Uniden Bearcat BC75XLT Handheld Scanner, 300 Channels, 10 banks, Close Call Technology, PC Programable, NOAA Weather, Aviation, Marine, Railroad, NASCAR, and Non-Digital Police/Fire/Public Safety

Ive had mine perhaps a year or two. Bought it to listen to railroad chatter on trips. The first time I traveled, I wound up putting it away because I couldnt figure out how to use it at all and I was pretty annoyed. The second time I traveled, I figured out that watching YouTube videos helped (especially when adding the word railfanning to the search), as did writing the Uniden tech support, where an employee really went the extra mile to try to be helpful. An individual named Charles explained things in plain English and was patient with my ignorance. I still had a little trouble, frankly. Then I learned that I could use it easily enough at home with a bit of a shortcut--pressing the function key (which is orange) and then the Svc button. By pressing those two buttons, I did not have to program anything but I automatically got to hear transmissions within range of us. That is all I had to do. So this is something like simply playing movies on ones VCR, DVD player, Blu-Ray player, etc., without even trying to use all the extra functions. The manual isnt all that useful as a guide even though it does label buttons and so forth. I had to acquire somewhat of a knowledge base before I understood what the manual meant (this is not the first time I had this experience with a manual). To be fair, I just didnt know anything about scanners, electronics, ham radios, etc. As far as I could tell at the time, this seemed to be the highest rated radio of its kind (in its price range) and the most talked about, and apart from the expected updated model of this same unit, that still seems to be the case. At the same time, there is a bit of a hurdle when it comes to entry into this type of hobby. We do not receive police transmissions. It seems that those in our area are encrypted now, so we wont be getting them. In a fairly highly populated city, there is still a limited amount to listen to (I am using the stock antenna) but we do get weather reports and a few other things. If I expected nonstop talking and wanted to listen to it for an extended time, I would have been disappointed (but that wasnt my particular interest). We turn it on around dinnertime and listen to the weather, etc. for ten minutes or so. Realistic expectations all around may be the key to enjoying this radio, which we now do. Now that I finally know more about how to use it, I am hoping that I will be able to listen to railroad chatter on our next train trip. That is the real reason I got it and I havent been able to do that yet. There are a number of YouTube videos that explain how to listen--which I didnt know when I bought this. Its helpful but still not a straight path to success. As for the unit itself, it seems fairly durable and it appears to work as intended. The buttons do require some pressure when you push them to get a response but that seems more or less like a good thing. Be aware of the button you need to slide inside the unit to indicate whether your batteries are rechargeable or not (its not hard). I am not a patient person and usually return electronics that I cannot quickly figure out. So it has been a bit strange that I have picked this up from time to time and tried again to use it. All in all, would probably buy the same unit all over again. Knowing that all I had to do was pick it up and press the two keys I mentioned earlier would have been of considerable help. But, from my experience as a novice, this isnt really an easy hobby to get started with, and if one wants to, some trial and error, with a considerable amount of non success, may be called for enroute to this goal. Up until now, I sort of regretted buying it. Reading the Dummies on two-way radios and scanners (this is not a two-way radio but the book has some content on scanners) helped me understand some of the backstory that eventually helped me use this. So, I wouldnt say dont buy it but I would say understand what the path may be like if you dont have related expertise, and go from there.

Well built and feature rich. Interface is a bit clumsy and unfriendly but they fit a lot of features into this little guy so thats to be expected. Do check and police/fire frequencies in your area of interest to make sure they are included in the ranges this scanner is designed for.

The scanner is perfect for the amateur listener. I have had others before and for the price it more than meets my needs. The only thing I would consider a negative is the use of the volumn knob for other purposes, requires you to remember to switch modes to return to the previous function. Its only slightly inconvenient. Other than that I wish there was an option to keep the backlight on for easier identification of the frequency when in low light situations. Easy to operate and program. Light and portable. Excellent product for the price. Couldnt be happier!

Easy to program and easy to learn, considering it was my first time using a scanner. Good amount of banks and channels you can program. Uniden provides a program you can download that makes it extremely easy to program frequencies. Great scanner for first-time users and people who just want to listen in or have an interest. There are a few problems: 1) Eats batteries like crazy 2) The viewing angle on the screen is extremely limited, so if you have it laying on a table or something similar you most likely are going to have to pick it up and look at the screen to see what channel is transmitting 3) No battery life indicator, other than beeping and a visual cue when the batteries are almost dead 4) Using the LED light that lightens the screen orange only lasts about 10 seconds before it automatically turns off. So far I havent found a way to keep it on permanently. 5) No channel names, so if you have many banks and channels you are going to have to write up an Excel spreadsheet or something similar to keep track of what channel is what. 6) The stock antenna is somewhat lacking in range. I purchased an aftermarket antenna, linked below. (

I should have done my due diligence BEFORE buying this item. The equipment works well enough BUT the laws have changed dramatically since I was a kid. Most police agencies now use only encrypted vehicle-to-vehicle transmission. Seems like many emergency crews (fire and rescue, marine and air too) are going the same route. So not much traffic to pick up. No longer possible to listen in on the day-to-day chatter among police or fire crews in my area. (Southern California). Before YOU buy this unit, Google the frequencies in your area so you know how many are encrypted ... its likely that you wont be able to pick up much real-time emergency chatter anymore either.

Purchased to use for nascar race seeing it was about the same cost to buy as to rent headsets for the weekend. Worked great all weekend on one set of batteries.

Once you figure out the tricks, it works quite well. We use it for Train Spotting. Update, Nov 2018. This little unit still works great. Have had no problems with it at all. Once you learn how to select you frequency ranges, it works very well. We have had this for maybe 3 years.

There’s nothing like the original bearcat scanner. This one is a little difficult to program too many steps. I always have to look up on you tube when I’m going to program it.

I bought this scanner based on the good reviews and fairly low price. I wanted something decent but not astronomical in price, but not cheep either. I have hardy been able to use it. I have tried so many different rechargeable batteries it isnt funny and NONE of them work for more than 5 or 10 minutes before the unit starts beeping and flashing the low battery warning. I take the batteries out and test them and they ALL show fully charged. Im not using cheep batteries either. I am a photographer and use expensive batteries in my equipment and even those dont work in this thing. Regular batteries with the switch on Alkaline work fine, but Im not going to go through batteries every other week to keep the thing running. The worst part is Unidens customer service. I have submitted two warranty claims with them because apparently the didnt get the first one because I never even got so much as an automated response after filling out the form. After filing a second claim, I did get an automated response with return instructions. I questioned the return shipping policy on a warranty claim and never got a response. Then my claim was marked as closed. I have been dealing with their warranty department for months and had I known they would be so bad, I would have just returned it to Amazon... now its way too late to do that. Having been in and around the fire service all my life, I always thought Uniden to be a reputable company. Now Im not so sure.

As the title indicates, I bought this for monitoring team channels at auto racing events. For the price, it works great for this purpose. It drove two sets of isolation headphones (hooked up through a splitter) with plenty of volume to be heard over the cars. The scan feature worked great and the hold function made it easy to focus in on a particular driver. Battery life was more than enough to last through the race and then some. The only reason Im giving it four stars instead of five is because of the lack of proper instructions for connecting to a PC for programming. It is NOT simply plug and play as the manual suggests. However the process was not that difficult to figure out with a little web searching. Also I had some minor issues with interference at the track, but Im not taking that into account with the rating because I dont know if the scanner was to blame or not.