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.

Works well, very easy to program even for a beginner simply by following the directions. Seems to get decent signal and works well in my little rural area. It does not seem to hold a charge by using the included charger. I charge batteries separately and put them it and then can use it approximately 15-18 hours off that charge, but for the price it is worth the little inconvenience!

Im a little stunned by the bad reviews. I couldnt disagree more. This is a great scanner. For the roughly 100 bucks, you really get a lot. Its handheld, which means it travels nicely. Its great for road trips and can keep you in the loop on weather, accidents, and umm, other police activities. It scans CB, FRS/GMRS/MURS and HAM bands which covers pretty much all of the individual use bands. The first two (CB, FRS/GMRS/MURS) are pretty useful on trips too. Its rechargeable, and uses standard AA Ni-MH batteries (included) and you can recharge the batteries right in the scanner from a USB port. You can charge while its on. Also, just in case it matters, you can run it directly from the USB port without any batteries installed at all! Of course, in a pinch you can always use regular non-rechargeable AA batteries which are pretty much the most common batteries in America. Theres a switch inside the battery compartment to tell the scanner what kind of batteries you have so that it wont try to recharge regular batteries. (I know, too much time on batteries but I cant help it. A scanners no good if you cant turn it on!) There are some nice storage features for storing found stations and you can program them in manually too, if you know the frequency. You can name all the stations as well. Additionally, theres are banks of per-programmed frequencies for different uses (fire, police, CB, etc.) to allow you to get started right away. (If youre looking for frequencies just google scanner frequencies and the city or area you live in. Pretty simple...) But really, its connecting to the PC that has me won over. *All* of the settings can be accessed through the PC software available from the website. (The website also includes the *manual* <ahem>, drivers, and firmware updates. The software isnt all that sexy to be sure, but its plenty functional! Its a lot easier to use than typing into the scanner itself. It allows you to save different configurations in separate files so you can have, for instance, a file for Topeka, and another one for Miami. Again, a really nice feature if youre on the road and have a laptop. Cons: You cant actually control the scanning itself from the computer. Not a big deal but the function might be kinda cool. My biggest complaint is that there is not a standing battery indicator. You only get notification when the batteries get low, but you have no idea when that might be. Its just a minor annoyance... maybe itll get fixed in a firmware update? Overall, totally useful.

Fast scanner. Wideband. Analog only.

The scanner it self is working great. After six hours of confusion getting it programmed. Why cant a large company like Uniden make a decent manual and website for understanding how to use this scanner? Getting the All Channels Locked message was the first challenge. After a few YouTube videos I learned this is normal, that it needs some frequencies entered. I was thinking of returning it as defective after following the instructions in the manual. Newsflash, Uniden: Please put an insert about the Channels Locked welcoming message. The Uniden support videos are just awful. Please get a presenter who understands how to communicate. The scanner is pretty useless without the program to set up channels. Doing it with just the 10-step procedures directly on the scanner is for masochists. I tried the driver install with a Windows 7 computer unsuccessfully. It reminded me of Windows 95. Then I did it on my Windows 10. It worked in spite of the Uniden instructions. Somehow Windows 10 was able to install the driver automatically. The spread sheet is easy. The driver is not. This scanner is not for the technologically timid. I have 35 years of computer experience, a Masters degree in educational computing, and experience doggedly working on computer problems, 50 years of radio experience. I am an aviator used to dealing with radios. Bottom line: Uniden get some better technical writers!

I love this scanner, not sure why there are some reviews that arent very good... I like that its lightweight, inexpensive, has alpha tagging, enough memory for 500 channels, and also uses tone codes, thats a lot for $100. Runs on either rechargeable or regular AA batteries, just make sure to set the switch correctly under the batteries, that way you dont end up trying to charge non-rechargeable batteries. The computer software from Uniden is a much easier way to program channels, and you can make as many channel list programs that you want, also included as an optional download from their website. I find that to be the most attractive part of it, makes it a breeze and is a great value. My only complaint is that the volume output could be louder, but its not bad. I use it for plane spotting and plan to take it to the races, and until everything goes completely digital I can still listen to almost everything in my neighborhood. If you do store channels manually on the scanner, that is very tedious compared to using the software, but not awful once you figure it out. If you want to use this for a hobby scanner, you really cant find a better value out there and if your area is still mostly analog like mine is, then you can listen to all that for the time being also, added bonus. Having this is making me thing about upgrading to a digital base scanner for the house once all the police and other services go digital.

There was no way to connect it to the electrical receptacle in the wall.

From Pittsburgh PA I can hear transmissions as far away as Interstate 80!!! And this area is full of hills and valleys, but this little radio was still able to pull those signals in. Scanning through the channels I hear a whole new world of conversations I didnt even know existed. I especially like the ability to scan for strong transmissions close by. It locks on and lets you know what is in your area. This feature can be turned off so that you can just run up and down a frequency range without being interrupted by strong signals you would rather ignore. A bunch of namable programmable channels means I wont lose interesting signals I may find while roaming through the hundreds of frequencies. A word of warning to you guys who like to just pick up a new toy and run with it... Read the manual!!! It will save you time and frustration! Once I understood the way Uniden had their menu scheme laid out, working with this radio was easy. This is my first real professional scanner and it took me a little bit of time to understand what I had purchased. But once I got the hang of it, I didnt want to put it down! Im still learning all the features, (havent tried to connect it to my computer yet), and can hardly wait to take it out to a sporting event. I know it is almost trivial, but the detachable antenna makes for easy travel. That was a nice touch. I can put it in my pocket with no worries about breakage. Uniden packed a lot of good things in this little radio for a fair price. I’m very happy with this purchase.

