Uniden BC350C 800 MHz Mobile Scanner by Uniden
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List Price: Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Uniden BC350C 800 MHz Mobile Scanner
Digital camera Review: Fun and interesting toy for an amateur like me
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought my first scanner from a local Church sale about two years ago. It was a crystal based Regency brand, that luckily had all of the correct crystals for the St. Louis area. I was hooked.
To this day I would never consider myself an afficionado or an expert, but I dabble around a bit, so take this review in that context.
I bought this Bearcat BC350C scanner as a birthday present to myself just a few days ago and it's a blast. Parts of the interface are undeniably clunky. Selecting to listen for just the Police or EMS/Fire bands is easy, but programming stuff is a bit icky. It's not complex, just slow - I'd rather be able punch in a frequency and store it, but this requires you to find a frequency first, THEN store it in the "Private" bank.
Anyway, for something you want to pop right out of the box and have work as advertised? Well . . .
Within minutes I was listening to a helicopter overhead ("What's the radar look like ... garble, garble"), picking up the local bus service ("She said she put a $20 bill in the box but I wasn't looking"), and hearing the local gendarmes being dispatched to quell a domestic dispute ("Subject is a white female, attempting to break into the house. Lots of shouting, both are unarmed"). I even picked up one of our neighbor's child monitors!
This really is best used while sitting down, rather than as a mobil unit; nonetheless, I dragged it into my car (hook up was trivial with included DC lighter plugin) and tooled down the rainy highways on a Monday, listening on the police band for reported accidents (I could make out about half a dozen).
From my reading, I know there are better scanners, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the BC350C for other beginners like myself. Sit down and read the manual while you're playing with it, and you'll get the hang of things pretty quickly. If you've never listened to scanners, give yourself a little bit of time to develop an ear. I also recommend that you keep a pad and pencil nearby to jot down interesting frequencies you can usually look up on the Internet later (search for your state and the phrase "scanner frequencies").
You might move up and onward in scanner-dom, and this nifty little gadget is likely to just be your introductory toy to the exciting world of the electro-magnetic spectrum!