Here at ScannerMaster we have decided to highlight some of our favorite scanners of the past and today. For the first entry in the series we have chosen what may well win the “Favorite Scanner” award from more people than any other radio: The Bearcat BC780XLT. Both Jonathan and Rich C. chose this as our favorite scanner from the past.

The “780”  as it is well known, came out in 2000 and was an instant hit with the scanner community. It had 500 channels and came with trunktracking capabilities for Motorola, EDACS and LTR, computer access and many other features.

It was joined in 2003 by the BC785 which had 1000 channels and added a digital card for use on digital conventional and trunked systems, and that in turn was quickly replaced by the BC796D that added support for 9600 Baud digital trunked systems.

The BC780XLT combined a compact package that was equally at home mounted in a vehicle as it was on the desktop. Dealers were sold out as soon as they came into stock and despite it’s high price of about $600 (about $1000 in today’s dollars) people couldn’t get enough of them.

An entire cottage industry for accessories for the 780/785/796 scanners was created. ScannerMaster designed an internal battery pack for the series so one could use it in the field. A nylon carry case so one could carry it around with them was sold for it as well. A Remote Head kit was built to allow more flexible mounting in vehicles, and many other accessories were developed.

The BC780 t is still used by many today for aviation and railroads as well as other analog uses.

BC780XLT