Side by Side Comparison of: RadioShack vs Uniden

Good scanner

Quick delivery, a great price, and the scanner works wonderfully. Thank you!

A great older analog scanner. Make sure it works for your area. It is not digital! That will cost you $400-$500. I'll use it till 1st responders switch to digital in my area. It will still pickup a wide range of other frequencies. Easy to program with scancat software & the appropriate cable. Two wise investment to get up & scanning fast.

I bought this over a year ago and it does all it is suppose to. Read instructions well and keep them handy

good scanner love radio shack analog scanner worth the money

Excellent scanner ! I ordered this used, and within 5 minutes it was up and running. The manual isn't very long, it took a couple of attempts to understand how things worked, but nothing drastic. Like I said, it was up and running within around 5 minutes.I'll have to get in touch with the seller, because their seems to be a slight problem with the volume. If I turn it past 1/2 way, there is a high pitched squeal. I'm new to scanners, so I'm not sure if this is normal or not.Other than the volume, this is an awesome setup! I only have 5 or so channels that I like to scan, so I don't see any need for the computer connection kit.

Scanner works great, it's very sensitive and you can hear everything... This is really easy to program when using the programming software that you must download from the Uniden website, it is money well spent.

I'm really enjoying this scanner. I have it setup as a base unit. Most of the services in my area have gone digital, but not all. The seamless scanning between trunked systems and conventional systems with this scanner is exceptional.By far my favorite feature is the display alert. Programmed frequencies can be setup to change the display color when the channel is active. Very useful if the volume is low, and if you're annoyed by priority cutouts.I upgraded from a BC365CRS. I also own a BC355N for mobile use.

Great scanner. Does not do decrypted audio. I've messed with whistlers and this scanner. This is by far the best scanner I've used for P25 phase 2. Audio levels are good and programming with freescan worked with no problems. Do yourself a favor and sign up for a radio-reference account when programming.

This is an awesome radio works great and gets everything I wanted. I suggest you download a software program to program the scanner or have the place where you buy it program it for you. It took me a week to figure it out using the software program, once you learn its a breeze. I wouldn't suggest trying to program it without the software because the manual is a little hard to understand. Once everything is setup the scanner is awesome plenty of room for thousands of channels. The APCO channels come in nice and clear with no problems.

A great scanner... But be warned, you will need software to program it. I recommend Butel arc xt pro for this which costs extra but well worth it. Because of the complexity of this scanner it is almost impossible to do it manually. Their are also issues with using the USB cable with this as well, depending on your operating system and drivers. Radio Reference. Com is a great resource to help understand and program this scanner as well.

Purchased this scanner as an update to a BC125AT, if you are new to scanning, much like I am, the change to DMA memory and in my case the addition of trunking ability can be a bit overwhelming. Never one to shy away from a challenge I dove right in. I wouldn't recommend attempting to manually program this unit unless you have a lot of free time on your hands. Software is the way to go for this unit, I chose Freescan as their Beta version works very well with the BCD996P2. USB drivers to talk with the software can be a bit of a challenge but not bad if you are moderately adept with a PC. With the software installed and a significant amount of research I was struggling, I needed and example to go by and I couldn't find one readily available anywhere. So I broke down and bought a year subscription to Radioreference for $30, Freescan has a great import feature to pull in the programming directly from Radioreference. In 30 minutes I had the scanner up and running. Being able to review the programming made all the difference and significantly advanced my knowledge. Overall this is a great unit that is well built with a great display. Reception in my area with the stock antenna is great, but this hobby sucks you in fast, pretty sure I need to educate myself about antennas next.

good item good radio if you need a analog scanner

satisfied

This is a great scanner. Does what I was wanting it to do. Was a little hard to program and may not have all the trunking done right, but it seems to be working.

Had this for over 6 months now, its as good as advertised.

I received it late because of UPS. It is a little hard too program even with free scan and radio reference. I recommend finding a local person that can fully program it if you are not tech savvy. It gets very good reception with stock antenna, and squelch is easy to control. The sound is good volume great. It has the capability to receive more channels under more bands than you can count. From ham, gmrs, public analog, trucnked ect... It is ruggedly built, metal not plastic. It reminds one of the good quality from the 1970-1980 era. Buttons are easy to operate with positive feel. It is expensive, but seems well worth the cost as it has all the features needed to listen to all the local and federal channels within about 150 miles and a little more. It also picks up some aircraft bands. Go ahead and buy it, you will be pleased with it.

You had better know a lot about technology and scanners to operate this. I would never been able to program this by myself. Luckily I knew someone that had one and did it for me.

Recieved in the mail quickly and the scanner works well. Sound quality of the radio is good. It is however a bit tedious programing the scanner via the menus but have downloaded the radio reference free software and the scanner is now up and running with all of my local frequencies. I am getting good reception from PDs 30 miles from my home with the stock antenna. I am however going to give this product four stars, not because the radio lacks quality but because I did not recieve the mounting hardware. Am planning to mount this scanner in my vehicle but the package seems to be missing the twist nuts for the mount and mounting screws. It wont be hard to drive down to my local hardware store to pick up to screws that will work, but at the price point of 350, it is disappointing not to have recieve the radio with all of its intended contents.

