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Portable VHF Scanner Advice & Recommendation

oldflame

oldflame

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I was a paid-on-call firefighter in the '80's and, besides a clunky pager, I had a scanner for when the pager was being serviced. About 20 years ago I got a Uniden for ~$100 which worked well but needs replacing. After perusing the internet for scanner info, I'm left with some questions as our local PD has switched to digital which, when encoded, sounds like noise. The fire dept. & public works audio hasn't changed and decoding the PD isn't too important (if it's even possible).

I'd like to spend less than ~$150, if possible, and found a couple brands in the ballpark. I noticed one I was interested apparently didn't cover the 155.xxx band, which seemed odd, unless the ad was wrong. Any educational info and brand recommendations will be appreciated. Thank you.
 
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Uniden BC125AT is well liked and covers analog VHF-HI. Your police is encrypted 800 MHz, not covered by the BC125. Search the Radioreference forum and wiki for details on the BC125AT.
 
There are "civilian" radios that can receive both 800 MHz and digital signals, though they are above your budget...additionally, the programming of them is difficult/confusing, and you must know exactly which type (by system brand) of digital radio signal it is, ie Motorola, GE, Ericsson, etc...

For a look, go to "Scannerworld"
 
I'll check out the Referenceforum, thanks. Decoding the police isn't important; I'd like to hear the other city/county government units which aren't encrypted. I mostly use my scanner for the NOAA near-shore marine reports.

Like Bill cautioned, I want to avoid complex programming as my scanner use is casual and for local safety info. Scanners that will put active channels into their memory seems like a good feature if it works easily and well.
 
There is free software to program the BC125AT which avoids tedious manual programming. The scanner does not receive 800 MHz frequencies. It does have the ability to store frequencies found using the search function.
 
Thanks bill p, that BC125AT looks like a new version of what I have. Maybe it's obvious but the info I found didn't indicate that manual programming is possible, or is that just standard for all scanners? Seems like that model might work for my minimal needs but it doesn't appear to have or mention a squelch control, or is that handled automatically with new scanners?
 
Manual programming is standard for most scanners including the BC125AT. But it has 500 channels and each one can be named with a 16 character tag so manual programming the whole channel set would be a long endeavor.

There is only one control, called a scroll control. Press the control and release - this makes scroll function as the volume control. Press func and press the scroll control and release to make it function as a squelch control. This kind of multi-function control is often seen on newer scanners.

The owners manual can be downloaded from https://info.uniden.com/twiki/pub/UnidenMan4/BC125AT/BC125ATom_07262012.pdf
 
Again, thanks for the information and link. Now I understand the time-consumption aspect for programming. My old scanner only displays the frequency. OTOH, at this point I'm so familiar with the numbers I wouldn't really have to include the identifying characters.

My only other concern is that this model is at least as sensitive as my old one because our NOAA reception is weak.
 
After further review(s) it seems this scanner has adequate RF gain.

Hey! I found some for $35 at a "Walmart" site, several sites in fact, each with a different internet address.
 
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