Digital Trunking

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.

Programming this scanner was easy as 1-2-3! watched the YouTube video by Odds and Ends (formerly KD8GY) titled “Programming a Uniden BCD325P2 (FreeSCAN)” and let me tell you, that video was loud and clear! After a quick download of the FreeSCAN program and a little time getting my frequencies straight, I was on the same wavelength as the pros. I even tuned into RadioReference, signed up, and paid the small fee hands down the best $15 I’ve ever transmitted! It saved me countless hours of static and frustration. Now my scanner’s buzzing with all the channels I want crisp, clear, and on frequency! If you’re on the fence about programming your own, don’t tune out this setup is pure signal, no noise. P.S Thank You reviewer David. Update***** 5 days later 10/10/2025 This scanner went from “pretty cool gadget” to “absolutely amazing” once I took the time to learn some of its basic functions. It’s like tuning in from static to symphony! I’m already planning a few upgrades got my eye on the Remtronix REM-843B and REM-920B antennas. Plus, I’m adding a Tram 1089-BNC magnet mount for the car so I can scan on the go (because who doesn’t want to feel like a mobile command center while stuck in traffic? Coming from someone whose previous radio experience was limited to walkie-talkies with a whopping one-mile range ha I can say this: patience and a little learning go a long way. Once you start catching clear signals, you’ll be hooked faster than a ham operator on Field Day. Update 10/28/2025 Let’s start with the Tram 1089-BNC Scanner Mini-Magnet cute little thing, looks like it came straight out of an RC car set. It’s fun, it’s tiny, and it tries its best... but sadly, in my area, it’s more “hide and static” than “seek and signal.” Great for decoration, not so much for reception. Now, the Tram 1094-BNC chef’s kiss. This one pulls in signals so clear you’d think it bribed the airwaves. It’s my absolute go-to for vehicle setups with the BCD825P2. Hook it up, and suddenly you’re hearing everything from weather alerts to the neighbor’s garage door opener (okay, maybe not that last one). When I’m on the move, the Remtronix REM-843B takes the spotlight. It’s compact, reliable, and makes my portable setup feel like it’s running on pure RF magic. Vehicle Setup: Tram 1094-BNC Handheld Setup: Remtronix REM-843B If antennas had a talent show, the 1094 would win “Best in Reception,” the Remtronix would get “Most Portable Personality,” and the 1089... well, “Best Dressed.”

A quick review of the Bearcat BCD325P2 scanner. I live in the mountains of Western Maryland. I seldom write reviews, but because the Amazon reviews have helped me with this purchase, I offer the following: In the good old days – you could buy a Bearcat table top scanner from an electronics or hardware store. They would give you a paper with local frequencies. You would choose 10 or 20 channels that allowed you to listen to fire, police, ambulances and more. Simply key in the frequency for each channel on the large keypad and start listening. Worked great for decades, but.. the frequencies changed and the table top became useless. I started listening to local calls on a phone ap. Worked great for years, but in the past few months, the number of calls broadcast on the ap dropped significantly. So I started reading. Last week I bought the BC125XT from Amazon for about $100. Thought I had a deal, but what I got was a hand held version of the old table top. It only got one alert channel, so I decided to send it back. It is easy to return items to Amazon via Staples. After more reading and researching – both on Amazon and other places, I realized that I needed a digital scanner. I read about trunking, talk groups and so forth. It was overwhelming and I nearly gave up. The Amazon reviews for the Bearcat BCD325P2 were mixed – some said it was easy, most said it was difficult. Being relatively unafraid of reading and applying instructions for any new item, I ordered the new scanner. I started reading the owner’s manual on-line and almost cancelled the order. Highly technical, and while I’m sure it was completely accurate, it was overwhelming. Then I did what I always do when a project seems out of my league – I went to YouTube. I watched several videos, and settled on a nine minute one by user “KD8GY” that explained in normal terms the relationship between the scanner, software from Free Scan and a $15 subscription to Radio Reference. KD8GY did a nice job of avoiding techo-speak, showing the scanner buttons, computer screens, keystrokes and so forth. It was only nine minutes, but condensed the thousands pages of forums, operating manuals and other much longer videos into one easy to follow procedure. Knowing that my new scanner was due the next day, I took 15 minutes to download Free Scan and Radio Reference to my laptop and then further download the frequencies for my Western Maryland region (provided by Radio Reference for the $15 subscription) into Free Scan – following the advice from KD8GY. When the scanner arrived today at 3:45pm, I assembled the unit and uploaded the frequencies from Free Scan on my laptop. In 15 minutes I was hearing multiple calls for local fire, police, helicopters, ambulances and so forth – just like the good old days. Bottom line – if you want to hear local scanner frequencies, buy the BCD325P2 from Amazon and get it in a day or two. After you order, watch the nine minute video from YouTube user KD8GY (or similar videos) before it arrives and follow the advice to download the Free Scan software and obtain the local frequencies from Radio Reference. Then just upload the frequencies to your new scanner. Hope this review helps scanner rookies like me looking for a nice scanner at a decent cost. Wish I had seen a review like this one before I started the process - hence my writing this one for prospective buyers. Have fun and happy scanning.

