Uniden BC72XLT Handheld Scanner (Black)

Handheld scanner for monitoring police and fire signals, weather transmissions, ham radio bands, and more

Top Positive Review

This was my first scanner and I have been pretty happy with it. After reading the instructions, it’s very simple to program things in and get listening quickly.
The CloseCall and priority channel functions are neat. They check for really strong and close signals and a priority channel per bank respectively, but they both create almost a second of break in the audio every few seconds to scan for signals, which is annoying.
I’ve also found that the 100 programmable channels go quickly. I’ve got almost all of them full and find myself wishing I’d gotten the BC92 with 200 channels.
Other than that, it’s worked really well for me. The small antenna isn’t the greatest, but for its size it pulls in signal very well and seems very sturdy. I got the scanner mostly for the air band. I live about 4 miles from our local airport, and the antenna just barely brings in the tower. ATIS if you hold it right and listen hard. Pretty much nothing on the ground. It’s picked up airplanes almost 100 miles away, though, talking to the ARTCC, but couldn’t hear the controllers there. I can hear the police and fire broadcasts from town, as well as the rural paging. One city I live near has gone digital, but the other has not (twin cities… kind of odd), so I can hear half of the public safety traffic. Local ham repeaters and NOAA also come in well.
[…] is a great place to go to find lots of local radio frequencies (and a good place to check to make sure you don’t need a digital scanner to hear what you want to).
I got a Scan-Force-Tele Section antenna to use with it, with mixed results. Better signal strength than the stock antenna, but it has FM interference on the air band.
I haven’t used the batteries for more than a couple hours before recharging, so I can’t say much about the battery life. They haven’t died on me yet, so that’s pretty good. I do have to take the batteries out of the scanner after a bit of charging, because they start getting really hot. I don’t think that’s a good sign. I think it’s trying to overcharge them.
I may have more testing information this summer, with vacation and maybe an air show.
So all in all it’s a good basic scanner. I’m considering getting a digital scanner to pick up a wider frequency range as well as trunked signals.

Top Critical Review

Quite frankly, the only reason I purchased this is my two Radio Shack scanners with “Signal Stalker”, had that feature cease working on both. I had both repaired once under warranty, then the second one, again under warranty. The Pro 97 SS stopped working again and they wanted $20 to send it to repair before they would tell me how much it would cost to fix. So, I just bought this scanner for it’s “Close Call” feature, which is RS’s “Signal Stalker”. Only after I had it in the cart and paid for it did I realize it did not cover anything above the 400 band. Mistake on my part. Given around here in my rural setting the police, fire, and sheriffs do nothing in the trunking, or higher frequencies, it is fine for the car. I will say this, it is louder than any of my other scanners. No CSTSS, limited frequencies and only 100 channels, which does not even take all the business band possibilities. The Close Call feature, works no better than on the RS scanners, and is hard to program. Good back up or for the car. You get what you pay for. I thought a Uniden would be substantially better. Who knows? Maybe it won’t break.

Customer Questions & Answers

Is this a police fire and ems scanner
Answer: This scanner will scan for : Weather, Police, Fire, Aircraft, Marine, and ham radio says so on the box.. the frequencies are : 25-54, 108-174,406-512

Would it pick up phone conversation
Answer: From some of the old cordless phones perhaps,(most of those were on 800Mhz) but not the modern cell phones..

Is this scanner digital?
Answer: No it definitely is NOT digital. There may be some confusion as is has a “digital display” but it will not receive digital encoded signals. This scanner works best for Nascar fans who want to listen in on the drivers and crews at the races. It receives Analog signals only.

Can this scanner be used in indiana?
Answer:

It can be used in any State. Problem is that many Police Departments have switched to Digital Radio. Like Vegas where I live. Scanners will not pick up theses signals so it is useless if this is your intention. Mine is just a Paper Weight for me now being Vegas Police went to Digital. Check if your Police went to Digit??

Can you tell me if this scanner is digital or analog???
Answer: Digital. AND, this scanner is very difficult to program and use. I have been a ham radio operator since 1978 and still found it overly complicated, especially for the novice user.