Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Uniden BCD325P2 scanner is a highly functional scanner that can receive all of the modern analog and digital signals you are likely to encounter in your area. But it is complex with a steep learning curve for the average user who is new to scanning. I used to regularly listen to police, fire, and air traffic control communications on my old Bearcat scanner back in the 1980s when signals were mostly just conventional analog. I recently decided that I wanted to do it again. But when I began looking at which scanner to buy, I began to feel slightly overwhelmed by just how complex signals have become in the past 35 years. I had not wanted to spend a lot of money on a scanner, but it quickly became apparent that I would have to buy a scanner capable of receiving the newer digital and trunked signals as well as the old conventional analog. So, I decided to buy the Uniden BCD325P2 after reading reviews, and I believe that I made a good choice even though its price was a lot more than I wanted to spend. My county uses a lot of digital and trunked communications. If I had purchased an analog scanner, the only signals I would have been able to listen to would have been air traffic control communications. A lot of people have mentioned how difficult it is to program this scanner. And it would be if you tried to hand-type all of the frequencies you want to scan directly into the scanner. That is not the advisable way to do it. You actually need to use a computer to load the scanner . Fortunately, I have a technical background, and so I did not have any problem programming scanner. I just subscribed to radioreference.com and used the frescan program to build an initial program configuration to upload to the scanner. Unfortunately, once I began scanning, I quickly realized that the included rubber duck antenna was very inadequate. So, I have had to spend yet more money to buy a better antenna. I am getting a lot more financially into scanning than I had intended to be. Oh well, you cannot take it with you. Now, I will be spending my time trying to learn all about modern communication signals and how to use the functions of the scanner.