Yesterday I received the latest addition to my hobby arsenal, a Uniden Bearcat BC250D handheld scanner (with the digital APCO-25 card). I was looking for three main features: portability, capacity, and frequency coverage. This does all three, yet it's years of service will likely be numbered...more on that later. It covers the 225-400 MHz military air band, which was a prerequisite for me. It has 1000 programmable channels, and can be used in the apartment, in the Jeep, and on a beltclip. It's main purpose for me is to cover all the local non-aircraft frequencies, freeing up my other scanner's 500 channels for that purpose. I'll also use it on the road to scan police, CB, and weather frequencies. I'll also use it at air shows. It replaces the absolute workhorse Radio Shack Pro-43 handheld I've had for 10 years.
Although it covers Toledo Police/Fire's frequency-hopping system and the new statewide digital system, that may not last. Both Toledo and the state are upgrading to new digital systems. When the state get's their system fully upgraded in the next few years, my radio for sure won't be able to track it, and with Toledo's new system coming on-line in 2-4 years, it likely won't be able to track it either. So when those days come, it will probably be time for me to upgrade to whatever new radio is on the market...but that's a ways off. For now, I'll enjoy what I've got. I'll have pictures posted soon.
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2 comments:
you can't seperage a boy and his toys.. lol
bv
Unfortunately if what I've read is correct, Uniden won't do it. They want everyone to buy the new BC296D that does cover the new 9600 baud digital systems. The 296's digicard will work in the 250 but it won't trunktrack on 9600 baud...it's a firmware issue. Hopefully a third party will offer a flash upgrade someday...
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