UNIDEN BEARTRACKER BCT8 REVIEW

[happya$$]

Guys let me start by telling you that in my two weeks of using this digital scanner I must tell you that it is AWESOME! This example should give you a good idea. I was coming home from work on the Ohio Turnpike. My BCT8 started to beep with a red light flashing leting me know that a State Trooper was in the area (within 3 miles). At about 1 mile into it I get a short Ka warning on my X50. At about 1.7 miles later I see a State Trooper radaring people with his Ka band radar gun. This thing is VERY impressive. IMO just this feature alone is worth the price. What is also neat is that you can adjust the distance that the BCT8 will give you a warning of a State Trooper :shock: If you travel the highways a lot this thing is worth its price in GOLD! Roy you only sell the best so why not add this to your arsenal?

[compu44]

This beartracker feature sounds really nifty. I thought that Uniden used it while back but had discontinued the feature. Interresting to know that it's still around. If I did more highway driving than I currently do, i'd really like one of those. As it stands now though, the Bel RX by itself is working ok for the limited amount of driving i'm doing.

Coupla questions for you-

When the Beartracker alerts, does it give you a signal meter or just tell you that it's there?

How does the BCT8 perform just as a scanner?

[happya$$]

Just tells you that it is there. I WISH that it gave you signal strength :cry:

[Radar Roy]

Does it cover the new 800 Mhz bands?? Many departments out here have switched over to that

[happya$$]

Yes it does. In the front of my manual it says "Beartracker Warning System with 800 MHz TrunkTracker III"

[Radar Roy]

Will have to explore these more, keep me posted on your thoughts of the product I am interested in learning more. How much was retail??

[jimbonzzz]

I haven't used the BCT-8 yet, but in the past I have used the older units, the BCT-7 and the BCT-12 extensively. I look forward to trying the BCT-8, because the frequencies in the older units are outdated, especially for where I live (Michigan). The State Police here are now all APCO25 digital. The new BCT-8 has some kind of a "special" scan mode for a handful of states, Michigan being one, hopefully this will be useful.

One time I was going north through Illinois. I was actually using both the BCT-7 and the BCT-12 at the same time. I used the BCT-7 to monitor CB-19, and used the BCT-12 for the highway patrol alert. As I crossed the border into Illinois, I heard the truckers talking about a Laser speed trap about 100 Miles ahead on CB. When I got pretty close, the BCT-12 alerted me that ther was police in the area. Then about 30 seconds later, my V1 alerted for Laser. So, the highway patrol alert on these units definitely has the potential to save your butt, and can also provide you with some protection against VASCAR and aircraft enforcement.

I had good results with it in other states as well. Not all states still use the mobile repeaters, but the Highway Patrol Alert also alerts on low range car-to-car, aircraft-to-car etc frequencies, which would likely be used in multiple-vehicle speed enforcement. I know Michigan no longer uses the "standard" mobile repeaters, however maybe Uniden found a good way to get around this, I don't know all of the ins and outs of the way the radio system works.

IMHO, the BCT-12 was an awesome unit in it's time. I still use it on long driving trips. The only major thing it lacked as far as I am concerned, is CB receive. It was small, and I mounted it just like my detector. I really hope that Uniden eventually produces a successor to the BCT-12! Here
's my wish list:
detector-sized unit
CB Receive
Computer-Updatable frequency database (when police freqs change)=never obsolete
APCO25 digital (Maybe I am asking for too much :D



Jim

[happya$$]

You just sold me on a BCT-12. I am going to pick up a used one

[stealthJamal]

That BCT sounds very cool, I will probably get one. Happya$$, let us know how well it warns of VASCAR traps especially VASCAR from aircraft.

Jamal

[happya$$]

BCT-12 or the BCT-8 Stealthjamal?

[jimbonzzz]

You just sold me on a BCT-12. I am going to pick up a used one

I like the BCT-12 because it is so small. In my cars, space is limited, so mounting a full-size scanner is awkward at best. In some areas, the 12 is definitely still very useful.

I tried some different antennas with the units too. I tried the "rubber duck" that came with the unit, the "suction cup" wire antenna that came with it, and I also got adapters (from Grove Enterprises I believe) to couple it to the vehicle AM/FM radio antenna. Here's my take:

The stock "rubber duck" that came with the BCT-12 seemed sufficient for VHF and UHF police radio, although it seems slightly better on UHF. If you want to receive NOAA weather consistently, you might want more, such as the "suction cup wire antenna" or use the vehicle AM/FM antenna.

