On Wednesday, July 26 of 2023, I had the pleasure of announcing two new Uniden scanners on The Scanner Guys’ YouTube channel. The Uniden Bearcat BCD160DN (Handheld) and the Uniden Bearcat BCD260DN (Base/Mobile).
These radios join the line of “transportation” scanners like the BC125AT. Meaning these scanners are ideal for rail, air, and maritime hobbyists. The new scanners are still simple to program with banks but now incorporate digital NXDN and DMR conventional.
For years it has been said the railroads will be moving to NXDN. Some short lines have made their way to this digital format while others have used it in yards, engine maintenance facilities, and railroad law enforcement. Currently, it is rare instances that some short-line railroads are using NXDN for their primary communications. As for the others, it will need to be a coordinated effort to make the switch from analog to digital. This is because often railroads is sharing its line with other carriers and they all need to be on the same digital frequencies to communicate with one another.
Until now you couldn’t get a simple scanner with NXDN or DMR. The current Uniden scanners that offer these formats have the complicated Dynamic Allocated Channel memory system. This is like banks but on steroids. The main reason for this memory system is to accommodate the many trunking communication systems out there. It isn’t common to see trunking used by the railroads at all. So it isn’t something we need to worry about.
The scanner operates very much like the BC125AT but there are several key upgrades:
- 10 banks 100 channels per bank. Total channels 1,000
- NXDN Conventional
- DMR Conventional
- Naming the actual banks
- Service searches are broken up into segments.
- RX LED alert light
- Fires Tone Out
- Channel Priority
- Volume Offset
- Channel Alert tone and light
As many of you may know from watching the Train Aficionado LIVE and The Scanner Guys YouTube shows I’m a beta tester for Uniden. This announcement should have been sooner but Uniden was dealing with all the post-COVID supply chain issues. Uniden states the release date will be several months away plus they haven’t announced how much they will be.
Uniden Bearcat BCD160DN
It’s quite clear this scanner is upgraded to the Uniden Bearcat BC125AT with some newly added features and two digital formats DMR/NXDN (conventional only) into an entry-level scanner. Overall operation is very similar to BC125AT. This will be the go-to handheld scanner if and when the railroads move to NXDN digital.
Uniden Bearcat BCD260DN
I feel this model will fill a much-needed void in the Uniden product line right now. There isn’t a base/mobile version of the BC125AT. Right now there is BC355N; this scanner lacks simple fast keypad programming since it does not have a keypad. The BCT15X is nice, but it is quite complicated to program with a Dynamic Allocated Channel memory system. The BCD260DN is a simple-to-program bank-style scanner just like the BC125AT that we have grown to love.
Some of the features I love about BCD260DN such as activity light and the service searches are broken into segments. For instance, the Railroad service search is broken into three segments.
- Railroad Standard AAR 001 – 097 Channels
- Railroad Split AAR Channels (newer channels allocated NXDN)
- Railroad Data Channels (Head end/rear devices and other data communication channels)
You can scan all three segments or you can turn any of the segments off.
These models are not for everyone, but they are ideal for hobbyists like I said before, and will be great for railfans in the future when the railroads go digital.
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