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Reviews For: Bearcat BCT8 TrunkTracker III

Category: Receivers: Scanners

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Review Summary For : Bearcat BCT8 TrunkTracker III
Reviews: 8MSRP: 180.00
Description:
Uniden Bearcat Police Scanner
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.uniden.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0083.8
W5KVV Rating: 2022-06-26
EXCELLENT Time Owned: more than 12 months.
First review since 2009:

Been a long time since this one was reviewed so here we go. My father was a dispatcher for Oklahoma DPS (OHP) for 30 years. 1978-2008. I was just getting into radio around the time, so for my high school graduation present he bought me a brand new BCT-8 in 2001. VERY early production model, before the nascar BS. It saddens me to think people had difficulty programming this scanner. A 17 year old kid could do it in seconds. I was that kid. It has been mounted in every mobile I've ever had since 2001. 21 years worth as of this review. It has been a loyal companion, by my side at all times. As more and more systems move from analog to digital, my good friend is not quite as active as he use to be. Unfortunately I've had to lock out more frequencies than I'd like to. Even OHP has moved away from the tried & true low band relays.

Regardless. . . this rig was easy to set up, worked great and never missed a beat. I never had an issue with intermod or mixing. It just performed like a champ. No alpha tags!? Guys: We use to have rolling zeros or at the best channel numbers!!! This is one of the last decent old school scanners Uniden made before everything changed.

Mine is currently living out the rest of its days in my ham shack, and still hasn't missed a beat in 21 years of continuous service.
VE9SY Rating: 2009-05-04
Works well IF you can get it programed Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I can not believe the trouble in getting this radio to work on a system that is not pre-programed into it. It might be a great radio if you are living in the U.S., but not any were else!

I have had to reprogram this radio a few times. The owner is blind, and will on occasionally hit some thing that wipes out critical data. I wrote down the instructions that worked for me, but every time it needs to be done, it seems I need to use a different method??

The instruction tell you what you need to see on the screen, But stop short of telling you how to get it that way. Uniden's tech support has 1 solution, BUY THE SOFTWARE. I guess they don't know how to do it either.
KB2GQK Rating: 2007-09-06
Good scanner for under $170.00 Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This scanner has great audio but has poor sensitivity on VHF-Low Band,and UHF Band.(Hence only giving it a 4) Westchester County, NY is going to start their new trunking system on 9-10-07. So until then, nothing to report on that. I just can't imagine why they left out CTCSS/DCS on this model. I must say that this scanner is well made. A solid unit and doesn't need a external speaker. I may sell this one and replace it with a BCT-15. Just don't like the programing system on that model.
K1ESL Rating: 2006-09-12
but, a few issues Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have one of these in use as a backup scanner. It performs adequately in most respects. However, several things jump out at me after having used it awhile.

First - if you are used to alphanumeric tags, you will REALLY miss them with this - especially in the trunking arena. If you listen to only a few things or just like to have something to listen to when you travel, this would be a good one.

Second - lack of CTCSS tone is really a bummer. This has a great effect with regard to #3, below.

Third - and this is why #2 really bites too - is that the receiver is highly prone to intermod when used with a good antenna in a medium to high signal area (read: city). PL/CTCSS can be very helpful to deal with a less than great receiver, but lack of tones make this radio suffer greatly in a busy area.

The positive points are mentioned in a previous review - I really want to like this radio. It's built well, the face and controls are super. I have a BC350C in the car as a minimalist scanner, but the receiver in this one is no better, so the car will have to wait for something better once all this rebanding and other things settle out for me in the local area. It does do well for the price - just don't expect too much from it.
AF4KK Rating: 2005-03-09
Great little scanner! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
It's quite sensitive, has great capabilities, and has great range. The frequency ranges are more than adequate and it has plenty of channels to store those cool frequencies in. It's also small enough in size (but with a nice-sized display) that it can easilly fit in most mobile applications. I gave it a score of "4" instead of "5" only because it doesn't have alpha-numerics.
KG2LI Rating: 2005-02-08
A fine Scanner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
First impressions: The BCT8 is a fairly well made radio; the chassis is made of heavy gauge steel and is much more sturdy than necessary. The volume and squelch knobs that another reviewer commented negatively on have a dual purpose. There not just potentiometers, they also function as push-button switches which control other features of the radio. This may explain the certain amount of play in them. I did not think they had a cheep feel to them at all. The display is a nice size; easy to read and has excellent contrast. The backlit keypad is nice looking and key bounce is non-existent while programming. The internal speaker also sounds very good. This is the only scanner that I own where I don’t feel compelled to connect an external speaker. The Radio is also very cool looking. I want to buy another one just to see how cool it would look to have them stacked up, one on top of the other.

