(NEW) Uniden BCD325P2 Handheld TrunkTracker V Scanner

There are not a lot of choices out there for P25 Phase II handheld scanners, but when I decided to get back into the hobby and discovered my old Radio Shack Pro-94 could no longer pickup most of the transmissions in my area, most of what I wanted to monitor had moved to P25, it was time to invest in a new scanner. One of the major groups I wanted to monitor used P25 Phase II, which greatly limited my choices for scanners, there are not a lot of scanners in this space that were not terribly expensive. After a bit of research I chose the BCD325P2, as a good mid-range P25 Phase II capable scanner. Many reviews state this scanner is nearly impossible to program, I have to disagree. If you are more familiar with the older bank-style programming, then yes, it is different and you do have to think differently when programming this scanner, but once you wrap your head around the System/Site/Group/Channel hierarchy this scanner uses, it is actually not bad at all to program it. It took me less than half an hour to enter the two major trunking systems in my area, that consisted of 4 sites with about 200 channels that I split into about 8 groups, and this was programming it by hand, not using a computer. So if you take the time to understand its method of storing systems, then you will not have any issue programming this. Yes, it has more steps to program than the Pro-94 I had before, but the flow of it is pretty easy once you understand it. So my advice is to understand the methodology of this scanner before trying to program it, you will have an easier time. The screen is crisp and easy to read in good lighting, or in darker lighting by using its backlight. the buttons all have nice solid tactile feedback as well as key beeps, you absolutely know when you have hit a button. For such a small unit, its built-in speaker was plenty loud enough for me, it does have a earphone jack for either private listening or listening in a noisier environment. The only real downside of this scanner is it chews through batteries. It uses two AA batteries, and with good alkaline batteries will last 6 to 8 hours. I would highly recommend using rechargeable batteries in this unit. It does come with two NIMH rechargeable batteries, but they are mediocre quality, I would buy a couple sets of good ones and then charge them overnight and you should get a good days listening with 2 to 3 sets that you charged overnight. The manual is pretty cryptic if you are not really familiar with scanning and the technology this scanner uses, it does pretty much cover everything, but not in the most logical way, I would say it is not written for the beginner. There are some good resources you can find online that will help you get going with this scanner. If you are looking for a good P25 Phase II handheld scanner, this unit would be very hard to beat at its price point. If you are willing to put in the effort to understand this scanner, then you will get a lot out of it.