Uniden BC355N 800 MHz 300-Channel Base/Mobile Scanner, Close Call RF Capture, Pre-programmed Search “Action” Bands to Hear Police, Ambulance, Fire, Amateur Radio, Public Utilities, Weather, and More, Black

Dislike unboxed shipment (sender? Or Amazon) easy porch pick) scanner took a while to program but eventually took the input.

Programming this thing is a nightmare.

Having worked in the news media for over 30 years I can tell you that Uniden scanners are used in a number of newsrooms. Having said that I can also tell you that if you are into listening to police calls, there might be a problem since a number of police agencies are on different frequencies that some scanners can not pick up. As hard as Ive tried I can not pick up the local police on my scanner because there are no buttons to push to a set frequency. So instead I listen to the fire and EMS calls. Just as interesting as police calls in my opinion.

I use this scanner in my Jeep. It was easy enough to mount next to the CB. Antennas for fiberglass shells are hard to come by, so I got creative with a magnet mount, and a little hardware. Seems to receive signals satisfactory.

This scanner can tune almost any of the legal bands above 10 meters including CB! Does not scan HF/IF/LF ham bands due to its portability. Pulls even more signals if you add a mag mount VHF/UHF outside antenna. Only drawback: it does not have a keypad to direct-enter frequencies, but I guess thats why its a scanner. Top of its class!

Programming can be a bit confusing to figure out at first but once programmed you wont need to do it anymore. A numeric keypad would have made it easier and faster than scrolling to look for the one you want to save. With the speaker being on the bottom of the unit you must use the fold-out stand to avoid the sound from being muffled and doing so makes the telescopic antenna extend at an angle instead of straight up so it takes up more space than its footprint would lead you to believe. But the unit is tiny so this shouldnt be an issue for most though I would assume that reception would be slightly better if the antenna was straight up and down instead of at an angle. Having small feet on all four corners or having the speaker come out of the top of the unit would have been a better idea. You can also use an external speaker to avoid this small issue. I have no idea on its range as I live relatively close to the repeaters in my town but it seems to do pretty well. I can hear car communications just fine too. Having 800MHz capabilities is not useful where I live but most scanners at this price point dont have that frequency range so it might be useful for some. CB is a feature that I will probably never use. I tried it and got nothing. CB is pretty much dead anyway. Overall its a decent scanner and you wont find very many others with all of the features that this one has at this price.

Was not able set the channels needed for my area I took it to a communication center for scannels and outcome was told to me they were pre-programmed and was not able to reset also why should I be charged restocking fee if the merchandise isnt able tp preform its job and it doesnt explain that when ordered I also contacted the Uniden company was sent instruction and still could not it set. Very poor merchandise I recommend it to no one SORRY. Thanks

Im a beginner when it comes to police scanners and am glad this was very easy to set up. You just literally plug in the power and plug in the antenna and you are good to go. Thanks to earlier reviews I bought an aftermarket antenna and used it at the get go so i havent run into the issues with reception that other reviewers have mentioned. Also thanks to another earlier review I was able to (fairly) easily program my local police departments channel into the private bank. Although it did take a little extra time because for one I couldnt input the channel directly and for two the search arrows have to be pushed over and over again for each channel change instead of being able to simply hold the button down and have it scroll through quickly to the channel I wanted. This lead to me having to hit the scroll up botton I kid you not 150 times before I got to the station I wanted and was able to save it into the private bank. But now that its in there it is super convenient. The built in speaker is adequate and quite loud when turned up all the way. It is a tad fuzzy but its hard to tell if that is due to the quality of the speaker or the quality of my local polices radio equipment (I live in a small town that is kind of behind the times when it comes to technology). That being said, even though its a little fuzzy, I am still able to understand almost all of what is being said.

I plan on doing a longer review on this product very soon but for now these are my thoughts after 3 days of use as a desktop unit. 1- Programming: I almost did not buy this item after reading the reviews about programming it. The thing was though that the BC355N fit my needs and area to perfection so I went ahead and bought it knowing that as an Amazon Prime member it could be returned without much hassle. My worries went unfounded as it was a breeze to program after watching the Uniden You Tube Channel video on how to do so, it is less than 2 minutes long. After about 10 minutes I had all my local channels programmed in and was listening to them. 2- Antenna: I also bought an aftermarket antenna for $10 to see if it was all it was described as in the reviews for it since I do live pretty far out in the country. Hands down it out performed the stock antenna this unit comes with but that is not a bad review on what it comes with as it worked as well as the other as far as reception but it did not have the adjustments that the aftermarket one has and you will need that with the angle that the BC355N sits on your desk at. 3- Overall: Very happy with the quality / feel of the unit, it looks good sitting on my desk in my office and matches all the other electronics that surround it as I do both FM and Internet Radio. Shipping was fast with Prime 2 Day and it was packaged very well.

I only get one channel out of this scanner. Is this an analog? We hear nothing. Very disappointed.