MacBearcat

5 March 2019
MacBearcat unfortunately does not run on newer MacOS versions (such as Sierra or higher). This is due to the Prolific driver.If there is anyone out there that can successfully communicate to the scanner with a serial tool through the driver, please let me know, we might be able to find a fix for MacBearcat. Whatever driver I try on MacOS High Sierra, I can not talk to the scanner.

A Beta version is available now! Download the MacBearcat.app

I am new to using scanners for plane spotting. I have bought a Uniden Bearcat UBC125XLT scanner to discover that entering channels is quite awkward and time consuming. Google informs me that there are Windows applications for making this easier (for instance Butel’s Arc125, or Nick Bailey’s free Scan125.

But hey, I don’t do Windows.

So what do you do?

First, I discovered programming the Bearcat from a Mac is not impossible. ‘Brutha’ explains how to use a serial tool to read and write data to the Bearcat on transmission1.eu. Now there’s a start. The (very awkward; who in his right mind would use 0 for enabling an option and 1 for disabling. In another instance it is 99 for disabling and 0 for enabling. Sigh) protocol the Bearcat uses can be downloaded from the Uniden site.

Ok, time to dust of Realbasic to build a native Mac application.

MacBearcat is currently in Beta.

Here are some screenshots

Schermafbeelding 2015-07-12 om 11.34.51The ‘main screen’: corresponding to the Scan button functionality

Schermafbeelding 2015-07-12 om 11.34.43The Search button screen.

Schermafbeelding 2015-07-12 om 11.35.10The settings screen.

Schermafbeelding 2015-07-12 om 11.35.22The help screen

Schermafbeelding 2015-07-12 om 11.34.59The About screen

A Beta version is available now! Download the MacBearcat.app

To use the App, you first need to install the appropriate USB driver. You can download one here
After installing the driver, connect your Bearcat (UBC125XLT or UBC125AT) to a USB port on your Mac. Then switch on the Bearcat. Next launch the application. It will try to connect to the scanner and read out all the settings and channels.

Changelog:
0.9.2:

  • fixed a situation where saving a bank before uploading it to the scanner resulted in data loss of that bank
  • fixed various minor bugs

0.9.1:

  • fixed spurious redundant communication between MacBearcat and Bearcat

0.9.0:

  • initial beta release