My first airband scanner

[ashawley]

I live in the US and have owned the Uniden BC125AT handheld scanner for a year.  I picked it up on sale from Radio Shack for $100 over a year ago.  It didn't come with the rechargeable batteries.  I just use USB power with a mini-B USB cable which are easy to find.  In Australia, this scanner is called the BC126AT, and in EU the BC125XLT.

http://unidensupport.com/Find-Your-Product/Scanners/BC125AT

http://www.uniden.com.au/australia/p_ubc126at_index.asp

It's been great for scanning airband, however, I don't use the rubber ducky antenna it comes with.  I bought $175 worth of antennae from DPD productions for my car and my flat:

VHF Air Blade Indoor Antenna w/BNC Male connector $89.95

http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_vhf_air.html#vhfairblade

VHF Air (118-136 MHz) 1/4 Wave Mobile Antenna  w/ $64.95

http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_vhf_air.html#vhfairmobile14

Shipping in the US is about $25

I've been able to connect the BC125AT to my computer using the USB cable to program my favorite frequencies. My method is not user-friendly, so I can't recommend it to others, nor am I familiar with a better method.  Fortunately, programming the scanner can be done directly with the buttons, dial and menus directly.  It takes some effort studying the instruction manual, but is easy to learn if you have time.

Happy scanning!

[dave]

Congrats on your first airband scanner! You picked a decent radio but, as you are discovering, the antenna and placement of the antenna is much more important than the radio you choose. Most of the available radios have comparable receivers and the weak link is always the antenna and listening environment. By "listening environment" I mean how much receiver noise is received at the receiver location. Receiver noise can be produced by many things - light dimmers, AC power lines, cell phone chargers, cable TV...the list is long.

But the best thing you can usually do is place the antenna as high and in the clear as possible...then if you have noticeable issues with reception to start looking around for sources of noise. You can use your handheld radio as an initial aid in finding those sources of noise and there's a lot of information out there to aid you.