BCT 15 - disapointed with AM

[Napalm]

Is anyone else disapointed with the AM performance of the BCT-15, and for that matter, the BR330?

I've got both here, and the AM on UHF Air sounds very... muffled. Yes, I used an external speaker on both, and even on headphones it doesn't sound as good as my traditional "Analogue" radios (Pro-2045/2035s). I can upload a recording of the BCT-15, then of my Pro-2035 if you want to hear what I mean.

What's the demodulator in these Unidens? I guess on the older radios it will be something simple like a pair of diodes I think the BC780 sounded just as "bad".

Either way, it's put me off buying the BCT-15 (I borrowed a friend's before spending money). Milair is my main listening interest, and although the BCT-15 sounds fantastic on FM, the fact it sounds bad (to my ears) on AM is a downer. I also notice a lot of intermod and images when searching through UHF air, and other bands.

Any thoughts?

 

[ThunderBritches]

I have my new BCT15 mounted in my truck with a through the roof antenna. I do agree that it's audio is just a tad weak on AM, but the reception and intermod rejection is better than any other scanner that I have mounted mobile. This includes a 2055, and a 2052. I can hear the local towers at a much great distance with the BCT15. This radio converted me from RS to Uniden for my mobiles anyway. I have about 10 RS scanners at home and handhelds, have been loyal to RS for decades. But this is just one killer radio for a mobile installation in a high intermod environment.

 

[Napalm]

Strange, I guess it just doesn't like my big antenna. Even so, on my little 300MHz antenna I get breakthrough from one or more broadcast bands.

 

[ThunderBritches]

My mobile antenna is a through the roof dual band for 2 meters and 440. I do have one stretch of road where I get just a bit of intermod listening to our local AF Tower on 322.35.
I did not get this on my other radios. But it is only for about 1 mile which passes fast. Listening to the VHF air is night and day different. With the 2055 I would get intermod over about half of San Antonio. The BCT15 so far is trouble free everywhere here.

 

[DaveIN]

I've had much less intermod on my BCT15 vs. the PRO-2055 I had.

 

[aar9sm]

Intermod

II have talked to upman (Opitz, Paul) about this and he tells me that he has not heard of the problem?? I have two of them they both get overloaded with pager/ham/ and the weather station mainly throughout the federal band 163-174 and some of the Mil-Air UHF band. This RIG rocks on the 800 mhz trunking for me no interference what so ever there. Like you I bought these mainly for Mil-Air listening guess I will have to find a older unit for that maybe the Pro-2045 or something along those lines/ Let upman know of your problem if enough of us complain maybe they will fix the problem. One thing that did help me was to put ctcss on everything in the 163-174 that I had and that made a big difference.

Mike

 

[Napalm]

I've recently got another pro-2045, and the audio from that owns the BCT-15 audio.

I even played with a Signal R535, and that simply blows the competition away.

I don't know what it is with the Uniden's but their AM audio just SUCKS. The BC-780 sounds rubbish on AM as well