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BIG bang for the bucks

A little about me first. I don’t have the equipment to analyze the scanner inside and out. I also live in an area with LOTs of radio traffic. Keep that in mind if you want an engineering review, or live in the sticks.

This radio is geared for the Nascar fan. If that’s your sole interest in this scanner, then by all means buy it. It is pre-programmed with all the drivers in all the major Nascar events. Since the scanner has “Alpha tagging” you see the name of the drivers. The officials are also tagged along with the scorers and news-media. It also has a built in search of the frequencies the drivers use, so you can easily pick up new cars, or find drivers that made changes. It comes with two antennas, a typical “rubber duck” antenna, and a stubby rubber duck. Either antenna will work fine at the track. The radio is very small, and with the stubby antenna, you should have no problem keeping it on your hip or in a pocket.

This scanner is jam packed with features for a great price. I’m not a Nascar fan, and the scanner suits me fine. The pre-programmed searches are a God send. You can also program your own custom searches and save them. The pre-programmed searches can only be scanned one at a time, but all 10 custom searches can be scanned in any combination. Searches can be run just to scan, or “search and store” With search and store, any received chanell is checked against memory. If it is new, it will automatically store into a system you chose ahead of time, or a defualt one for you to look through later. Alpha tagging is great. You have the ability to enter a name for each chanell. Since this scanner has so much memory, it’s a God send. The scanner memory is organised more like a computer, than the traditional 10 banks of 20 chanells memory. It’s lengthy to explain, but it’s very easy to learn and is a much more convienient way to use the scanner.

Some of the programming features are a tad bit arcane. Where some scanners alow chanells to be moved in and out of memory space with a couple of easy key presses, this one can get odd. Sometimes a chanell has to be copied into the scanners buffer, then you have to navigate around the menu to find the place you want to paste it.

There are so many features and in and outs of the radio I could go on all night. But here are the important things (in my opinion) it’s jam packed with great features, at a good price. It’s perfect for Nascar, just pick it up and go. The numerous searches make it great for finding new chanells. The memory is organised efficiently and intelligently. The little speaker provides good volume and sound quality. Much better than any of my older scanners. Headphone jack has enough poop to drive my headphones nicely. They even give you rechargable batteries with it.

For those just getting interested in the hobby….. Bear in mind that many Police/Fire agencies are going digital, or trunked. This scanner will not receive digital at all. It scans very fast, but it is not ideally suited for newer trunking systems either. You need to find out ahead of time what your local agencies use. The quickest way is to stop in a Radio Shack store in your town and ask. While the “price is right” for this radio, you may be disappointed if you don’t check ahead of time. My local agencies are digital. I live on the Gulf of Mexico, near several airports. I listen to the air traffic, and also the marine traffic out in the Gulf.

Update (5/17/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen.

The featured review for this product, Uniden SC230 Scanner featuring Pre-Programmed NASCAR / Busch Frequencies Electronics, was written by sgeise.

The average rating for this item is 3.3 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.