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

Programming can be a bit confusing to figure out at first but once programmed you wont need to do it anymore. A numeric keypad would have made it easier and faster than scrolling to look for the one you want to save. With the speaker being on the bottom of the unit you must use the fold-out stand to avoid the sound from being muffled and doing so makes the telescopic antenna extend at an angle instead of straight up so it takes up more space than its footprint would lead you to believe. But the unit is tiny so this shouldnt be an issue for most though I would assume that reception would be slightly better if the antenna was straight up and down instead of at an angle. Having small feet on all four corners or having the speaker come out of the top of the unit would have been a better idea. You can also use an external speaker to avoid this small issue. I have no idea on its range as I live relatively close to the repeaters in my town but it seems to do pretty well. I can hear car communications just fine too. Having 800MHz capabilities is not useful where I live but most scanners at this price point dont have that frequency range so it might be useful for some. CB is a feature that I will probably never use. I tried it and got nothing. CB is pretty much dead anyway. Overall its a decent scanner and you wont find very many others with all of the features that this one has at this price.

I convinced myself to upgrade to this Uniden scanner to replace my old & outdated Uniden BC350C 50 channel scanner. I bought this scanner because I needed more programmable channel space for my important frequencies other than just 50 channels which was all that my old scanner had or would let me program. When I received this scanner, I was quite happy getting ready to set it up & receive 250 more programmable channels & space for frequencies than my old, outdated Uniden scanner had. Once I got it set up & started programming my frequencies, I ran into a bad downgrade issue that I was not aware of when I purchased it. The downgrade of this scanner: It will let you program up to 300 frequencies into it as described but the real catch to this is that you can only program up to 100 channels/frequencies into the best & most useful bank on this scanner being the(Private) Bank but not 300 like I was expecting to be able to program into the (Private) bank. The other 200 programmable channels are only available in the following shared banks: PD/FD/EMG & AIR/MRN. What this means is that if you need to program more than 100 channels/frequencies onto this scanner, youll have to program the other +100 of your scanner frequencies into these other shared banks/categories which then means that you cannot just listen to your own private/important frequencies that you have programmed in these shared banks on this scanner... You will in fact have to hear & listen to everything else that is going on under these Bank categories too which to me is nothing but a terrible annoyance. If you are like me, you may only want to hear & listen to your chosen programmed frequencies & not everything else too like, when the scanner gets stuck on a blank frequency with pure Black noise in the PD/FD/EMG or AIR/MRN Banks every 10 seconds & wont stop until you come & lock it out on the scanner. This means that you may not even hear anything that is going on with your important programmed frequencies in these other two Banks because there will be too much other noise & things going on under these shared banks/categories for you to hear anything that is going on with your programmed frequencies that you needed or wanted to program & listen to for your purposes. I expected for this scanner to let me program all of my important frequencies into the one bank that is most important & the most useful on this scanner. Again that is the (Private) bank which I thought it would let me program 300 channels/frequencies into that specific bank. That was not the case but instead only holds 100 channels/frequencies in this useful (Private) bank. Bummer this was to me to find this out!! (:-(

Can`t figure how to determine the frequencies that I need, so it isn`t useable. Hopefully, I will figure it out!

Definitely need to know about scanners before buying one. The new platforms are not like 20 years ago! Some changes have happened but now makes things more difficult for home listening. With me being in the fire department I enjoy having a at hime scanner and a pager but I wanted a base at home one instead of having my portable sitting and getting knocked over. This will pick some about 4% of my local fire ems police channels. On the police side I can only get 1 and it wont stop with the static!!! I was able to pick up 3 or 4 other fire and ems but like 1 call not every call so that part I dont understand. Come to find out this scanner doesnt pick but BOTH digital and antilog

Great scanner for the money as long as the agencies around you aren’t using trunked or digital frequencies. I would check the radio reference website to verify what is being used in your area. As for programming: Yeah it’s a bit tedious, but really no harder than setting stations on your fm stereo in your car. Just a heck of a lot more channels to sift through, lol. Check the internet for what frequencies are used by agencies around you. Again radio reference is a good source. Reception and sound: This is really dependent on your antenna and the signal strength of the broadcaster. The supplied antenna is ok for about 20 to 30 miles. If you’re looking to get further broadcasts I’d get a different one. Speaker quality is clear, good, and is quite loud. Again it is dependent on the signal. Broadcasts that are farther away are going to be more faint. I have not used the close capture technology, so I can’t speak to its effectiveness. Is this better than using mobile scanner apps? Heck yeah. With the mobile apps, you’re stuck to whatever frequencies they have programmed, or if there is even a broadcast for your area. Overall I’m very pleased with the scanner. I would recommend this to everyone looking for a great cheap little analog unit.

I like the unit and added speaker. I did not like the Third Party Delivery (Fed Ex) Stated they left the package at the front door, but dropped it in wet grass (raining) approx. 1-2 feet from the busy road side. It could have been stolen, run over by a car or the postman of got wet enough to destroy the electrical unit.

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

I plan on doing a longer review on this product very soon but for now these are my thoughts after 3 days of use as a desktop unit. 1- Programming: I almost did not buy this item after reading the reviews about programming it. The thing was though that the BC355N fit my needs and area to perfection so I went ahead and bought it knowing that as an Amazon Prime member it could be returned without much hassle. My worries went unfounded as it was a breeze to program after watching the Uniden You Tube Channel video on how to do so, it is less than 2 minutes long. After about 10 minutes I had all my local channels programmed in and was listening to them. 2- Antenna: I also bought an aftermarket antenna for $10 to see if it was all it was described as in the reviews for it since I do live pretty far out in the country. Hands down it out performed the stock antenna this unit comes with but that is not a bad review on what it comes with as it worked as well as the other as far as reception but it did not have the adjustments that the aftermarket one has and you will need that with the angle that the BC355N sits on your desk at. 3- Overall: Very happy with the quality / feel of the unit, it looks good sitting on my desk in my office and matches all the other electronics that surround it as I do both FM and Internet Radio. Shipping was fast with Prime 2 Day and it was packaged very well.

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!

My husband is having an issue programming this scanner and it is currently sitting unused until I try to program it myself as he gets frustrated too easily