G'Day, Try Andrews Communications. They have a good range, most of which are well above the budget. Of those less than $200 I'll make the following comments
Alinco DJ-X3E - Having owned an older model Alinco many years ago, I'd be inclined to avoid this one even though it does have a pretty good "on paper" spec.
Uniden UBC73XLT - Good general purpose scanner. Currently use the 200 channel 'brother' of this radio as my backup handheld. Chris, it sounds as if you may have a faulty unit,as you should be able to directly enter a frequency ??
UNIDEN UBC-330CRS - This is probably not what you are after being a base unit, but it is an excellent unit for the price.
The Maycom unit is quite good too, although it is much more limited in frequency range, is slightly more difficult to program, and from my experience at least, is less sensitive than the uniden units. They do work well at the airport though. They also have a different antenna connector so if you want to use other antennas / external antennas you will need an adaptor.
http://www.andrewscom.com.au/site-section-07.htm
Steve