Channel scanning is fast. As for sensitivity, it hears anything that any of my other scanners hear using the same antenna. I would like to bring it into the lab where I work and test for the bad sensitivity that another reviewer mentioned in the 492 – 494 MHz range. I also own the Radio Shack Pro-25 that the other reviewer has compared this radio to and I noticed that the Pro-25 had poor image rejection. You could think you were listing to 492 MHz when the station is really transmitting on 470.600 MHz. If this is the case then it is a good sign that you don’t hear the same 492 MHz image on the BCT8. The AM detector is well designed in the BCT8, if you like listing to the VHF Air band you will notice very pleasing audio.

Operation: The scanner is easy to program. It is also very easy to tune in a lot of action without programming anything at all. Turn it on; select your State and you’ll be listing to more police action than you realized existed near your home. Press the TRUNK button once while scanning your State and you’ll be trunk tracking. In this mode, the scanner will display the TALK GROUP instead of the frequency whenever it stops on a channel that is part of a trunked system. You will be scanning every pre-programmed Trunking system in your area at this point so you can take notes and write down the talk groups that the scanner displays while receiving something of particular interest to you. Pressing the DOWN button while the radio is stopped on a trunked channel will conveniently change the display from the TALK GROUP ID to the FREQUENCY of the channel that you are listening to. This makes it easy to take notes for programming your own channels and talk groups later on.

Uniden is very generous with their supplied accessories. 3 power cords are included, one AC adapter, one mobile cigarette lighter adapter and one 6 foot power cord that you can use for hooking up to your own power supply or a jell-cell battery. Two antennas are included, the typical telescoping whip and one wire antenna with suction cups on either end which can be used mobile or stuck to a window in your home. A mobile mounting bracket is also included as well as a Free-Ware version of their control software that lets you play with the 50 memories in bank 1.

If the BCT8 was a $350.00 radio I might invest some time into trying to find a few things that I don’t like about it; but selling under $180.00 it gets a solid 5.

David KG2LI
M37H0DM4N Rating: 2004-12-09
This scanner is great! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This scanner is so good. I have been using it for a while now and it runs so perfectly! And picks up so many frequencies!

A++
DARK1FREQ Rating: 2004-05-28
May have frequency Limitations Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have been using a BCT-8 Bearcat scanner for a month. So far it has been performing well on most assigned frequencies.
But I discovered a deficiency in the UHF "T" band. I was able to confirm this deficiency also exisits on another Bearcat, model BC350C.

Reciever sensitivity within specific frequencies are either poor or non-existant. My tests indicate it is in the freq. area of 492.0000 to 494.0000.
Using a Radio Shack model PRO-25 hand held 800 MHz scanner a local police freq was programmed within the UHF "T" band. The Radio Shack unit consistently recieved transmissions from both base and mobile units. The BCT8 and the BC350C did not. Numerous types and sizes of antennas were used and they never worked. As a matter of point! The Radio Shack PRO-25 recieves the frequency without an antenna attached.
It seems like, these two Bearcat scanners perform as if their is a "blocking" designed into the bearcat units internal program. The highest recieved frequency recieved on both Bearcat units was 859.2875 a state police frequency.
It would be advisable especially for "First Responders" who require a scanning unit mobile or base. Test the performance of the scanner on the band and the assigned freq. you need to monitor. I do not recommend these scanners for use in the narrow band of frequencies I tested. I have presented this problem to Uniden as a question on their website and have not recieved any response.