Local pawn shop called me and said he had a Bearcat mobile scanner just in. So I stopped out last night and picked it up. Only things missing were the manual (DL'd it this morning) and the telescoping antenna. I plan to put it in my work vehicle (98 Ford Expedition) and get an external antenna for it (instead of the wire with the suction cups).
Right now my work vehicle is out of commission, so I am going to temporarily hook it up in my Dodge.
I had to put in a new water heater last night, so I didn;t get to play with it much, but I did hook it up to the cigarette lighter and scanned on the way home from the pawn shop. I picked up some CB traffic and a local Fire call, so I guess it works fine.
Are there any tips or tricks with this thing? I hope to play around and program some channels tonight.
Just got a Bearcat BC350C
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TURNz
- 4 PILL USER
- Posts: 43
- Joined: October 10th, 2009, 6:05 pm
- Real Name: Josh
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'Doc
Re: Just got a Bearcat BC350C
Can't say anything pertaining specifically to that scanner but a few things in general might help.
Antennas. If you can find a resonant antenna for particular bands, that can certainly help some. If not, then longer tends to work better than shorter ones. Receivers are just not as 'picky' about impedance matching, and resonance as transmitters, so don't beat your self to death over them too much.
Scanners tend to have 'better' speakers in them than the typical transceiver. That is NOT saying much, so external speakers usually help. At least you can sort of 'direct' the sound where you want it.
And then, depending on where you live, you can cause yourself gobs of trouble if the authorities find a scanner in your car/truck. Lots of "if's" and "but's" with that, just be aware of it.
It also helps at times if you can do a quick 'turn off'. As in favorite song on the radio, phone calls, the back seat drive has instructions, etc. Not absolutely necessary, just handy.
- 'Doc
(If you ever devise a 'mute' switch for that back seat drive, how about telling me about it??)
Antennas. If you can find a resonant antenna for particular bands, that can certainly help some. If not, then longer tends to work better than shorter ones. Receivers are just not as 'picky' about impedance matching, and resonance as transmitters, so don't beat your self to death over them too much.
Scanners tend to have 'better' speakers in them than the typical transceiver. That is NOT saying much, so external speakers usually help. At least you can sort of 'direct' the sound where you want it.
And then, depending on where you live, you can cause yourself gobs of trouble if the authorities find a scanner in your car/truck. Lots of "if's" and "but's" with that, just be aware of it.
It also helps at times if you can do a quick 'turn off'. As in favorite song on the radio, phone calls, the back seat drive has instructions, etc. Not absolutely necessary, just handy.
- 'Doc
(If you ever devise a 'mute' switch for that back seat drive, how about telling me about it??)
-
TURNz
- 4 PILL USER
- Posts: 43
- Joined: October 10th, 2009, 6:05 pm
- Real Name: Josh
Re: Just got a Bearcat BC350C
Well I finallly got to play with it a little last night. I am kind of disappointed. Mainly because it isn't very user friendly.
Basically, the only way to program frequencies is to scan that band, and hit HOLD when it gets close, then increment up to the desired freq.
Allowing it to scan the 1700 preset POLICE frequencies doesn't really work, especially because it keeps locking on to frequencies that are just noise. Not static, noise. I can hit the up arrow and pass them, but when it comes around it locks on again. So I was going through Locking them Out last night. After LOing 10 or so, I gave up for the night. 500.4875 and 500.3375 were two of them.
I need the scanner in my vehicle for work, but I only need to listen to about 6 channels, with maybe 4 more occasionally. I guess the only way to do this is to clear out the PRIVATE bank, and only put those 10 freq. in there.
I'm not all the way through the book yet, but since I bought it used, I'd like to see what the previous owner programmed. I don't see a way to scroll through save freq.
I did lock on to what I guess is a HAM channel (145.3500). At first I thought it was a nearby ski-resort, because some lady was talking about forms that people needed to pick up for volunteering, how good the up coming season was going to be, and she said something like "that's it for up here on the mountain". But then I realized it was some kind of roll call for HAM operators. A guy would call out a HAM ID, then the person would give kind of a scenopsis of what was going on with them. They were discussing collecting what I assume is an old radio magazine and stuff like that.
Basically, the only way to program frequencies is to scan that band, and hit HOLD when it gets close, then increment up to the desired freq.
Allowing it to scan the 1700 preset POLICE frequencies doesn't really work, especially because it keeps locking on to frequencies that are just noise. Not static, noise. I can hit the up arrow and pass them, but when it comes around it locks on again. So I was going through Locking them Out last night. After LOing 10 or so, I gave up for the night. 500.4875 and 500.3375 were two of them.
I need the scanner in my vehicle for work, but I only need to listen to about 6 channels, with maybe 4 more occasionally. I guess the only way to do this is to clear out the PRIVATE bank, and only put those 10 freq. in there.
I'm not all the way through the book yet, but since I bought it used, I'd like to see what the previous owner programmed. I don't see a way to scroll through save freq.
I did lock on to what I guess is a HAM channel (145.3500). At first I thought it was a nearby ski-resort, because some lady was talking about forms that people needed to pick up for volunteering, how good the up coming season was going to be, and she said something like "that's it for up here on the mountain". But then I realized it was some kind of roll call for HAM operators. A guy would call out a HAM ID, then the person would give kind of a scenopsis of what was going on with them. They were discussing collecting what I assume is an old radio magazine and stuff like that.