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from Johnson City, TN on 2/28/2007
Great for trunking and local signals, doesn't pick up air traffic control 20 miles away though. Overall pretty happy with it
This scanner is much more advanced than my old BC100xlt scanner. With the trunk tracking feature you can pick up all of the new channels the police, fire and ems personnel use. You can program so many channels you probably will never use them all. It's great to keep track of what's going on in your town. A lot of the traffic accidents and crime are never reported in the paper but you can hear the emergency personnel respond live to the scene with the BR330t scanner. I like the removable AA NIMH batteries which I can purchase off the shelf for replacements. They lasted over a full day of continuous use on one charge. The display has a lot more information on it like the title, frequency and the id which make it a lot easier to follow who's talking. This is quite an impressive device for the price!
Although I own 3 shortwave receivers, this is my first scanner. I considered the BC246T first, but decided on the BR330T instead. I thought the military air freqs, plus MW, SW and broadcast FM were worth the higher price. The NASCAR feature is also a real plus for some folks. I looked at some digital scanners, but for the very limited use it would get in my area, digital capabilities weren't worth the much higher price.
Good: Efficient memory management; easy to operate; decent display; In-radio rechargeable or alkaline AA batteries; PC programming and control capabilities (software extra $$); Good headphone audio
Bad: Speaker audio could be better; Manual is difficult for beginners;
Overall, I'm pleased with the BR330T. If this is your first scanner, I have a few suggestions before you buy: Spend some time researching the types of radio systems in your area - make sure this model will handle what you want to monitor; plan on buying one of the PC programming utilities - there are several - it makes programming about 100x easier. (I think this is true of any scanner); Be persistent - this hobby will take some time to learn.