I recently acquired a vintage Bearcat BC895XLT scanner from an internet seller (not ebay). I've always had my eye on this scanner because of the nice VFO/memory dial knob, good air band specs, and the ability to have computer control. I purchased this model for a good price and set out to connect it to a computer.
The problem with enabling computer control on this scanner is the non-standard serial port on the back of the radio. It is hidden behind a piece of black, self-adhesive plastic on the right side of the read panel. It uses a 5-pin header style connector that, it turns out, is identical to those used on computer motherboards and CD-ROM's.
A quick internet search and some rummaging through my computer parts box turned up the correct 5-pin connector from an old motherboard, a 9-pin female serial port and housing, and some 5-conductor telephone wire.
There are a few control programs that support the BC895XLT; it turns out that
Scan Control Pro ($30) (which I already used to control my Bearcat BCT15X and RadioShack Pro-2052 scanners) also will nicely handle the BC895XLT. I connected this home-made serial cable to the computer through a Keyspan USA-19HS USB-to-serial adapter. You need to set the scanner for remote access by pushing the RMT front-panel button for 3 seconds and, once that was enabled, the program found the scanner right away and was up and running.
