Great radio! Great CB and scanner works as well! Microphone has to be plugged in or radio won’t play audio. Thought mine was broken but plugged in the mic and worked perfectly.
Hmm, will Uniden bother to listen to radio enthusiasts and produce a "985" with all these options with SSB included? Many are hoping....waiting....willing to throw money at you if you do.
There all alot of agencies in Texas that still use analog/digital. I just purchased the 885 and it will work here in Texas... I still hear local PD, Sheriffs' departments, VFD's, and ambulances on analog frequencies here in North Texas...
Wish this had ProVoice so we could hear every Bear out there lol. But this looks great though and it is so cool that everything comes with it!! The updatable database via the SD card is amazing! This is what the people want! Looks so user friendly! Integral SWR measurement will help us calibrate our own antennas if need be! I am stoked about this! WHEN CAN I ORDER ONE!!!!??
I have been stopped by bears in my youth so many times... I gotta keep learning one of these things may save me one day!!!😋💣🌎🏁🏴☠🏴☠🏴☠ flying the skull & bones in the jolly north
Okay, I'm very late on this. Just saw only one of these on the shelf at a Love's in Tennessee just north of Nashville. Not that it matters but, didn't expect to find a 885 amongst everything behind the diesel counter. Looks like everyone wants a 985 version. Not too interested. What peaked my interest was the possibility of someone finally using the wx side of cb antennas ( those typically that arrive on newest of tractors) until I thought to seek out this video, and saw the wire antenna. Reminded me of sharing one antenna with two tx, that will never work. I understand why so many options omitted that could have been possible on this product. I will keep my peace as to why I'd rather have two separate devices in the big rig. Although, outside of my experience with Cobra 29 LX MAX, and it's adaptable features, not to mention the costly yearly fee for iRadar app, this might be a competitive alternative in the long run.
Just installed this radio and it's pretty great. Sitting here with the road shut down in Wyoming and I'm hearing what's going on at the accident site. 👍🏻
This would be ultimate if you integrated the new R3 into it. Wow. Lens in the rear (for dash top mounting) . A small area on screen dedicated to radar settings and function. But we would need all the current R3 settings available for customization.
I like this radio a lot, the only thing I wish it would do is have an inverse display setting light background with black characters, it's hard to read in very bright daylight.
Man, I wish I woulda seen this video before I bought my 880, I seen these available, but without any info on how it worked I stayed safe $$ wise. Lead truck of 4 on a cross state run, this could be such an asset
It’s good that you can deselect any of the services since, for me, I’m primarily interested in police and fire. By “ambulance”, does that mean only “private” ambulance companies or anything normally categorized as “EMS”? Also, will this radio also receive state forestry departments and National Forest frequencies? These also have a lot of law enforcement and fire-related activity.
I've recently purchased the BT885. So far it's been okay for c.b. side. I'm just wondering if anyone has had any issue with the scanner side with crappy reception? I've purchased another antenna and placed it outside the vehicle hoping I'd get better reception but I'm not. Analog signals are scratchy but audible. Digital signals comes in a few seconds then blanks out for a second then back in. I'm unable to actually hear a conversation of any kind. For 400 bucks I'm not really digging this unit.
It's really too bad the Uniden Bear Tracker 885 scanner feature doesn't allow users to program in channels they want monitor as a scanner, even though the primary purpose is a CB Radio.
Nice to see a video that shows what's included without having to take the unit out of the box. Most of us could figure out how to get it out of the box Is it a scanner with a CB? Or a CB with a scanner? If its a scanner, why not use more of the display for that? If its a CB, have more controls for the radio, such as 9/19 and scan. That aside, I want one
I bought this unit and I love it ... One problem though. Setting talkback to zero is not really zero, and I still get talkback, which turns into feedback when I'm running the radio into my car stereo aux. Am I missing something?
So my real question is GPS - will that be built into any of the new Scanners (coming soon I hope) to replace the 436/536/HP2 - I really like this but don't want to give up my display of my 536 and hate that I have to use an add-on antenna for the 536 for GPS.
Excellent video. How come the GPS icon doesn't display on the screen in your video? Asking because the manual says it should appear after about a minute and this is also happening on mine. My GPS antenna has a clear view of the sky so wondering what the deal is with the icon not showing on the screen.
Question for you sir: I don't do a lot of traveling beyond a typical 1 or 2 county area. I know which frequencies and talk-groups I'm interested in listening to and really wouldn't want the scanner to work off the GPS system. Is there a way to program the scanner for a limited # of frequencies or talk-groups so it only listens to a few towns' police and fire departments? Is there perhaps some way to easily delete all the data from the SD card except for those areas you want to listen to??
I think entering in your zipcode manually on the 885 and locking it will only give you what you want. (Not recommended while driving.) As far as deleting information on the memory card I will have to get back to you. When mine arrives I'll look at the data that gets written to the SD and let you know what I see.
Is there a way to program just the scanner part to include only the channels I want to scan or do I have to keep hitting AVOID every time I turn on the scanner to skip the channels I don't want to scan??? In other words, can I program the scanner portion of this radio with Sentinel software and set up my channel scan to my liking???
Can you explain what percentage of police this will pick up? Is it based on frequencies or how those radios operate, ie are they all truncated in operation? And they run split frequencies, does that factor? Thank you! I’m looking forward to buying one.
So when it's scanning will is scan both cb channels and the emergency services at the same time when you're on the road? Or do you have to put it in cb mode or scanner mode?
Will this receive LTR Multinet? My local DOT runs on That system and I see this says it receives LTR and I would love to find out if it receive the Multi Net system. If so I’d buy it.
