Whether or not it's my particular handheld scanners i don't know, but i've always had a little trouble getting decent signals with my UBC 120xlt. I've had it for a few years now and before that a 200xlt. I also have a UBC 61xlt and a RadioShack pro30 or something. I have external aerials and such but i still have poor luck with them and put it down to my being in a bad RX area.
Anyway, i've recently bought an ICOM IC40s handheld UHF CB, pictured below:
I've owned my ICOM 400pro uhf cb's for a few months now, and they are in a league of their own. For emergency services and general uhf scanning they are awesome. They blow my uniden 013 uhf/scanner away for received signal quality and TX signals i've managed 22klm, and that was 2 days ago up the beach! (check with a GPS
)Anyway, i was hunting around my local pawn shop looking for radio goodies and i saw the icom handheld for sale next to a couple of GME handhelds. I was tempted as they all have RX programmability, but i didn't buy. A week later i went back and the GME's had all gone but i managed to get the icom for an AMAZINGLY low price. It sells for $400 new but i got it for almost a quarter of that!
I had to buy a charger and i also got a programming cable (for the 20 extra RX channels) and away i went to test it out.
While sitting on my couch after programing in my local police, fire and SES the signals that came through were incredible. I'd never received them so clear or strong. I crapped myself.
Now for the test, sitting the icom side by side with the uniden gear, on the same frequency, the unidens struggled to receive the signal while the icom (proudly showing full strength on it's 10bar signal meter) came in solid. I now have no need for an external aerial, the icom doesn't need one.
Pro's:
* Can be used as a CB or scanner
* Extremely good received signal quality.
* Excellent signal meter
* Long life battery
* Heaps of accessories
* Computer programmable
Cons:
* Only receives 450-490mhz
* NO SQUELCH ADJUSTMENT AT ALL (but still receives the weakest of weak signals)
* Someone told me it looks ugly
* Need pc gear to use/change extra RX channels
All in all, i'm very happy with. I won't be using my uniden scanners as often, exept for non-uhf signals
I'm now an ICOM lover. I'm probably only going to buy that gear from now on...
