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 am going to write a good honest review on this scanner and not rate it a perfect 5 just because I bought it! First off, I will list the negatives. 1. It only comes with a USB cord for recharging it or powering it. I think that is disgusting that Uniden is so cheap they cant throw in a $5 AC Wall Charger with that cord. Yes, you can hook that cheap cord up to a PC providing your PC is left on and charge or power your Uniden. But it is just so much simpler and easier to plug it into an outlet! 2. It only is made for 2 rechargeable or alkaline AA batteries. Most of the older scanners or even new ones have 3 or 4 batteries providing more using time before recharging or changing them. 3. I am old fashioned and would much rather prefer an AC-DC power supply over this USB thing! Yes, it requires a learning curve and can be complicated until you have the patience to take the baby steps and learn all the functions. If you realize you are the kind of person that has a hard time programming a DVD recorder or VCR, this is not for you. You should have known better before you bought it! Now for the good points: 1. The volume is surprisingly loud, crisp and clear for that small of a radio. 2. It has a very nice, large display screen that you can easily see and read. 3. I think it is fantastic that a $112 scanner can be programmed to have an alpha-numeric display for all your frequencies. It is so nice seeing what that frequency is, instead of trying to remember the numbers. 4. It also offers Ctcss which is a simple code you can program with each frequency to block others from interfering on that same frequency. 5. For those of you that can handle a scanner with a learning curve, this scanner has many things to offer you once you get into the programming modes. You can customize the close call for various bands to monitor and activate the DND, (Do not Disturb) so it doesnt interfere with frequencies you are listening to. A 4 is a decent, honest review on this scanner considering the positives and negatives I found. There is only one handheld Analog Scanner I would rate a perfect 5. That is the former Gre-Psr 310. That scanner pretty much done the same as this one except it went all the way up to 1300 MHz and this one only covers to 500. The Gre 310 had more batteries which allowed it to stay on longer before charging or changing. It also had a regular power receptacle on it for charging or powering the unit instead of this USB thing. Whistler is now taking over Gre/Radio Shacks line of previous scanners but doesnt have that model in their lineup yet. When they do, I would take that model in a heartbeat over the Uniden BC-125 even if it was $50 more. For the money, this Uniden 125 is probably the best ANALOG scanner CURRENTLY on the market.

This scanner is just too hard to program.

It really is a amazing scanner!! The battery life is awesome, along with way its built!! But it does require before hand knowledge...if a person has never used it before!!

Will not hold a charge more than a hour. Rechargeable batteries are anything but.

The interface is very complicated, but its a good scanner, and works for my needs (monitoring Airband).

I had a BC75XLT, which is also a good scanner from Uniden. But I upgraded my handheld ham radio and fell in love with the ability to assign an alphanumeric tag to each channel/frequency pair. The cheaper 75XLT allows you to assign channels to channel memory banks, but doesnt allow alpha tagging. You just have to know what the frequency means. Thats hard with 100+ civilian public service frequencies. So I wanted alpha tagging for my scanner too. The 125AT displays your tag as well as the frequency and the channel memory bank. for example, I have all of Chicago PDs District frequencies and their City Wide frequencies labeled, so I know where the reported action is by area. As a Ham, also nice to assign the actual callsign to repeaters. Same goes for using Amtrak route labels (AAR frequency codes) out of Chicagos Union Station, since I take trains to downstate Illinois. One thing it does NOT do though is allow you to assign an alpha tag to memory bank numbers. My Yaesu ham radio HT does support that. So I just keep a reference note on my cell phone listing what category of frequencies I chose to store in each bank. This and the 75XLT are both great radios for travelers. They can search for nearby signals and you can easily add those to memory, without traveling with a list of local frequencies or looking them up online. There is also a great feature called Service Search, which is preprogrammed to search the frequency ranges of government assigned frequencies for Ham Radio, Weather, Police, Fire, Racing, FRS, Aviation, Railroad etc. Then when you find a frequency you want, you can add it to memory. I use PC software to program it with the included USB A to USB Mini cable. You can buy software from various online sources. That makes data entry a breeze and most will support auto import of known frequencies when you put in a zip code. Also, Since this radio also supports rechargeable NiMH batteries (2 AA), I recommend you buy a AA rechargeable battery starter kit with 4 batteries and a charger included. That way you have a fresh pair to swap back in when the batteries die. It also takes disposables, but you must select alkaline versus NiMH using the tiny switch under the batteries. Now the negatives. Its expensive and has good competition from China. The 125AT isnt waterproof or made of metal, like most Japanese handheld ham radios, so that isnt a benefit over Chinese radios and scanners, which are pretty much all plastic and not water or shock proof, like the name brand ham radios are over their Chinese competitors. So never pay full MSRP for this scanner. Also consider a cheap $30-$50 Chinese multi-band ham radio, like a Baoefeng, Remember though, unless you have the right level of ham license, you CANNOT transmit on ham radio frequencies or you will face steep fines if discovered. But they make good generic police scanners too and can be programmed from a PC, usually requiring you buy a custom cable. But they are not durable at all.

