Uniden BC355N 300-Channel Base/Mobile Scanner, Close Call Capture, Pre-programmed Search “Action” Bands to Hear Non-Digital Police, Ambulance, Fire, Amateur Radio, Public Utilities, Weather & more

This is a no frills basic scanner that works great for anyone in an area that has police and fire still on analog frequencies. Really simple to program; don’t believe the naysayers that say it isn’t. A simple 3 minute youtube video showed me how to do it. Its a bit time consuming and repetitive but very very easy once you know how. If you plan to listen to over 25 or so frequencies right of the bat, you might want to invest in a programming cable and download programming software. Also, it does have a TOTAL of 300 slots to program frequencies BUT 200 of these are under the Air/Marine slot. It is a bit confusing and if you want to listen to more than 100 frequencies and have to spill over to the Air/Marine presets, you will have to set the scanner to scan your “private” frequencies along with both the “Air” and “Marine” band presets. Its confusing I know, but it DOES have 300 memory slots. If some folks read the free downloadable user manual before purchasing, they would have known that. If you are listening to that many frequencies though, you should probably invest in a better, higher end scanner that has a larger custom memory bank.Its pretty small and takes up very little space on my nightstand and workbench. Worthwhile if you are like me and only listen to around 15 or 20 of the local police/fire/EMS frequencies. If that is all you are looking for out of your scanner, this will do the job. Upon arrival, the box included the scanner, a base telescopic antenna that plugs straight into the back (works well for me, your results may vary with location), a mobile mounting bracket with several feet of fused power wire, a DC cigarette power adapter for quick “plug and go” mobile installation, and finally a second antenna. The second antenna is basically a copper wire with suction cups on both ends and several feet of coax attached to it. According to the directions, you basically suction cup the antenna to the inside windshield on the passenger side of the vehicle or to the rear widow if you drive a standard cab truck. I currently use it in my basement window to gain better reception during the evening when I am working downstairs in my concrete surrounded shop space. Having an additional antenna stuck up in the window really helps improve the reception.Overall, its simple, it works, and its not crazy expensive because of too many bells and whistles I won’t use.

I got this scanner to listen to the local emergency channels as well as the storm spotter stations. It is always nice to know what is going on in the area as I am a first responder. There are days I like to follow big fires as some times we are called in for mutual aid, so it gives me a good snap shot of what to expect if a MABAS is called.I do believe that the location for this is good to note as well. I live in a semi rural area surrounded by a lot of forestry land and bluffs, my scanner is by my desk in the basement with just the basic pull out antenna attached. So far it has had no issues getting very good signal, even in snow, rain, heavy winds, and summertime tree cover. Some days I actually hear the calls paging us for a fire on the scanner before my actual pager picks up the page and sounds off.The programming is not hard, I had absolutely no issues getting the local frequencies programmed into the private selection. The little instruction booklet that came with it was pretty fairly easy to comprehend when it came to setting frequencies into the private section, not really sure why this particular function had so many negative reviews about it being confusing. This is my first scanner and from unboxing to being up and running with all the local frequencies installed it took maybe an hour, this includes assembly, running the cord, attaching the antenna and looking up and saving the 15 or so local frequencies.It comes with the power and antenna capabilities to use in the house or while on the road. It is pretty nice using it on long road trips to hear about what is going on in front of you. The weather channels are nice too as you can follow the weather alerts from the NWS in real time. We get frequent tornadic weather, so this is nice to have in the basement to have a decent heads up in the event of natural disasters.Overall I am pleased, my kids love to listen in when we get a fire call, it gives me the alerts that I want. It is pretty easy to operate. If you are looking for a basic analog (not digital) scanner. It has ran daily since I got it and I have not had any issues at all. If I had to throw a negative in there, it would be a stretch with saying the sound gets a bit crackly for a few seconds, but then I have to remember where it is and it is pulling in analog.I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a basic scanner.

I wanted a scanner for a long time. I use to pull up radio reference and listen to the stream of my local police traffic but the quality was bad and unreliable. This scanner appealed to be because I wanted one like this style, not the portable radio looking ones, as well as the feature of being able to use it in the home and car. It took me a little while to figure out how to use it even with the instructions but after 10-20 minutes I had my local sheriffs dept. tuned in. I was so happy, the quality was 100x better than the internet stream, it sounded like they were right next to me compared to what the stream sounded like. I was impressed by the amount of accessories that were included with the scanner. Most companies would require you to purchase all the stuff that was included with this. There was a car antenna, a house antenna, AC adapter, DC adapter, and a hard wire kit for the car. I purchased a different antenna for the top of the car as well as a speaker. The only wish I have is that it went a little louder, when your in the car and driving at 60-75 MPH its hard to hear with the road noise. If you have it you can plus your AUX in for your car and have it come across your speakers but it’ll only come out of one side.I don’t know anything about scanners but I’m 100% happy with my purchase. Its something I’ve wanted for a long time and it does exactly what I wanted. Don’t be discouraged if you have trouble figuring it out at first. The instructions don’t cover everything so you sort of have to teach yourself some things.

Perfect for first timer scanner users

The speaker is a bit weak for vehicle use. It would be a good addition for scanners to include CTCSS and DPL to clean up unwanted receptions. This scanner is easy for me to program, but it could come with a learning curve for some.