Customer Reviews

Uniden SC230 Scanner featuring Pre-Programmed NASCAR / Busch Frequencies

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

I bought this as a gift for my husband and he loved it. He doessn't care for Nascar so he deleted those preset channels. He has enjoyed listening in to police, airplanes, you name it. It's small, very portable and lightweight. The only thing I was disappointed in was the computer connector. It uses an older connection instead of a USB port so we can only plug it into our older laptop and not our new Dell Desktop.

For all those race fans out there that want to purchase their own race scanner rather than rent one at the track, this one is the best. I've seen and used all the scanners at a NASCAR race. This one has the most memory and will show the name of the driver that you're listening to(Alpha tagging). It doesn't matter that the frequencies that come with this scanner are outdated. When you go to a race, you will only spend $5.00 to have R.E. download the current frequencies in the scanner and it only takes about 2 minutes.

Don't bother self programming the SC230 scanner or out of date programming. Go to Racing Electronics web-site & sign-up for "at-the-track" programming ($15.00 yr). They send you a sticker for the current
year, you apply it to the scanner. At the track, you find the "RE" trailer (multiple trailers @ some tracks). They fully program update your
scanner in a matter of a few minutes ALL YEAR LONG if you so desired for
$15.00. HOW SWEET IS THAT. THIS SCANNER is GREAT!!! A little complicated @ first, but you enter a car# or deginated radio or TV broadcast. ADD a good HEADSET, you're set. I would add a small battery amplifier for (2) or more HEADSETS connected to a single scanner.

If your a NASCAR fan, this is one of the best scanners out there. Plan on paying $40-60 more for it is you wait to get one at the track. Easy to use and one really nice feature is it displays drivers name and car number.

I purchased this product AS ADVERTISED knowing that the price shown was way below value. Once I received the product is was NOT what I ordered it was a much lower level scanner that was overpriced. But, that is not my problem, I sent this scanner back as requested and it has been over a month and I STILL havent received a refund. I've made over 6 phone calls to FOGDOG and was promised that my refund would be forthcoming soon. They NEVER return calls and I AM STILL WAITING for my refund.

I would love to speak with a representative from AMAZON about this problem but you CANNOT speak to a live person. The saying goes never say never but I promise that I will NEVER buy anthing from FOGDOG again and I am thinking of adding AMAZON to this list as well.

My scanner did not produce enough volume to hear above the race engines even with my headset. My old radio shack scanner is much louder.
But my buddy bought the same scanner and he says that his is plenty loud.

GREAT FOR NASCAR!!! BUY IT IF YOU GO TO THE RACES!!Hard to program and figure out for anything else! Very time consuming to program anything but nascar. Also too easy to mess up the nascar preprogrammed frequencies if you don't know what you are doing! Very complicated manual. Not real straight forward!

I ordered the this item and what I received was a different cheaper model. I will never order from Fog Dog again and am considering the same for AMAZON. I contacted FOG Dog and have returned the scanner. I was told I would recieive a full purchase refund plus the cost of the retunn shipping. Within an hour I received an email indicating there would be no refund for the return shipping cost. I am still wainting for the refund for the purchase price of the SC230 scanner I ordered but was not delivered. BEWARE!!
Uniden SC230 Scanner featuring Pre-Programmed NASCAR / Busch Frequencies

Nice scanner but all the information on the scanner was out dated and need up dating which took sbout 4 - 6 hours