I bought this scanner specifically for the military air band since I live near a joint military/civilian airfield. So far seems to be working well. User interface on the radio is way too confusing. That makes it no different than the previous Bearcat I had. However, that is easily overcome by the software you can download for free to program it. I entered the frequencies I wanted to scan, gave them all names and loaded to the radio using the supplied (yes it comes with it) cable and voila! Its quick and easy to use. I also discovered the data file for the software is plain text so, if you honor their format, you can also add and edit frequencies using a text editor as well. This allows you to cut and paste which makes it easier to transfer channels between banks or reorder them within banks. You still need to use the software to program the radio but editing is much easier with a text editor. My ultimate goal is to monitor all the local aviation frequencies so that I can supply them to the live atc site so I will probably buy a few more of these as decide to add more specific frequencies.

I had a 25 year old Radio Shack Scanner 10 channel (not ten bank) scanner and it was time to update. Living in the rural area of Northern California, and being an ex-volunteer firefighter, my wife and I depend on our scanner to keep alerted to local emergency events. I decided on the Uniden BC125AT after helping a friend program his. There were a number of things I found that helped me decide: THE GOOD • Good sound. The filtering in this scanner was able to filter out the static noise from the various electronics in our home. • Compact size and comfortable in the hand. • Alpha Numeric channel programming and labeling. The ability to add labels to each channel as it appears on the screen during a transmission makes it easier to know what is actually happening. I can instantly know what dispatch center is transmitting. • The free Windows software available from the Uniden website (link in the owners manual) allowed me to quickly and easily enter the frequencies I wanted along with a name for each channel, save it to a file on my computer, then upload the file to the scanner. With ten separate banks of 505 channels each, it was a simple matter to create separate banks for Fire, Police, Air Firefighting Resources, and even separate banks for local city emergency resources. After I programmed the friends unit I received mine about two days later and it took just a few seconds to upload the data into my BC125AT. • The ability to lock out banks. It is very easy to lock out any of the banks so, for example, you can lock all out except one bank where you program local fire resources. • Scan all banks, scan one bank, or pick on channel to scan. In an emergency it is nice to be able to just listen to the main fire dispatch channel and it is easy to select that function. • The multi-function volume knob. The rotary knob has many functions including setting the volume, adjusting the squelch, scrolling through the channels saved in banks. • Adjustable screen brightness and contract THE BAD (or at least, not as good) • The included rechargeable batteries are decent but the charger in the Uniden is set by time only in hours. Insert a fully-charged pair of cells and plug the Uniden in and if the charger is set to charge for six hours, it will charge for that period of time. This overheats the batteries which can shorten their life. Thy get quite warm to the touch, but so far not dangerously so. I suggest keeping a spare set of batteries charged and switch them out as needed. • It charges through the USB cable, and only charges the batteries when the unit is turned off. If the BC125AT is on, the batteries will not receive a charge. When turned off the charge restarts and will run the full length of time you selected in the menu system. • When I purchased this, the Amazon link to the warranty information was to an old PDF page from 2010 from Uniden that stated the unit had a three (3) year warranty. THAT IS INCORRECT. The printed manual that came with the scanner (©2012) states it has a one (1) year warranty. I called Uniden today (8/6/2018) and that information was confirmed. • The owners manual could be better. This is a powerful unit and can do a lot of things. To access much of the menu system takes multiple button presses. The manual describes these is somewhat more complicated text than is necessary. Flow charts for each functions would have been MUCH better. I know- I have written owners manuals and created flow charts for similar programming and function systems. CONCLUSION I give this unit 4 stars instead of 5 only because of the outdated battery charging system. Other than that, this is a very nice scanner for under $100. I do suggest purchasing the extended warranty so that you have more than one years protection. NOTE: The linked PDF warranty file on the Amazon sales page when I purchased this scanner stated that the warranty was three (3) years. IT IS NOT! That PDF file was from 2010. The ©2012 owners manual that comes with the scanner states that the warranty period is one (1) year. I verified this with Uniden Customer Service.

This Scanner is really tricky. The instructions were Basic and a bit confusing. I purchased to add another element of Monitoring in the Oklahoma City area during Tornado outbreaks. On a perfect 70 degree sunny day I could barely lock into any important Channels. No Police, EMS, Fire or Storm Alert. I Did hours of research and work trying to lock this in. Utilized RadioReference.com Manually added the correct frequencies and worked with the Scan feature. I drove in a 50 mile radius to try and make it work. I really wanted to love adding the Scanner to my Kit. Honestly its completely Frustrating. In the End. One News Chanel, One weather Chanel, and two Air Traffic control. All emergency Service were Void. Not Encrypted and this should have been a no brainer. Save your money if you live in the Oklahoma area. Total let down. Returning. Very dissapointing.