Love this scanner! Background: Have been into scanners for about 40 years or so. Worked in Fire/Rescue and Law Enforcement for the better part of 25 years. Some of my favorite scanners in the past have been the 246T, the 346XT, the 396XT and the Radio Shack Pro 668 which I did the Legacy upgrade to with Whistler.. My current scanners prior to the 325P2 that I used regularly were the 396XT and the Pro-668. When I got the 325P2 I programmed it real quick using Freescan. This unit picks up signals clearer than my older 2 scanners. Speaker on the 325P2 is way better than any scanner I've ever had in the past and I've had a lot. I like the form factor. As others have noted it only takes two AA batteries but I found that with fully charged batteries I get several hours worth of use out of it. Just have an extra spare set of batteries and rotate them out and that problem is solved. I would not recharge batteries inside scanner. Of course this style of scanner is very difficult for most people to program. I think that's why people get frustrated and return these units so frequently. There are a lot of videos out there on how to program this scanner with Freescan. On a side note, when the scanner was on sale for Black Friday week it was going for $322. Amazon ended up selling out of new scanners at that price. I took a huge chance and bought a used one under the Amazon Resale Program. I chose one in Like New condition, which according to their policy means that the unit should be pristine and everything that it originally comes with is included and that means the original box as well although the Box may be slightly damaged. The return policy is the normal 30 days as it is for any other type of purchase on Amazon so I gave it a chance. The original price for my purchase was $315 but then they knocked off 20% because it was a used unit which brought it down to about $250. When I got the delivery it was missing the original box which I kind of wanted in case I ever sell it in the future when a new scanner comes out that I want. I got a hold of Amazon and they took another $30 off so I got this scanner for $220 and everything was brand new. The scanner had never been programmed and every single accessory was still in the original Uniden packaging as well as the scanner. Not a mark on it. I was very very happy with this particular role of the dice. I briefly thought of getting the SDS100 which I'm sure is a fine scanner but there was just something that wouldn't let me spend $650 plus tax on that scanner. For the deal I got on the 325P2 I am super happy!

Where do I start? This thing is an absolute nightmare to program. If you don't use software forget it. Manual is totally useless. Now on to the hardware. Using a USB cable to provide power to run a portable radio is a very poor choice. Taking the cable in and out a thousand times will only result in failure at some point. I don't believe an engineer would choose this over the ultimate in reliability - the traditional round power plug. Next, in order to change the volume you have to press the button down while simultaneously turning the knob. The volume knob uses a détente which clicks. Bad design. Lastly, and most importantly, the device cannot charge batteries unless it is off. This is a FABULOUS design. I don't know anyone that buys a scanner to have it off. You also have to manually program it to tell the device how long you want to charge the batteries as the device doesn't stop charging when the batteries are fully charged. You have to constantly switch batteries or constantly turn the device off for up to 14 hours. I understand the dumb California law. Uniden should have done things like most other companies. Design a great product and then mark it as "Not for sale in California". I can't believe an electronics engineer would actually design a worthless device like this one. They had to be driven by high level managers driven by profit, managers who never used a scanner in their life. Uniden blew it. Products like this are what makes companies end up going out of business...................

I have both this unit, the BCD325P2 and also the BCD436HP. This scanner is a more "user friendly" model based on the awesome Uniden 396XT scanner. But this BCD325P2 scanner adds P-25 (Phase 2) Digital reception. This unit does not use an SD card for memory, it has internal memory only. But it is plenty. You can't record/playback things, nor does it have the full RadioReference database included in the memory. But it is more "user friendly." The display is a standard size but the font is Big and Bold thick letters which you can easily see from a few feet away. The backlight is orange only but really, it is the best display you could ask for. The other BCD 436HP scanner display you can't read good from a few feet away, Any of you past 40? You can program this model a bit easier (by hand) if you want to, you Do Not get free software with it, but can use other vendors software. I tried to program it with the USB cable in Win7 and it works, but you have to download the specific driver for it from the Uniden site and set this up in your Windows Control Panel/Device Manager/Add Driver install screen. It is a bit confusing at first, you won't "see the file" to add at all. And you still need the programming software to get the channel frequencies into this. As far as reception, the digital P-25 (Starcom21 my area) sites are incredible, it receives just as good as the BCD436HP, I would say it equals or exceeds the BCD436HP in digital reception of phase 1 in terms of signal strength and actual voice quality at the speaker. It receives digital signals like an upgraded version of the 396XT, which has ears like the NSA. VHF/UHF reception is about the same as the rest of my scanners. I used the stock antenna and it works fine for me, but the RS 800 mhz will give you optimal digital signals. You don't get backlit buttons on this unit and it uses only 2 AA batteries, which give me about 6-8 hrs with 2400 NiMH. It is a Handy size scanner. The BCD325P2 also has a true Band Scope function which acts like a mini spectrum analyzer for checking signal strength of an individual frequency or a frequency area, very useful for "graphically seeing" how much trunking signal that you're receiving at the scanner. With digital scanners, this is gold, as moving the scanner just an inch or two will be like going from full signal to no signal with the stock antenna. Where'd my signal go? Run the Band Scope and see it disappear and come right back as you move the scanner a whole two inches on the table. Now you can see signals like the engineers do and find the best place to set your scanner. A wonderful feature for the hard core scanner fans. The BCD325P2 is a digital scanner with P-25 (Phase 1 & Phase 2) that receives digital signals incredibly well. It offers a ton of features for the size and a Great Display. While digital scanners nowadays are not easy to setup, I find this one less challenging than the BCD436HP. This is a more "user friendly" digital scanner with really good "ears" for hearing digital P-25 stuff.

