UnidenBearcat 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

I think it's an awesome analog scanner. It is easy to use and receives well...

I needed a three band scanner for use at the Reno Air Races. Did some looking and found this one to be the best value of those that would serve the purpose. Installed a set of NiMH batteries which would last about 5 hours on a full charge. Rather than rely on battery power I connected it to a 30000mAh power bank and was able to use it all day long.Software was a little difficult to find but once I had it downloaded it was simple to program the frequencies I needed to monitor and setup the scan function to walk these channels.Only real downside is that the scanner will not charge the NiMH batteries while it's on.I'm pleased with the purchase and would recommend this scanner to any Reno Air Races attendee or volunteer who'd like to be a bit more aware of what's going on behind the scenes.

This is my seventh hand held scanner and tenth total, and I must admit, even for a seasoned user, programming frequencies in this scanner is not as straight forward as others I have owned. The good news, great news actually, is that Uniden provides a free download for both the drivers to connect the scanner to a PC and a FREE software package that is super easy and fast to use. I use this type of scanner mainly for listening at auto races, and after ham thumbing the first three of about sixty frequencies I needed to load I figured it would be easy and quicker to download the driver and software and go from there. The programming software is super intuitive, will run on anything from Windows XP to 8.1, and you can save the frequency package as a file, which means you can have multiple files of frequencies at the ready. It uses a standard USB cord, included. The only reason I did not give this unit five stars is the somewhat cumbersome method of manually loading frequencies, and I have not yet been able to determine how (or if) you can page through your frequencies one by one, versus having to use the hold, channel number, hold method. A little awkward, but no big deal. Amazon's shipping was stellar as usual, and the unit was mint fresh new!EDIT: I have changed my score from four stars to useless. I am very careful with my equipment. I used this radio a dozen times at most, and the display became erratic, showing only half the characters. I did further review, and discovered this is a constant complaint regarding this specific model. I disassembled it, and it is not in any way a user repairable item because of the way they connected the ribbon cable to the chassis. So this is now a piece of junk. Do not buy!

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 I'm 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 I'm not taking that into account with the rating because I don't know if the scanner was to blame or not.

Most was usable

I've 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 couldn't 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 one's VCR, DVD player, Blu-Ray player, etc., without even trying to use all the extra functions.The manual isn't 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 didn't 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 won't 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 wasn't 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 haven't been able to do that yet. There are a number of YouTube videos that explain how to listen--which I didn't know when I bought this. It's 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 (it's 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 isn't 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 wouldn't say "don't buy it" but I would say "understand what the path may be like if you don't have related expertise," and go from there.