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

I purchased this scanner for my car. It came with everything you need car adapter, plug, etc the concern I have is on the back of the scanner it states 13.8 volts and is going to be plugged into a 12 volt adapter. Although most cars I know of are 12 volts but because my vehicle which is a Subaru is very sensitive I called customer service at Uniden to explain the 13.8 volts, One agent said he did not know then referred me to email in which I did with no response, I called again and the agent indicated wire it to the battery. What was strange to me is that both agents stated this scanner is not for a car even though the manual states you can use it in a vehicle with the plug in adapter or hard wire it. Bottom line, my questions where not answered completely and will have to hard wire it to the battery even though I did not want to do that.

Easy to program once you figure it out sounds great no issue receiving transmissions.

Would not buy again.

Do a search online for what frequencies your town uses for fire and police. radio reference dot com is the one I used. Go down the list and find your town, to the right of your town , in the mode section if it says P25= this scanner will NOT work. means its Digital/private. This is a analog machine. If however it says FM under mode area for your town, you WILL get that station just fine, meaning its analog. You can buy scanners that pick up the P25 digital mode but they are alot more money. Hope this helps new customers in deciding as my town has the police in p25 mode and i cannot listen with this machine, but the fire is in fm so i can listen. ..........im still learning, but as for trying to GET TO A SPECIFIC STATION=... hit the band button and toggle it to the basic area you want say 100 to 200 , now hit scan, soon as your near the number you looking for hit the HOLD BUTTON, and use the up or down arrows to get to it. thats all, when someone talks on that , it will come on automatically. ........ as for saving a favorite to your bank... same deal as above, go to Bank, select the area you want example 100-200, search, soon as near number hit HOLD, use up down to get to number you want...Now hit the PROG button, then hit the PRIVATE BUTTON..there you can put it in the bank you want(it blinks to select a bank think you ca nstore 100 on here or something) now Hit PROGRAM again , and it saves it ..so next time you can just hit private and your saved banks of liked frequencies are over there, .. mine just wont work right with my saved ones but im not sure if it will listen to all my saved ones when one is activated or what yet as still learning this machine(grumbles lol) also that cc weird thing on bottom left I read will go to any live talk or something, non stop?, in reviews above, but i havent tried it out yet. Well thats all for now, if I figure anything more , ill update this post if need.

Very simple scanner. its a Christmas present for my father. The only down side is the light does not have a dim function. They have cats and i love that the controls are on the front. Prevents pets from walking across and messing it up. I am also using the bracket to secure it to the mantle where it will be installed so it can not be knocked off and destroyed by clumsy cats or people. It does take a little while to learn to program but there are videos to help. You may want to get a stronger antenna.

Doesn’t pick up any local DIGITAL bands. This product is for analog only so if you are at home wanting to listen to local police, fire and EMT this is NOT what you want…

It’s a great scanner over all. Programming is a little to hard for a beginners. I really like it’s low profile making it easy to move around from place to place. They have included all the cables in the package. It’s well worth the money. I am going to recommend it to anyone looking for a quality scanner.

This is a no frills basic scanner that works great for anyone in an area that has police and fire still on analog frequencies. Really simple to program; dont believe the naysayers that say it isnt. A simple 3 minute youtube video showed me how to do it. Its a bit time consuming and repetitive but very very easy once you know how. If you plan to listen to over 25 or so frequencies right of the bat, you might want to invest in a programming cable and download programming software. Also, it does have a TOTAL of 300 slots to program frequencies BUT 200 of these are under the Air/Marine slot. It is a bit confusing and if you want to listen to more than 100 frequencies and have to spill over to the Air/Marine presets, you will have to set the scanner to scan your private frequencies along with both the Air and Marine band presets. Its confusing I know, but it DOES have 300 memory slots. If some folks read the free downloadable user manual before purchasing, they would have known that. If you are listening to that many frequencies though, you should probably invest in a better, higher end scanner that has a larger custom memory bank. Its pretty small and takes up very little space on my nightstand and workbench. Worthwhile if you are like me and only listen to around 15 or 20 of the local police/fire/EMS frequencies. If that is all you are looking for out of your scanner, this will do the job. Upon arrival, the box included the scanner, a base telescopic antenna that plugs straight into the back (works well for me, your results may vary with location), a mobile mounting bracket with several feet of fused power wire, a DC cigarette power adapter for quick plug and go mobile installation, and finally a second antenna. The second antenna is basically a copper wire with suction cups on both ends and several feet of coax attached to it. According to the directions, you basically suction cup the antenna to the inside windshield on the passenger side of the vehicle or to the rear widow if you drive a standard cab truck. I currently use it in my basement window to gain better reception during the evening when I am working downstairs in my concrete surrounded shop space. Having an additional antenna stuck up in the window really helps improve the reception. Overall, its simple, it works, and its not crazy expensive because of too many bells and whistles I wont use.

The sound is terrible. Sound like it’s coming out of a tube

I purchased this scanner because it has a private bank i.e.; you can program your favorite frequencies into this band, and turn off all other banks. The private bank only holds 100 frequencies. This might be an issue if you live in or near a very large city. Its not an issue for me, and probably not for most people. Programming wasnt all that hard to figure out. Just follow the instructions in the owners manual. It has a weather band and has all 7 NOAA bands. Scanner comes with a telescoping antenna, and uses a standard BNC connector. It has a frequency lock out feature. Permanent and temporary. Turbo search (180 steps per second). 7 banks total. 6 pre-programmed 1 private band. Close call i.e.; checks for strong nearby signals while monitoring other frequencies. This is a great feature when you are monitoring a band that has some activity but not a lot. Im not going to use it as a mobile device, but it comes with everything you would need to go mobile, including a window mount antenna. Scanner does not have internal battery backup. I guess if you loose your house power, you can plug it into your vehicle. Use an external speaker. Ive owned several scanners and all their internal speakers pretty much suck. Ive had this scanner for 2 months, and overall, Im very satisfied.