Uniden Bearcat BC125AT Handheld Scanner, 500-Alpha-Tagged Channels, Close Call Technology, PC Programable, Aviation, Marine, Railroad, NASCAR, Racing, and Non-Digital Police/Fire/Public Safety.

I work in the digital LMR industry for first responders. I didnt have too much trouble figuring this radio out, but nothing about this radio is what you may be familiar with if youre used to working with analog scanners. All of the knobs and buttons are dual and triple use. For example, there is no designated volume or squelch knob. There is a single knob which serves several purposes, including volume or squelch. This is sort of a nuisance to me. However, I will live with its awkwardness for now. As far as a radio is concerned, it has good sensitivity and noise rejection.

Before purchasing this scanner I read all the reviews online. I also went to the Uniden site, downloaded a pdf of the manual and read it before the scanner arrived. To save yourself time you may want to read the 9/29/13 Amazon review by Jack Sanders. I found it most helpful. To simplify setup I used alkaline batteries as well as the Service Search Mode (see Manual page 48) which allows you to search through 10 pre-programmed banks to receive all the frequencies allocated to police, ham, marine, railroad civil air, military air, CB radio, racing and other services. I live about 30 miles from a major metropolitan airport and a military base. When first using the scanner I was able to hear hams on the local repeaters, ships in the bay, military and civilian aircraft, CB radios about 15 miles away and other local radio services. The audio is very clear and the signals were quite strong using just the small antenna that comes with the scanner. I have not yet attempted to program the scanner with my PC because I am quite satisfied using the pre-programmed service banks. This is an excellent scanner for the price and a good choice for anyone interested in getting into the radio scanning hobby. While it is true that you can use a tablet or smartphone APP to access radio services across the globe, there is still a thrill for me to capture a radio transmission from a passing train, aircraft or ship. As a final tip, there are some excellent YouTube reviews of this product if you type the search words Bearcat Uniden BC125AT.

The BC125AT is a fine analog only scanner. The sensitivity on receive is very good. Almost as good as my Icom R30 which is hundreds of dollars more. The scan rate is typical of other scanners and I dedicate one of my BC125AT scanners for military air on 225-380 Mhz AM and it works very well for that. Of course, using good quality coax like LMR-400, a military air band tuned antenna on the roof, or a discone, and a 225-400 MHz filter really helps. Additionally, most scanners /receivers are plagued by interference from FM broadcast stations that transmit using an incredible amount of watts. Every scanner user should have an FM Broadcast filter inline on their coax. The FM filters range from $20 to $100. *The BC125AT is not a digital scanner. It will not decode P25, DMR, NXDN, D-Star, C4FM, etc. It will never have a firmware upgrade to enable that. It will also never decode encrypted audio. I never charge my batteries in my scanners. I adjust the battery settings to alkaline so that it never charges the batteries even if rechargeable. I use an external charger for my batteries. I also use an external USB battery bank to keep it powered up for long periods of time when remote. At home I leave the BC125AT powered on 24/7 via the USB power port. It also programs using the same USB power cable. For programming I use Scan125 made by a guy in the U.K. The software is free. The only thing I regret is not buying one earlier. It works well enough for my needs that I purchased another. Military air to air or air to ground communications are quick. With two or more scanners one can split (not share) the frequencies in order to increase odds of hearing something. I do not use the antenna that came with it. I always use after market antennas. An all around good one is the Diamond RH77CA. For military air I use a Diamond RH951S. I swept it with an analyzer and the results were so good I purchased another, compared to the RH77CA and many other handheld flexible antennas.

Is a decent analog radio

It is suppose to be good, and You Tube video on it shows it in action. I obtained my refurbished in Canada and it came less a wrist strap but that is easy to fix at any camera store. Also any camera power plug you have with a USB port on it will charge this up off the wall socket and it has protection circuitry in it any way if you get the one that is to high up on the volts. Bad news so far there is no Macintosh software updater on it and it is best you use a PC to get the Uniden driver sorted out properly. I have not started it at all and there is some indication it will not work until you set it up on your PC first .. or wait till you get access to a PC to set it up with the driver download on the USB port. Once UNIDEN gets this worked out for Macintosh computers then it get 5 stars. I use it for the neighborhood watch as we do not have many cops in my county and the neighbors look out for each other for the most part. Lots of theft going on here apparently as there are lots of addicts in full drug mode.

Nice little scanner. Ergonomics are good but it took time to get going. Unless you buy a much higher priced phone where it scan nearby signals right out of the box, every phone must be programed manually. In this case there is a sequence of buttons for first adding and changing search ranges and then adding and deleting scanning channels. I found it tricky to implement. So you must be patient. There is a PC interface but I havent tried that yet.

Easy to use but no matter what batteries I used(ask were brand new) they lasted 2 days. I only had it on for 3 to 4 hours each day. All my previous and current scanners last weeks. Maybe it was defective but wont order unidentified anymore.

Bought this to use at NASCAR races. I thought Id need to spend hours figuring out how to upload a new software to the radio, but no, I didnt! All I had to do was research the driver and MRN radio frequency channels before the race, and I was able to listen to the radio over my headsets with no issues! For the 400 mile Darlington race in Spring 2022, it had plenty of battery left over. Only downsides: max volume is still a bit quiet when trying to listen over a NASCAR engine, but you can still hear it fine overall. Also, initially learning how to quickly go to certain frequencies and flip between them can take a bit of time, but it is in the instruction manual. Overall, this is a robust radio that will let you listen to the MRN broadcast and driver channels at a NASCAR race, which is what I wanted.

I recommend finding a good you tube video to learn how to program the scanner out of the locked channels mode.. I spent hours trying to figure it out. You need to get on a computer, download a file to your computer, then go to Radioreference.com to program. The channels stay locked until you enter a frequency.... it was very confusing. I have a friend that was only able to figure out putting the police frequency in it... Once you do watch the video and figure it out its quite simple just time consuming. I also had to watch about 4 or 5 videos to find the right one that actually showed me how to program it.... once programmed, its a great scanner... would have given it a 5 star if it hadnt have been so time consuming to find out how to program and get out of the locked mode....

Fast scanner. Wideband. Analog only.