The user interface is very confusing until you fiddle with it and practice a lot. I wanted to just key in a frequency, save it, and then tell it to pull that up. Yes, this is possible, but not intuitive. However it’s a solid unit, comes with rechargeable batteries and a charge cable, and does everything I need, so I’m keeping it. Best value for sure!

Ignore all those it’s too difficult to operate reviews... it’s down right simple! I’m mildly dyslexic when it comes to number punching. People who have previously complained, more than likely have problems putting in batteries or swapping out light bulbs, or boiling an egg! This scanner is ridiculously simple to use. Just watch some YouTube videos to get you started, and learn the sub menus and functions keys and by the next day or two, I promise you will be whizzing around the scanner like an expert! Anything new is daunting at first, like a new car, couple of spins around the block, you will remember which lever is your indicators and which lever operates your screen wipers! The more you fiddle with it, the better you become accustomed! This is a must buy analogue scanner. Works absolutely perfectly with the free “scan125” software. The software controls the scanner via your laptop or PC, with the usb cable supplied with your purchase! Your can even power off the Bearcat BC125AT within “scan125” program, it’s that powerful! Search “Nick Bailey Uniden scan125. I cannot stress enough to get this free software, which is HIGHLY recommended for your Bearcat BC125AT. Get it! Get it! Get it! The BC125AT scanner locks on better than my whistler 1010. The Close Call feature is powerful and has found more frequencies than my WS1010 ever did! So to those good folk who sent back their BC125AT, it’s very unfortunate you never spent time viewing those YouTube videos explaining this fastest seller! Otherwise you would be enjoying it as much as I am right now! Don’t hesitate... get it now! For the price, it’s worth it! Otherwise go for the more expensive digital brands. More time will be required learning the many sub menus of those high end scanners! I am very chuffed and delighted with my purchase from Amazon USA.

I got a BC72XLT a couple years ago, and never regretted that purchase. I saw the features of this radio and decided it was worth the upgrade. I think its definitely worth it for someone looking for a few more features. Alpha Tags - so you know what youre listening to, you dont have to memorize what frequencies are USB programming - MUCH easier to program new frequencies. You can also back up everything to a file, so you can change the entire setup of the banks really quickly. Nice if you go on vacation, because you can enter all the new frequencies on the computer, back up the old setup and apply the new setup. When you get back, it takes less than a minute to put the old setup back on. USB charging - you dont need a special AC charger for the radio, it can charge from a computer or USB charger. If you plan on using it at home or in one place a lot, I would definitely suggest getting a USB charger (maybe with a mini USB plug already on it). This helps to get it away from the computer, which can cause interference. It comes with 2 rechargeable AA batteries, which seem to last maybe 8 hours on a charge. Backlight and frequent transmissions could reduce this, but I have been very happy with battery life. Military Frequencies - one of the main things that convinced me to get this radio. I have to admit I havent heard anything except the UHF from airport towers, but I will be around more UHF traffic soon and I expect to get a lot more from this. Better Programming - you can set delay specifically to each channel. You can also set a temporary lockout, which only locks a channel out until you turn off the radio. Useful for localized interference. Backlight Options - you can set the backlight to come on only with squelch, so it is off until it picks up a signal. DND Mode - this stands for do not disturb. This means that the close call or priority modes will only do their checks when scanning. Once it picks up a channel, it will not interrupt the channel to do those checks. This is really nice, because even the short pauses to do those checks can make you miss key information in a transmission. Close Call memory - you can store the frequencies found in close call mode to a small bank for later review or scanning. Large banks - 50 channels in each bank. Sometimes I have to combine smaller categories into one bank, but overall it is good to have plenty of space in a bank. Also good to have more frequencies overall. Dedicated Weather Function - Fn-3 accesses weather radio modes, nice to have when there is bad weather. There is also a weather function to scan weather radio in the background for alerts. Easier service search - When in service search mode, each service is treated like a bank and can be turned on or off. This is much more intuitive and lets you only choose the ones you are interested in. These are: Police, Fire/Emergency, Ham, Marine, Railroad, Civil Air, Military Air, CB Radio, FRS/GMRS/MURS (handheld civil radios), and Racing. You can also set custom ranges. There are other features, but these are the ones I found most useful.

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.