I can't add anything regarding the repair question but regarding the BC220XLT the bad news is that even though it is I guess a nice scanner with 800MHz it isnt a trunktracker, so for practical purposes it isnt going to be suitable for listening to Halifax area police, fire or ambulance operations. I would say that the main things it can practically be used for will be marine, aero, fire department pages, the Burnside jail, and really I can't think of anything else. Out in the rest of NS it is fine for fire departments and most of the town police departments. Others might have more comments. Most of the interesting stuff in NS and particularly in HRM are trunked, and of that there are aspects that have further barriers to your listening such as digital transmissions or even encryption.
You did say you were new to scanners so it might be a good idea to learn what I meant about trunking or trunked radio. To explain it here would be beyond the scope of this thread, so maybe you could Google trunked radio and read a variety of articles. I do have a bit of a description on my site but it is not as generic and extensive as you might need. Essentially it is a way in which many users share a set of frequencies so that on any one frequency you could have many diffferent users alternating, and individual users jump around between the set of frequencies. This means you need a scanner that can follow that user around and at the same time not pick up the stuff you dont want to hear, some of which is not only irrelevent to your desired listening but also may be very irritating data transmissions and the like. A conventional scanner cannot do this for you, even though it may have the capability to receive the frequencies involved. In Nova Scotia the major trunked system uses frequencies in the 800 MHz range which the 220 has, but that radio cannot track trunked transmissions. You could put in the frequencies and at first you might be interested in what you hear but it will be a jumble of things from delivery trucks to data bursts to fire ops to ambulance to unlistenable police transmissions, and not ever be able to follow any one conversation. Anyway the best is to read up on it. If you state more or less where you live someone can give you the best set of frequencies to at least give that a whirl.
In the meantime you can enter 156.6, 156.7 and 156.8 for the harbour traffic. 119.2 for the control zone around Halifax airport but you will only hear the aircraft side unless you are fairly close to the airport.. Also 151.4, 152.18 for core area fire dept pages. This will let you know if the scanner is working at least.
