The Uniden USC230 is a good scanner. It can be a bit confusing to use at first with its weird channel setup and custom modes. I guess this is how Uniden receivers are. I've never owned one before so was unfamiliar with how they operate. But once I figured out how they do things it was really easy to use. And actually quite nice to use.
It reminds me a bit of the mini ICOM IC range. In particular the ICOM IC R6. They both have a similar way of operating and share the same scroll wheel roller button at the top. I'm not sure which company thought of it first, or who ripped off who, but its quite a cool design.
Anyway, I just wanted to post a quick video of the Uniden USC230 "racing" scanner [yes, it was made for taking to the racing car track] picking up a CB transmission all the way from Germany when I'm in the UK. You can watch the quick video lower down.
I'm using a £2 aerial from Aliexpress and it picks up CB traffic from all over the place. I've heard Northern Ireland, Scotland, Italy, USA, Russia, France, Germany, and a few languages that I could not put a country to. Although I think one was probably somewhere in South America. Amazing really with a cheap scanner and an even cheaper aerial.
Uniden USC230 Frequency range:
25 - 87MHz [best for me / CB is active in my location and beyond]
108 - 174MHz [worst for me / not interested in airband]
216 - 225MHz [nothing there / never heard any signal there, ever]
400 - 512MHz [not bad / second best for me]
806 - 960MHz [nothing but digital encrypted signals and the odd choppy TV / radio]
1240 - 1300MHz [dead as a dodo]
It has many features [close call, DCS/CTCSS, Alpha tagging, 6.5kHz / 8.33kHz steps] and is nice and small in size. But its still well-built and quite tough. A bonus is that it only takes two AA batteries. Comparing that to my GRE 255 which takes 6 AA makes me want to puke. Comparing the two though in terms of performance, and while much more basic with less features, less channels, less steps etc etc, the GRE 255 [review] is the winner for me.
It picks up everything that the USC230 does [in the same frquency range], and it does so a little bit better. It even picks up a few things, weaker signals that the USC230 totally ignores or is just not capable of grabbing. And, the speaker on the GRE PSR 255 is definitely better and more clearer than the one inside the USC230. Overall they are very evenly matched when it comes to performance, but the GRE 255 does just about beat it the majority of the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment