Monday, April 4, 2016

UNIDEN UBC200XLT RADIO SCANNER (A Review)

Hello and welcome back.... Found a bargain on the weekend.

For a mere $8, i brought a Uniden UBC200XLT Radio Scanner at my local Salvos store in the box. This radio was made around 1989 - 1993 and is one amazing little radio in its day.
200 channels covering VHF low, Airband, VHF mid, UHF and 800mhz.
It comes with a detachable battery pack.
Sadly on this radio, the 6 nicad battery's were shot and a wire has come off but its clean and yes, the unit still works. I have wired a rechargeable 9v battery into the compartment which works well.
I was thinking about doing a mod to the battery compartment similar to the pic below (not sure if the 9v could damage the scanner).


It does take 12v into the back so i figured the 9v should be OK but i'm not sure.
For anyone else who has one of these radios and wants to try the battery mod, below is the wiring placement for the battery's.


The only other things my radio seems to have is a loose solder joint near the antenna on the circuit board. It came with a retractable metal antenna (weighs a bit) so i'm thinking the stress of such a heavy antenna on a old radio didn't do it any favours. I have put my Mobile One BNC Scantenna handheld antenna on it and it works excellent but if you touch it slightly one way it cuts out. Solution = my brother next time he comes up to visit, bring a soldering iron, re-solder the joint and leave the antenna on the radio.
And a small LCD leak on the screen.

Must say, its refreshing to use after using my complicated UBCD396XLT, simply press manual, put in ch number, then enter frequency and press enter button... that's it, done.. so easy

Not bad for a few dollars

I took a few photos of this amazing radio including the unmodified insides which are in pristine condition.

                                  Even came with the leather-ette pouch...


































                             A small LCD leak




































































You can source these battery packs online (ebay) for around $60 or do it yourself.

*** UPDATE ****
Gave up on the 9v battery, i was flat in 2 days... looks like i'll stick to the 12v adapter in the back.
Also i found a broken solder joint between the antenna base and the frame of the scanner.. just need a re-solder :)

#200xlt
#uniden
#ubc200xlt

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