Can you upgrade the police scanner antenna? Possibly run dual 102s one for CB and the other for the scanner? Or would that be complete overkill? I don’t like the tacky look of the suction cup antenna.
Yes, but you would not want to run a CB antenna as the scanner antenna...wrong frequency band in most cases. Since the GPS limits the scan list to local (and normally strong) signals, you don't need much of an antenna for normal use.
Upman what I did was purchased an SDS200 which I love but due to limited cabin room have to put unit under my seat. The SDS200 has too much to configure for its GPS - so its my base. I am going to use this for mobile because I can just turn it on and it scans - great for travels. I do wish the next Beartracker to add in P25 multicast better signal like the SDS200. Otherwise this is perfect solution...have yet to try the Bearcat warning system. Just down the road in Austin, TX will head to Oklahoma and through your neck of the woods and try this out.
Do you have to switch back & forth between scanner & cb functions to hear them? If not, what happens if scanner traffic is occurring at same time as cb traffic, do they both play audio at same time & drown each other out?? I don’t understand if you need to switch functions or if it plays scanner & cb audio at same time??
Can you just program the fire ambulance and police frequencies you want in the radio. It would be nice to have a cb dual band and scanner radio all in one even be able to make phone calls from it
We shipped out all of our first shipment to our distributors last week (didn't save any for our own site). They are starting to show up at retail, now. FCC grant has been issued.
In all honesty this radio is Nice especially for truck drivers. What's sad is the fact that Uniden will only continue production on the Bearcat 980 radios for SSB. Lastly the most disappointing thing for me at least is how Uniden abandoned the Cobra 2000 & 148gtl. I guess they figured they could not compete with Galaxy IDK.
My question is - "Beartracking" - what states are still using the low frequency repeaters that these go off on? How well does it work in Texas/Oklahoma - does it still work now that a lot of state highway patrol have gone to P25 systems?
If someone did want to add the scanner Antenna to the back, like a whip on the trunk with the CB antenna, is there a way to do it? Or sn adapter for the scanner port to be coaxial? I couldn't find anything on the website.
oooooo good ? hey some one answer this guy - also is there a way we can check to see if a city we want is in your data base before we shell out all that money only to find its one of the citys you dont have aka your lil *
It's Great for us fire police people. Got a radio to talk to trucks plus hear everything other than just our regular fire radio that we keep on 1 channel
Can you upgrade the 885 to receive police when dispatcher orders police involved in an incident to move to a given CHANNEL. Example, "Car 2159 and others, move to channel 10, I repeat Channel 10 to clear up MAIN." I live in boise and I hear this a lot. This 885 won't or can't pick up the frequency that Channel 10 is on, or for that matter, any other channels. I suspect that the frequencies for this area is obtain my UNIDEN are only the DISPATCH freq's. It would be ever so nice for people like me to have UNIDEN do further research for a list of police CHANNELS in order for us to upgrade. HUM-m-m? How 'Bout It. . . To those scanner buffs reading this, it agree, do a thumbs up click.
That's a really cool radio, but it has a couple of problems which would prevent me form buying it. First, I am an amateur radio operator, and it would be great if you could enter amateur frequencies manually. It would not need to transmit on those frequencies, just monitor them. Second, as someone who has used a scanner to listen to the police for years, I have discovered that most police departments now use both trunked systems and digitally encrypted signals, so in most of the country all you will get is something that sounds like a modem or fax machine. The days of listening in on the cops are pretty much over.
Trunked systems are not a problem for this, at all. Most agencies are, in fact, on trunked systems. Encrypted comms are not the majority (but cannot be received by any scanner).
Several cities around Phoenix, AZ are using encrypted communications. I have a Trunk Tracker scanner, but all you get is noises that sound like a modem or fax machine. The Sheriffs office and Highway patrol still use open unencrypted frequencies. I would definitely be interested if it would receive at least the 2 meter amateur band.
I should have added that there is absolutely no reason you could not enter amateur frequencies (or any other frequency) manually. You can create Favorites Lists that have whatever you want.
I'm looking at getting this but I have a issue. More and more cops are encrypting the radio messages. Will the 885 still pick it up. I'm not sure if the signal or the message is encrypted. Please help me with this
The link in product support is not there as shown on the video. Where do I go to update my Beartracker 885 now? I've been searching the Uniden site and it just keeps taking me back to the product page.
On the product page it says "To update your BearTracker 885’s scanner database, download, unzip, and install BearTracker 885 Update Manager." (The last part is a link that takes you to get the software.)
You can manually enter a zip code. But, for driving, GPS is the only practical method for updating your location. Drive 100 miles (or even 10) and quickly tell me what zip code you are ing.
🤬I sure wish the BearTracker Update Manager worked. I just got my 885 yesterday (09/15/2022). The BT885 Update Manager will not work. I have no idea if using the Sentinel got me the latest update or not. 🤬
This scanner DOES do P25 Phase 1 and Phase 2 TDMA, FDMA and analog........Uniden...PLEAS PLEASE build the Uniden 985 with SSB. and add NOAA weather alerts.....You could charge $500 and they will sell!!!
What if i want to continue to listen to an area once i left that area? Would it change to the new area im in or can i hold it to that zip code? Can i listen to a zip code if im not around it?
www.radioReference.com Click on Databases, then select Frequency Database. Find your area, county, town. If it says P25E, it's encrypted and you won't hear anything. I don't know if this radio even does P25.
Yes and no that scanning is usles.my town runs standard anolog digital p25 trunking phase one.there is no encryption in my town.there a very very little encryption In my state.not my town.there's a lot states and towns that still are not encryption.
