All hazard radio scanner Uniden’s BC370CRS scanner combines a conventional channel scanner with an alarm clock radio. You can easily enter and store frequencies for police, fire/emergency, marine, air, amateur, and other radio services into 300 channels. The scanner also lets you listen to NOAA weather broadcasts for valuable information specific to your location, and all hazards alert for any other public warnings. The scanner’s clock displays whenever you turn off the radio functions, and it c
$ 115.53
What a neat idea for a scanner….,
This was on my wish list and my wife indulged me for my birthday! Thanks!
When I started working as a young teenager, the second thing I bought with my money was a Bearcat 6 channel handheld scanner. That was more than 30 years ago and times sure have changed.
Let us talk about the non scanner features first. The atomic clock works solid and had no trouble getting signal. The alarm clock also works as expected. The snooze button could stand out a little more since there are a lot of buttons of similar size and location. (I said similar and not exact!)
The FM and TV reception work fine and I can pick up stations 40 to 50 miles away without static. The AM reception is adequate and works about as good as AM radio can.
The radio also has a very important feature of weather alerts from NOAA. You can program it to only alert you on weather events in your area (county). This is an important safety feature I cannot suggest more.
To be honest, I didn’t need an atomic alarm clock or an FM radio as I already had those needs met. I also have a nice collection of scanners but I had a specific need (want) and this scanner fit the bill – almost.
I will digress for a second and mention that many metropolitan areas no longer use conventional radios for public safety agencies. Conventional means each agency has a dedicated radio frequency and many times departments inside of each agency have their own dedicated frequency. It doesn’t take long to realize that a lot of frequencies are needed.
To combat this, many public safety agencies (and sometimes large businesses) will use a trunked radio system. To monitor trunked radio systems, you need a scanner capable of receiving (following) the system. Some trunked systems are now digital which require an even more specialized scanner.
The Uniden BCT15 or Uniden BCD996T will work for trunked or digital trunked systems. I strongly suggest you research what systems and frequencies are used in your area before you buy any scanner.
Getting back to the scanner review…
This scanner monitors conventional frequencies only. I bought this scanner to specifically monitor one frequency – the local school system. This system allows me to monitor early morning traffic from the school which allows me to be alerted of any problems or concerns including weather delays or closings.
But I also use it to monitor more items such as those little FRS radios everyone seems to have and the traffic from the local Air Force base. I won’t bore you will everything but programming is very easy to do and the manual is very clear on all operations of the radio. (You can preview the manual at Uniden’s website.)
The reception is very good and when I listen to some air bands for commercial and military, it has several hundred miles of range with the supplied antenna.
The search feature is functional and the preprogrammed search banks make it easy for new users to find frequencies. You can create your own custom search banks too.
The operation to scan or hold on one frequency is simple to learn and use.
I gave the scanner only 4 stars for 2 reasons. One is the really poor BNC connector on the antenna. It is a major complaint that extends to most Uniden base station scanners. You need to be careful attaching it or you can damage the antenna or even the radio.
The second reason is more of a personal nit pick of my own. I picked up the scanner to monitor the conventional frequency of the local public school. My bedroom is located on the second floor so I have some height inside the house on the radio.
An ambulance service a couple of counties over also uses the same frequency as the school. The local school has a PL tone which I can program into other scanners in my collection but not this one. So I wished the scanner accepted PL tones. Again, this is just a small nit pick which won’t be a problem for most others.
I do recommend this radio or any Uniden radio in general. I own 3 current models and have had many in the past. Enjoy and happy scanning!
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|Small Unit does a LOT of things for the money!,
One night my husband and I were out on the porch discussing various things from our youth. Somehow the subject of police scanners came up. We needed a new clock radio with alarm and since we live on an island in NE in a flood zone I joked that what we needed was a police/fire/emergency scanner with built in radio, weather band that could be taken on the run.
Not being well versed on today’s scanners (I am of the era of Smokey and the Bandit) was very surprised and delighted to find they do make such an item. It does an awful lot for a small sized unit. And being an electronic brand name snob I felt I could take the chance on getting a well made unit from bearcat/uniden.
Well we set it all up and programmed it BUT found lots of discrepancies on the web as far as what the correct frequency numbers are for police/fire in our area. So we let it do its thing where it scanned and picked up local frequencies and some from far away as well.
It was the weekend so we could not call the toll free number provided with the directions (directions? We don’t need no stinkin’ directions!) which will tell you the freqency numbers of services in your area.
Rather than that, however, my husband opted to bring it to a local man who for a small fee entered the areas/services we were looking for. i imagine the true scanner enthusiast would of called or had those numbers already. Just be careful of info found on the web.
The weather alert/band features are interesting and handy to have, too. We have lived through various hurricanes/blizzards and it is nice to have something informative that runs on batteries as well as standard electric.
We found we liked it so much we put it on the kitchen counter and as such left unmet our original need for a bedside clock radio alarm. So I still need to buy one of those for the bedroom!
It also picks up some TV stations. Again, in a power outage handy to have. Oh yes you will cry if the power goes out too long but suck it up like we do. On New Years eve we lost power on our island and had to LISTEN to the ball fall during the Dick Clark Rockin New Years Eve show. To all life some rain must fall.
So far the most interesting thing we heard on the police scanner was concerning a man who somehow super-glued himself to a urinal wall. Never saw anything about it in the paper, either.
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|Totally Unnecessary but Totally Useful,
Just another toy that I could live without. But it sure is lots of fun scanning the frequencies, listening to police, fire, and airport chatter.
GREAT weather radio. This function is real nice.
Do you need this item – absolutely not.
Will you have fun with it – absolutely yes.
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