I mostly used the BCT-7 for monitoring CB. The highway patrol alerts seemed to be more accurate on the BCT-12, the 7 seemed to false a lot more. CB receive range using both the vehicle antenna and suction cup antenna was reasonable, but I ended up using the vehicle antenna simply because I didn't like the suction cup antenna being on my window. The suction cup antenna is probably better than the vehicle antenna since it was made for broadcast AM/FM and probably has poor response on some freqs, but that's just speculation. In my car, the windshield is so sloped that the suction cup antenna was far from being vertical, and that would hurt performance as well.

I don't have many metal surfaces on my car, so using a mag mount antenna wouldn't have been a good option, plus I don't like the idea of having an extra antenna, it wouldn't make the car look good, and I like to be stealthy. If I had a truck though, I probably wouldn't have a problem with an external mag mount.

Jim

[happya$$]

Well I bought two BCT-12's on Ebay. I got them at a really good price compared to what they have gone for. I bought two of them for $125 (one for me and one for my wife). They usually go for $150/each. I can not wait to try them out. If they work really good I might sell my BCT-8.

[happya$$]

Well I must tell you that the BCT-12 impresses the HELL out of me. My first day using it gave me awesome results 3 out of 3 on detecting the State Troopers. I am trying to find out what is the best way to connect the antenna. Should I use the windshield mount antenna or the radio shack one that I bought? Or should I just get an antenna mounted to my vehicle?

[Radar Roy]

You got them $8.00 below wholesale!
I contacted Bearcat and the best price I could get was $154.99 plus shipping!

[jimbonzzz]

Well I must tell you that the BCT-12 impresses the HELL out of me. My first day using it gave me awesome results 3 out of 3 on detecting the State Troopers. I am trying to find out what is the best way to connect the antenna. Should I use the windshield mount antenna or the radio shack one that I bought? Or should I just get an antenna mounted to my vehicle?

I found that the stock BCT-12 "rubber duck" was more than sufficient. If you only want to listen occasionally and want decent performance for the highway patrol alert, this is the way to go IMHO. Very stealthy too.
Did the ones you won from ebay come with this type of antenna? You can see it on the unit here:
http://www.strongsignals.net/access/content/rr_bct-12.html

I mount the BCT-12 up by my visor, and point the antenna downwards...

The windshield antenna will give you better range, but you might also get some falsing. Or, an external antenna mounted on the vehicle will always give you better range/reception than one inside. If you like to listen to the transmissions a lot, or want maximum possible range for detecting the highway patrol and don't care as much about falsing, use one of these options.

What kind of antenna did you get from radio shack?

Jim

[happya$$]

Roy

i got BOTH of them for 150 (75/piece)

[Radar Roy]

WOW!
Maybe I should call another distributor..

[happya$$]

Used Ebay though NOT brand new

[happya$$]

Yeah mine did come with one of those rubber antennas. I also bought that adaptor that allows me to connect it to my AM/FM car antenna. Is installation hard to connect it to my AM/FM car antenna?

[Radar Roy]

If you got one of those tools to eject the radio from the dash it shouldn't be that hard

[jimbonzzz]

Yeah mine did come with one of those rubber antennas. I also bought that adaptor that allows me to connect it to my AM/FM car antenna. Is installation hard to connect it to my AM/FM car antenna?

My adapter had the "standard" antenna plug, and I wanted to connect it to my GM antenna/radio. I needed two extra adapters (one on both sides of my antenna adapter) to convert from the "standard" plug to the GM style. These are pretty easy to find at places like Autozone. With the extra connectors, it probably attenuated the signal a little, but not noticably.

I really liked this solution, very stealthy.

Jim

[jimbonzzz]

WOW!
Maybe I should call another distributor..

Finding the BCT-12s brand new would probably be difficult, I think they stopped making them in the late 90s. There might be some new ones floating around somewhere though. I got mine maybe 4 years ago from Scannermaster.com, it was close to $200.

Nowdays, some of the frequencies in the 12 are outdated.
Some states it won't work at all, at least for the highway patrol alert. However, in some states it is still very useful, and is almost like having a sixth sense. It doesn't work in Michigan anymore, however I've had it work recently in Indiana and Illinois...

Jim