Replaced my BCT15X with it, programming is much the same, however programming trunked systems is a major pain, even with the software. It helps to a ton to have a subscription to radioreference dot com. Don't even try without it. My only problem is Ive not found a good way to program talk groups, so i get everything, Police, Fire, EMS.... Sometimes all i want is Fire, i get tired of listening to the cops writing speeding tickets.If anyone knows how to do that, please leave a comment.

Very nice radio which meets the needs of my listening spectrum. The programming neededis very difficult tho. I was fortunate enough tohave a friend help me. The reception is not that great with 700 mhz. systems unless you find anoptimal space where you live or use an outside antenna. Most of the poor reception is not the radio's fault, its the crappy systems with their very narrow band width. 700 mhz. systems are totally over-rated.

the light was not working, not sure if it got damaged in the delivery, other than that I like it.

This product is an analog scanner and is not digital. I bought the wrong scanner and is not worth buying unless your county is not digital.

Returned this item, only due to purchasing a different design that fit my needs better,

Very. Good on conventional ,good on trunking. The p 2 just work ,s ok you will miss. Parts. Of the transmission,I have a ,G R E .RADIO SCANNER. and it decodes. Better then. This one ,you will have the difficult time at first but when you figure. Out not much of. A big . Deal programing it. Up you can and. Should. Be able to hand program. It ,,I Did it. !.so if your looking to do trunking. Of digital. Systems. Then. Look some. Where. Else.,,

its ok but can get any one to program it the right way

returned this product and purchased a BCD536HP. This is a great scanner but too difficult for me to grasp the probramming protocol

I was expecting a bit more for the $$$ its only flaw I can find is the audio drop outs when Priority scanning is active and or Weather scanning is active, Apparently the unit needs a lot of time to check for activity in the background to the point that it makes listening almost unbearable, I would hope in the future Uniden can do this fast enough in the background without the 1 second dropouts,It would be almost perfect otherwise. Yes this scanner is difficult to program buying software and a Subscription to RadioReference for the frequency's is a must! or you could be programming it for days or weeks depending on were you live. were I am there is a proprietary 800 system that is close to impossible to program manually.

difficult to program

Less than 5 miles from a p25 tower and it will not stay locked onto the system. A very poor simulcast p25 radio

hard to program. on imformation on frenuenices

Hard to program and still sitting on my desk not working. Paid scancat for software to program. But it only works on a 32 bit system. Waste of money

I was not happy with this scanner. It was too hard for me to set up and I never got to use it!

not happy. no one would help, set it up. had five people try to get it working for me, they could not either. I would not recommend it, to anyone.

Virtually impossible to program

Can't get it to work. I have tried and tried. Was thinking about taking it out to RadioShack and see if they can program it for me.

This item was returned because it was advertised as a digital radio ;and it is not!

The control knob is bent. Problem with the data transfer the plug is not lined up with the front case.Looks like someone dropped the unit.

IM GETTING READY TO SELL IT CAUSE ITS A PEICE OF JUNK WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY I THINK ITS ANALOG

This scanner is old technology and is for analog tracking, not digital tracking, and it can not work with the more modern method of digital trunking. Essentially if it works with your system today it won't work within a year ot two. You would do better with the newer yet more expensive digital trunking scanners available from Radio Shack or other dealers. Digital scanners will still pull in analog signal while providing room to grow into the digital world

The Radioshack Pro-163 that I recieved was not new. The item was used with scratches on the unit. You can tell also on how it was repack. Need to check this buyer out before you buy. Also read that others have had the same problem.

Instruction manual included is extremely poor. You won't be able to use this radio unless you are previously experience, or are willing to spend a considerable amount of time researching other resources, and getting help from others.This particular model has a bug in the USB driver. You can connect it to a computer to feed real time information about what is being scanned to computer software. If you computer goes to sleep, when it wakes up, the USB connection will no longer work. You have to turn the scanner off and on to reset it.Uniden Customer Support is worthless. I submitted a written tech support request. I included adequate descriptions of the problem, and the testing that was performed which verifies that the problem is in the radio, and not the computer. I received a non-response after 19 DAYS!! They obviously hadn't even read my message, because they started out suggestion I try things which have already been tried without success. Uniden has Customer Support which is next to useless, and they seemed unwilling to even consider that they have a bug in their product.

Wouldn't scan channels right out of the box ?

Way to complicated. The instruction book is a joke. What little info online is not helpful. Antenna that comes with the scanner is useless.

Scanner /search button broken so scanner does not work.

Try to enter numbers for frequency or function and it beeps and does nothing. This renders the scanner useless.

Hard to program and could not connect to computer with the usb port. Very disapointed with it. Still not programed.