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.

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.

No charging system. Have to charge using laptop? Does not hold charge long!

It is suppose to be good, and You Tube video on it shows it in action. I obtained my refurbished in Canada and it came less a wrist strap but that is easy to fix at any camera store. Also any camera power plug you have with a USB port on it will charge this up off the wall socket and it has protection circuitry in it any way if you get the one that is to high up on the volts. Bad news so far there is no Macintosh software updater on it and it is best you use a PC to get the Uniden driver sorted out properly. I have not started it at all and there is some indication it will not work until you set it up on your PC first .. or wait till you get access to a PC to set it up with the driver download on the USB port. Once UNIDEN gets this worked out for Macintosh computers then it get 5 stars. I use it for the neighborhood watch as we do not have many cops in my county and the neighbors look out for each other for the most part. Lots of theft going on here apparently as there are lots of addicts in full drug mode.

I mainly purchased this to monitor aircraft frequencies which it does well. I hear many airborne aircraft, but not much from the ground unless I am near an airport. Except for fire paging and ambulance to hospital comms, it does not receive police and fire services in my area for two reasons; 1. Most of those are above 512 Mhz, and 2. Those that are below 512 Mhz are mostly digital which sound like a loud buzz on this radio and any other radio that is not equiped to decode digital. The radio has 3 main modes to chose from; 1. Scan mode scans 10 banks of 50 frequencies each plus a close call bank. The active banks show up at the bottom of the screen, and pressing a corresponding number on the keypad turns each bank on or off. The two search modes allow searching for CTCSS (subaudible tones) and DCS (Digital Coded Squelch). Active frequencies can be saved along with the privacy code. 2. Service search allows searching for activity on 10 different pre-programmed frequency ranges / lists. Similar to the scan mode, the different ranges can be turned on or off by pressing a number. Service search bank 3 is ham radio and includes 6 and 2 meters and 440 Mhz. Service search bank 9 includes FRS / GMRS / and MURS frequencies (mostly UHF and a few VHF). 3. Search gives you 10 different frequency ranges that you can program yourself - low and high limits. The close call technology works in all 3 main modes and has three options; 1. Do not disturb turns off close call when the scanner is receiving a signal 2. Priority mode has close call turned on all the time, and will interrupt reception of other signals. However, unlike turning a priority channel on, normal reception is unaffected while receiving other channels. With a priority channel enabled, other channels are briefly interrupted every few seconds while the priority channel is checked. 3. Close call only listens only for close calls Temporary lockout is a nice feature. When the power is reset, all the temporary lockouts are reset. To permanently lock out a channel, press the lockout button twice. This also works for close call channels. Cons - there are a limited number of lockouts - 100 temporary and 100 permanent. If you decide that you do not want to monitor a permanent channel, it is easy to delete it. The weather alert is a nice feature if you do not have a dedicated weather alert radio. It even alerts you if it can no longer receive your local weather service channel. The computer interface works well which allows you to input information into a sheet similar to a spreadsheet. It allows you to read information from the radio or save information to the radio. Rows or blocks of rows can be copied and pasted to easily move frequencies around within a bank or put them into other banks (tabs).

There was no way to connect it to the electrical receptacle in the wall.

It is very easy to use but the included antenna is not very good. I recomend the Diamond RH77CA insted.

I have tried to install software But it didn’t work on two different computers. It gets as far as choosing the USB port and the drop down bar is empty.

The BC125AT is a fine analog only scanner. The sensitivity on receive is very good. Almost as good as my Icom R30 which is hundreds of dollars more. The scan rate is typical of other scanners and I dedicate one of my BC125AT scanners for military air on 225-380 Mhz AM and it works very well for that. Of course, using good quality coax like LMR-400, a military air band tuned antenna on the roof, or a discone, and a 225-400 MHz filter really helps. Additionally, most scanners /receivers are plagued by interference from FM broadcast stations that transmit using an incredible amount of watts. Every scanner user should have an FM Broadcast filter inline on their coax. The FM filters range from $20 to $100. *The BC125AT is not a digital scanner. It will not decode P25, DMR, NXDN, D-Star, C4FM, etc. It will never have a firmware upgrade to enable that. It will also never decode encrypted audio. I never charge my batteries in my scanners. I adjust the battery settings to alkaline so that it never charges the batteries even if rechargeable. I use an external charger for my batteries. I also use an external USB battery bank to keep it powered up for long periods of time when remote. At home I leave the BC125AT powered on 24/7 via the USB power port. It also programs using the same USB power cable. For programming I use Scan125 made by a guy in the U.K. The software is free. The only thing I regret is not buying one earlier. It works well enough for my needs that I purchased another. Military air to air or air to ground communications are quick. With two or more scanners one can split (not share) the frequencies in order to increase odds of hearing something. I do not use the antenna that came with it. I always use after market antennas. An all around good one is the Diamond RH77CA. For military air I use a Diamond RH951S. I swept it with an analyzer and the results were so good I purchased another, compared to the RH77CA and many other handheld flexible antennas.

Its pretty much what I expected, its a little hard for me to program it but Ill get it

This purchase was made when the display on my old PRO-95 quit working. I decided I didnt need the 800MHz channels or trunking capability since I mainly use the scanner for listening to railroads. I was very happy with the BC125AT and the software that you can download for free. The first two banks I programmed in all the railroad frequencies and then the remaining ones used for police, fire, HAM, and CB frequencies. The software makes it easy to replace the frequencies with only railroad frequencies with one railroad occupying one bank. I like the fact that it uses standard AA rechargeable batteries that can be charged in the scanner. Seems to hold the charge for a long time, but am considering ordering batteries with higher mAH capacities for extra batteries. I havent had a chance to use the scanner with my railroad frequency tuned antenna on my vehicle, so I dont know how sensitive it is to pick up trains calling out signals from a good distance away. Overall, I am very happy with this replacement for my old scanner.