Uniden BC355N 800 MHz 300-Channel Base/Mobile Scanner, Close Call RF Capture, Pre-programmed Search “Action” Bands to Hear Police, Ambulance, Fire, Amateur Radio, Public Utilities, Weather, and More, Black

This scanner can tune almost any of the legal bands above 10 meters including CB! Does not scan HF/IF/LF ham bands due to its portability. Pulls even more signals if you add a mag mount VHF/UHF outside antenna. Only drawback: it does not have a keypad to direct-enter frequencies, but I guess thats why its a scanner. Top of its class!

You will know whats going on with this radio

I do like it but I just cant program the scanner

Although this scanner is compact and seems senitive, it is poorly designed. It claims to be 300 channels, BUT this is misleading. 100 channels are shared between Marine Band and Aircraft. In order to use these channels you must let it scan through the pre-programmed frequencies first. On aircraft that means it takes 27 seconds before you even get to your frequencies. In my case, all 27 seconds were dead channels. The same is true for Police &Fire except there are many more pre-programmed frequencies to scan through. If you turn these banks off you can only scan 100 channels. Unless you are willing to use this as a 100 channel scanner, the wait time of going through thousands of dead frequencies is ginormus! You better have the patience of a saint.

Live three miles out of town and it will not pick anything

This scanner after some time of playing around with became pretty easy to navigate. I knew from the start that it was analog but I didnt go digital because of the price difference. I thought that I would at least be able to pick up some local stations, but nothing. I live a good 45 minutes from NYC and I was picking up Brooklyn but nothing local. I will have to wait and get a digital scanner and see how it goes. I ended up returning the unit. I have to say though if you think your area is still running analog this scanner would be fine.

Bought this for myself then decided to give it to my son for Christmas. WE have such a horrible fire season here in Northern Calif, every home needs a scanner to know what is going on around them.

I was initially dissappointed with the reception using the included metal antenna. Connecting an outdoor dualband magmount antenna to my metal roof allowed the radio to receive aircraft as they fly by. The receiver works best with a outdoor antenna.

This is a hard review to write. I purchased this because as a CERT responder I wanted to know what was going on the Police, Fire, and Emergency channels. But so far the only channel I have received anything on is the Weather channel. I live near a large city in Southern Utah so it isnt like I am somewhere out in the boonies. Maybe the police, fire, and emergency people use a different range of frequencies than this radio is tuned for. I cant complain about the radio, but I am disappointed that I cant get the broadcasts I was hoping for.

Programming this thing is a nightmare.