I definitely like and use my BC-125AT a lot!I actually bought a new SR30C, which is a great little scanner, but does not cover the military aviation spectrum. I live within a mile of an airport that is home to heavy-lift military helicopters and C-130s. They are about to start building the F-16 here and the military traffic (including F-16s) has really picked up here. Our house is in the pattern for the runway heading south, and it's great to be able to sit in the back yard and hear the traffic, but I couldn't hear the copters or C-130s on the SR30C. I've got all the military freqs programmed in to the 125 and we'll see how it pans out. I was surprised to see the 125 did not cover the Intra-squad USAF channels, but I have no idea what to expect once they start building and testing the F-16. I've got an SDS200 monitoring those freqs inside, and if traffic picks up, I may be looking at an SDS100. Well, to be honest I may be looking for an SDS100 anyway, because I love scanners. LOLUnbelievable how much the price has gone up just because the parts are not available currently. I paid $89 for the brand new one I have and got it at Target a few years ago when they were having that price sale. I hope these vendors don't sell any of them so the price will go back down. They will be available again before too long and I see no reason to pay more than three times the price of they can be bought for at various times of the year.
I'm glad you got yours at a good price and it is a great scanner for what I use it for which is military aviation. I've worn the text off of the Hold button (or the area around it really) and one or two other buttons on the front of mine but it works like a champ.
I did buy an Icom R30 receiver for military aviation earlier this year and it is more sensitive on VFO B. But I am considering buying another BC-125AT after the prices come down and it comes out again on sale around $89. It's just such an easy scanner to use and you don't have to press a ton of buttons to accomplish something like you do on the more expensive/sensitive receivers
Brian
COMMSCAN
It really blows me away how much more sellers / individuals are asking, on Amazon and eBay especially, for many items related to communications and radios.I agree with you, on Amazon I would never buy a new radio or scanner. It's usually just a marked up price from a vendors website, so I would buy directly from the vendor. It's the fact that the refurb I bought was half price and in pristine condition that I think it's a good deal to check Amazon for a refurb before shelling out full price for a new rig at your dealer of choice.I hear you on the love of radios and I was bitten by the bug myself when I was 12 years old and radios were a lot different
For the most part, what they call the military UHF band runs between 225-380 MHz nowadays. The 380-400 MHz band is getting taken over by a lot of those military trunk systems and other FM military uses. But there is still some AM users also and I wish the 125AT did allow that last 20 MHz of frequency coverage also. You might also want to check the 138 - 144 MHz and 148 - 150 MHz bands or frequencies in AM mode for the various military traffic. It used to be FM and used around bases a lot on those frequencies. But nowadays, you usually hear air to air type traffic from the aircraft using it in most of the country I would say.
BTW, I was looking around a little bit at prices on the BC-125AT and noticed that they're still are a lot of reputable, as well as names I've never heard of, companies selling it at the regular price which usually will range from about $115 up to $150. It usually winds up equaling out between the free shipping at a higher price or paying for shipping and getting the scanner at a lower price. Amazon, I have noticed, can be a horrible place to look and buy a radio oftentimes. Other than some of the cheap Chinese radios, they are often a lot more expensive on scanners, amateur radios, and items like that. The same thing goes for eBay sellers. I think I've gotten so spoiled buying things on Amazon that at times I have to remind myself to look at some of the other sellers on different items
I know you'll enjoy the new radio and it will bring you years of listening if you take care of it. I kind of cosmetically messed mine up a little bit accidentally but it's still in good shape. I just need to make sure I don't wipe the lettering off of the front of the radio from pressing the keys too much haha.
Brian
COMMSCAN
