BC120 XLT & VHF Narrowband

[cbehr91]

The manual claims it can scan the VHF band in 5 kHz steps, however when I program a frequency like 160.8075, it rounds the frequency up to 160.810.

Can this scanner scan those narrowband channels? (A railroad near me is switching to narrowband, and I'd like to continue to listen at full quality) If not, are there any Uniden hand scanners that can?

 

[ka3jjz]

If the signal is strong enough, it won't matter much - however the weaker the signal, the more distorted it's likely to sound. The audio may not be quite as strong

I would tend to think most all of the newer Uniden handhelds - the 330, 396 (both t and xt versions), 246, 346XT - could all handle the new VHF narrow allocations. You can look in our wiki for more specifics for almost every modern handheld out there...73 Mike

 

[jackj]

You will get more adjacent channel interference if you can't program in the exact channel frequency. The whole point to narrow banding is to get more channels and they do that by reducing the spacing between channels. This may or may not be a problem for you. It will depend on where you live and what you are monitoring.

The new(er) scanners will accept narrowband frequencies without rounding them up or down.

 

[yelloweye]

VHF Narrow Band

The manual claims it can scan the VHF band in 5 kHz steps, however when I program a frequency like 160.8075, it rounds the frequency up to 160.810.

Can this scanner scan those narrowband channels? (A railroad near me is switching to narrowband, and I'd like to continue to listen at full quality) If not, are there any Uniden hand scanners that can?

You will need to set the scanner to 7.5 khz to effectivly listen to vhf narrow. The new standard is 12.5 but the scanner will follow the right fomatt at 7.5.

 

[ka3jjz]

The 120 is a very old scanner; I doubt that it supports the 7.5khz steps; the newer Unidens can do this, though 73 Mike