Saturday, February 20, 2016

New Uniden UBC125XLT Scanner Has Arrived!

After a number of years using a Uniden UBC3500XLT I decided to purchase the new Uniden UBC125XLT. Why? well I was attracted to the large clear and well lit LCD display to be honest. 

Some might feel this is a step backward from the 3500 because that has theoretically 2500 memory channels which can be arranged into systems and banks containing as many channels as you want all with alpha tag naming and when you get used to it, it really is a powerful, fast and effective scanner. 

The thing is, my main interest is just airband listening, and even with all the civil and military frequencies I could possibly want programmed, I'm not using anything like all of those features and memories.

So, having justified my purchase of the UBC125XLT to myself, the other half, and all of my readers, I have to say I'm very pleased with it!

Ok, so it 'only' has 500 memories arranged in 10 fixed banks of 50 channels but I can work with that, it really is fine for me and somewhat simpler really! Very importantly I still have 16 character channel naming available. I think at most, I probably have about 200 frequencies I want to monitor regularly within reasonable range of my location so it's more than enough for me.

With regard to it's performance compared with the Uniden UBC3500XLT I really can't tell any difference when put side by side connected to the same antenna.

In fact, in my opinion, these Uniden scanners have excellent receiver sensitivity and in my unscientific testing compare very well with my old Yupiteru MVT7100 (still highly regarded) and even the much older 'Rolls Royce' of airband receivers, the Signal R535 which I've owned in the past.

For the first time in my 38 years of airband listening, I have managed to programme the scanner via computer! As the 125 came supplied with pc cable, I have managed to download Nick Bailey's excellent bit of software for programming the 125 and have successfully entered all my channels with alpha tagging quite quickly and easily. If you have any comments or opinions, please do get in touch!