So it's appears to be a good scanner, but it requires additional keys to unlock functionality for NXDN, DMR, and ProVoice. If your area doesn't use any of these types of encoding, this might be the most affordable option. But to unlock full capability of this scanner, it will cost as much or more than newer scanner models. This model was first available in 2015 so it's fast approaching a decade old. It should be updated with a USB-C port instead of the old Mini USB it uses. I did like that it uses 2AA batteries and comes with a pair of NiMH rechargeable batteries. These can be charged in the scanner through the USB port, but you can't listen while charging. Also there are several different battery capacity ratings out there, and no guidance on choosing the correct charge time for a given capacity in the manual. It does tend to eat AA alkaline pretty fast, so you should plan to get at least 2 more pairs of rechargeable batteries and an external charger so you can listen while charging. If you are primarily using it from home, you can remove the batteries and power it over USB with a phone charger, saving batteries and allowing you to listen without interruption. Programming software is an additional expense if you don't want to spend time manually entering frequencies, and a subscription to a frequency database is yet another hidden cost. These aren't strictly necessary, but you will sacrifice a lot of time without them. Overall it seems to have a good capability and feature set. But the combination of aging tech and hidden expenses make this particular model a secondary choice.

Solid digital scanner. What it lacks in display functions and programming ease it makes up for in price. It's basically a 125AT with digital capabilities (they look identical.) It handles P25 II well. I have my tuned to two simulcast towers in two counties and it get everything I program into it. If the SDS100 is too rich for your pocket book the 325P2 is a great choice. You probably have analog scanners already so I'd suggest getting an 800 mhz antenna and let it do it's P25 thing.

Radio bom mas preço ficou muito alto com impostos

Very good scanner. Took it to an expert to program it.

Lo compré a buen precio, pero no lo recomiendo si tu objetivo es escuchar DMR o si esperas “escuchar conversaciones encriptadas” como a veces insinúan algunas descripciones. 1. DMR no viene habilitado de fábrica El BCD325P2 puede llegar a monitorear DMR, pero solo si compras y activas el upgrade de pago (la clave/licencia). Uniden lo maneja como actualización adicional (aprox. USD $60 para DMR).  2. Desde fuera de EUA/Canadá puede ser un dolor comprar el upgrade En mi caso, desde México no pude adquirir los upgrades, así que el equipo se queda sin la función que yo buscaba (DMR). A varios usuarios fuera de EUA/Canadá les ha pasado algo similar con el proceso de compra/activación.  3. No “rompe” encriptación (y no debe hacerlo) Si lo que quieres es escuchar comunicaciones cifradas/encriptadas, este (y los escáneres de consumo) no las van a descifrar. Como mucho, escucharás ruido/datos si te topas con un canal cifrado.  Conclusión: si buscas específicamente un escáner para DMR y encima te interesa evitar complicaciones de licencias/keys desde México, este modelo no es buena opción. Si lo que necesitas es algo más “plug and play”, considera otras alternativas (según el tipo de sistemas y bandas que quieras monitorear). Si me dices en qué ciudad/estado estás y qué quieres escuchar (policía, protección civil, seguridad privada, radioaficionados, etc.) y si es analógico / P25 / DMR, te recomiendo opciones realistas para México y te digo qué sí vas a poder monitorear

Es un reto configurarlo. Hay que dedicar tiempo para aprender a usarlo y explotar sus capacidades al máximo

I bought this radio for digital purpose, what I do not like is the rechargeable batteries, complete charge...only last for about 5 minutes use...before I have to recharge again, I bought Energizers batteries, which is a lot better! The Micro HBD detector reports broken or braking sound Detector .three crack crac two cracked