trivial with included DC lighter plugin) and tooled down the rainy highways on a Monday, listening on the police band for reported accidents (I could make out about half a dozen).
From my reading, I know there are better scanners, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the BC350C for other beginners like myself. Sit down and read the manual while you're playing with it, and you'll get the hang of things pretty quickly. If you've never listened to scanners, give yourself a little bit of time to develop an ear. I also recommend that you keep a pad and pencil nearby to jot down interesting frequencies you can usually look up on the Internet later (search for your state and the phrase "scanner frequencies").
You might move up and onward in scanner-dom, and this nifty little gadget is likely to just be your introductory toy to the exciting world of the electro-magnetic spectrum!
Customer Review: Super basic scanner
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this scanner to listen solely to the air band in my area. It took about 15 minutes to set up the radio and program in the ten or so frequencies I needed. Reception was good. It was at first a little difficult to delete frequencies--essentially you have to overwrite a frequency you wish to delete--it's not as simple as deleting it. But no biggie, because once I have the frequencies I need in the radio, very little reason to change.
I have connected the scanner to a very simple AM/FM roof antenna, and now can hear jets 40-50 miles away as they pass through 24000 feet. So this scanner is excellent for what I need--just to pull in a few channels. It has no luxury functions, is just a robust, plain vanilla scanner.
Customer Review: A scanner with good operation and size for the price
Summary: 4 Stars
A good scanner with very good audio sound. The BC350C is a very good size for a table or desk.
It has limit search and every police,fire,air,cb band with plenty of freqency coverage. The Price is
also very good. the scanner doesn't have a keyboard to type in a frequency but, which is ok with
me. I like to scan,find, and store freguencies. If you want a keyboard and trunking another scanner
would be a better choice for you, but if you are a beginner , or just want a basic scanner for fun or
basic needs for a decent price this is a very good choice.
Customer Review: great price, easy to program
Summary: 4 Stars
i'm a volunteer firefighter and bought this scanner so my wife could hear what is going on at the firescene. this scanner is priced very low compared to other sites. the bearcat is very easy to program once you read the directions. my only issue is that the scanner picks up dispatch but has a problem receiving radio traffic from the trucks and they are on the same frequency. i have tried the squelch settings in different positions. i'm afraid that i may need to buy a antenna for mounting outside.
i am overall pleased with this purchase.
Customer Review: Listen
Summary: 4 Stars
Great little scanner. The biggest drawback is it does not have a numberical entry keypad so an existing frequency must be selected then you scroll up or down to the desired frequency (it can then be saved). Since I like to enter my frequencies in ascending order this works fairly well, albeit a little slow.
I also like the preset bands. This allows exploration as well as instant use when in a new area.
Sitting by the scanner monitoring the preset bands is a good way to discover local freqs and enter them into my own band.