Yaesu 120D vs Uniden 92XLT

[Pty]

Hi, i'm about to purchase a handheld scanner. Up to now i've owned a couple of Uniden and Radioshack models. I've never owned a wideband scanner.

I'm upgrading from my Uniden 120xlt because i don't think it's sensitive enough and it doesn't have wideband ability. When walking around my backyard doing yard work the uniden is not compact and it's always losing reception when it really shouldn't be. Up to now i was going to go with the Yaesu 120D because it looks like a ripper but i've seen that the 92xlt has been released with 'Close Call Capture'. This has swayed my decision a little bit. Is the close call function really that effective?

I'd rather have the Yaesu if it's more sensitive, able to get shortwave and military. I also really like it because it's so small but i'm concerned about quality of signals because of it's small size.

But i'd like the Uniden if the close call function works. It'd be great at sports events, airshows etc. The downfall is that the uniden doesn't get below 25mhz and between 174-400 where i've never been able to scan before. My old 200XLT had 800mhz back in the day of analogue mobile ph's and it was 'possibly' able to receive them but i can't remember that long ago

Does anyone have any thoughts. ATM, i'm swayed to the Yaesu as i'd like to get into more wideband stuff to see whats there.

Cheers

[vk6hgr]

I'd get the Yaesu.

I am biased, having a lot of Yaesu ham radio gear, but I think the ability to scan HF could be useful if you plan on doing shortwave listening sometime in the future - no need to get another receiver.

To me, the close call feature seems really just to be an equivalent of doing a fast wide-band frequency search with the squelch up high. I'd be interested too to hear what other people think of that feature. I wouldn't buy a scanner based on it though.

I have a Yaesu VX-5R transceiver which is about the same size as that scanner. In the city it does suffer from front-end overload (pagers etc), but then again most scanners do.

There isn't a lot between 174 and 400Mhz. Mostly television and military.

[Steve]

In this situation I'd consult the excellent 'eham' website where radio users are invited to review their own radios. The reviews of the VR-120 are at http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1758

There are no reviews of the 92xlt up yet.

I gotta say, like Gavin, there's something about having the word 'Yaesu' stamped on the front of a radio...

[radiohead]

I've got the UBC92XLT and I reckon its really good.. haha someones gotta stand up for the Unidens here!
I have tried the Close-call feature out on it and it works well too, but I must say my favourite feature is how compact it is. Its great to take on the road and even better because it easily fits in my bag. I also have the UBC120XLT which is heaps chunkier so you can see why I appreciate the size of the newer model.
I don't know much about Yaesu products so I cant really say anything about them but I can say I'm happy with my Uniden scanners so far!

[Pty]

Would anyone suggest than the $75 more for the iCOM IC-R5 Scanner is worth it? The Icom seems to get good reviews. The main reason i don't like is that it doesn't have manual squelch or BNC connection.

[inet611]

Go for the ICOM