Need help with BC72XLT!

[Clutch_Cargo]

THANK GAWD there is a forum like this out here!

I purchased today the Uniden BC72XLT just to try my hand at a little plane-spotting at some of the local airports in San Diego, Calif., USA. What I thought was to be a relaxing afternoon with my first experience in using a scanner - listening to the crews of aircraft and the tower, was three hours of pure frustration trying to get the thing to work properly.

Granted, I am a nubie but come on... who wrote that manual?!?! I have been a Project Manager in the past and let me tell ya, I would fire the tech writer you would submit something like that. But now I see after looking over these forums for a bit that I am not alone in this thinking. There are even links to "Easier to Use Manuals"? ha! Hello, Uniden, are you listening?????

Ok, I feel a little better now. So a few questions:

1. - I guess my 1st question is there a link for an Easier User's Manual for this model?

2. - I read on another forum that San Diego has gone digital for police and fire so I take it I won't get anything there. I don't mind so much as I really only got this for use when I am at an airport. I will pick up the aviation freqs without digital or "trunking", right?

3. - Very tempted to immediately return the unit today but thought I would see if anyone out there had the same initial stumbling blocks until they learned how to use it? Or is it just a bad design and should I just return it?

Thanks for any help or comments,

Clutch
San Diego

Thanks for

 

[W6KRU]

The scanner will be fine for civil air freqs. but it is not a toaster. You have to have some understanding of what you want to listen to. That doesn't come instantly, you have to do your homework. If all of the correct freqs. were plugged into the scanner, you still won't get much enjoyment out of it unless you know what you are listening to. I would suggest spending some time in the wiki.

Category:Aircraft Monitoring - The RadioReference Wiki