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.

UPDATE - 8/3/2020: If you buy a Newer Unit, DO NOT TRY TO DOWNLOAD THE FIRMWARE FROM THE UNIDEN WEBSITE, as it will reload an older version, if you have a Newly purchased Unit. Their Support Documentation, and every YouTube Video I looked at, directs you to the Uniden BC125AT Website/Webpage, which is outdated, and has at least one bad link (for the Driver downloads). I repeat DO NOT Download the Firmware update, if you have a version at or higher than 1.03.01. I know there at least Two firmware updates, after the download on their support page for the BC125AT. The documentation on their webpage does not tell you which firmware you are downloading, and after you update, there is no way to reload the previous (more current version) that you had, as I found no links to newer versions on Unidens website. or on the web. You can verify the firmware version on the unit that you have, when you power it on. This is absolutely POOR documentation and product support! The only reason I am not giving it a One Star, is that the programming software (which you should download) is a nice tool to be able to modify and save files, to load your on BC125AT. However, the process of spending a whole day (for someone who is not well versed in scanners) is tedious and time consuming, since the majority of info out there is outdated. This unit is fine for monitoring what I am looking to use it for (Analog Civil/Military Air Traffic), but I would not buy it for monitoring LEO/Police frequencies, as most are using Digital in the 800-900 mhz range. I would not buy this unit, if I had to do it again, being a newbie radio/scanner operator, because of the inaccurate and lack of support information available. It is probably fine for someone who has an extensive background in HAM or Scanning, however. All that said, I stand by my Original Review... ORIGINAL REVIEW: Not really happy with the information available on how to set-up this unit, even from the Manufacturers Webpage/Website and Unidens YouTube Videos, as both places need to be updated with current information. But they sure have no problems encouraging you to PAY for them to program it for you, which is Great for bottom line profits, but CRAPPY for customer service for the product, which is why this product is getting a poor review from this customer. Sure I could spend several hours reading the manual, and eventually I will, but I wanted to get some things programmed immediately, and expected their to be current information on the Web, but obviously my expectations werent met.

Way better on analog VHF and UHF Airbands than my Uniden SDS100.

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.

Great sensitivity, even with the supplied antenna. (Better still with a better antenna.) The user interface is clumsy, especially to adjust the squelch, but its not too hard to learn in a day or two of using it. Sound quality is good. Its a really good basic analog scanner, especially considering its small enough to easily take just about anywhere. I do have a couple complaints... it takes 7 or 8 seconds to turn on and boot up before received audio starts coming from the speaker. I think thats too long. And, there isnt much useful info on the display while its scanning your programmed frequencies. It only says Bank 1 or Bank 2 etc. while its scanning. You cant change the name of the bank to something more helpful, like HAM or Aviation for instance. So you have to remember what youve programmed into each bank. I hope your memory is better than mine. It has to stop on an active frequency before the display will show the channel, the frequency, and whatever label youve assigned. Otherwise just the word SCAN scrolls across the display. These complains are minor, but still a bit annoying. BTW, one reason I bought it was to see if having a CB radio in the car would be helpful for long trips. After a weeks driving on the interstate while scanning the CB channels, the answer seems to be no.

I purchased this product for use when I go out railfanning, to be able to listen in on where trains are located on my local rail line. The scanner works really well and is able to receive radio signals from a pretty far distance away when youre close to an active rail line. The build quality is good for the product, its mostly made of plastic. But thats not a deal breaker in my opinion, since the product feels very durable and doesnt feel like it will fall apart the second it falls onto a concrete floor. I found the interface very easy to understand, all the button functions are clearly labeled and are very easy to figure out all of the functions. The programming software was very easy to use as well, its very similar to using Microsoft Excel. I personally prefer the BC125 over the BC75, because the 125 can store a lot more frequencies and you also get the ability to add in custom names/alpha tags. The only drawback to the product is the range is not very good... But that comes with using the antenna that is provided with the scanner, since its not very long. The scanner can receive signals from channels I programmed as far as 10 miles away from my local railroad mail line, but that applies mainly frequencies that are used on my local railroad. Overall the scanner works very well for my uses, I am very happy with the product, and I would recommend any railroad enthusiast to purchase a radio scanner to use while railfanning. Since it will make your railfanning sessions a lot more fun, since you will know ahead of time whats coming in your direction.

Bought this handheld scanner for my Dad on May 9, 2021. He is a Past Chief of our Fire Dept. and still enjoys listening to what’s going on. He noticed it wouldn’t charge and opened the battery compartment to find the rechargeable batteries from 2010 ( ELEVEN YEARS AGO) had deteriorated and melted the inner compartment. He cannot switch it over from rechargeable to AA batteries because the old rechargeables melted the switch and contacts. Very disappointed. I had not realized this handheld was released 2011. I never would have purchased such an OLD product!!! Now to see if the original retail warranty applies to me or the radio company that is selling these. I will update this review once I find out what course of action I have. We missed the Amazon return date because we lost my Mom recently and our minds were not on this scanner.

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.

Works well but user interface is not logical. Old type of NiMH batteries. LCD backlight uses old fashioned power consuming LEDs.

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.

Bought this for the car to go along with my ham radio hand-held. This is a great little scanner for the money. Very easy to program with a PC and great battery life. It comes with rechargeable batteries, but like other scanners, the antenna has lousy gain, so plan on getting something better. I dont care about P25 or other digital modes, so that was not a problem for me. The keypad is very easy to use and once you know the layout you can easily operate it in the dark, while driving with one hand. Audio is plenty loud. It has an extra feature that is always scanning for near field transmissions, just in case you are wondering if there is a hidden transmitter close by. :-)