Railfan Technology > Scanner Help

I'm interested in buying a new portable device to scann railroad radio channels. I used a Uniden Bearcat scanner for a number of year until finally breaking. I'm undecided of whether to go with a scanner, or a portable ham radio. I've read on other forums where people have had good results with both. I'm really interested in something that will give me maximum reception when I am out in the field. Any idea or suggestions of what I should go with?

Nicholas

If you scan down this forum, smile, you will find several threads in short order on this subject. It is not too hard as there are not that many posts.

There is no correct answer, all decisions have trade-offs.


Bob

Ok,
from what I have read so far, it appears the VX-170 was a popular choice for many railfans. After searching Universal Radio, I found out this model has now been replaced by the Yaesu FT-270R model. Can anyone give me some feedback on this model?

Thanks,
Nicholas

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/5270.html

The FT-270R is outstanding! I have one and I am sold on it. Buy the programing software for it. Once you figure out the software the rest is easy. The only drawback is that it has a limited frequency range and will not pick up the aviation frequencies. The FT-60 has a much greater freqency range but I have not seen any discussions about how well it does vs the FT-270.

Old Bob out in Las Vegas

I can't say enough about the FT-270. A great radio for the price.

SP7615

I have a Icom V82 with a Diamond RH77CA antenna. It's a great receiver! But I don't like the way the scan works.

Best,
Kevin
Levittown, PA

The ham radios are not scanners. They usually have a scan function but they are not designed to be scanners. Scanners will usually scan faster, have an enlarged frequency range, have search functions, and do not have a lot of functions a receive only device does not need to have. On the other hand, the ham radios usually have a better receiver. The aftermarket antennas are a good investment if you are going to be out in the middle of downtown nowhere. I use the Diamond RH77 series antenna (make sure you get the correct connector type) on my VX-170 and 2 years ago on Amtrak and on one occasion I was hearing transmissions that the engineer and conductor could not read.

Which do you prefer, Ford or Chevy? Or maybe Toyota or VW. I basically tell people to look at the sensitivity and selectivity, and then the price tag and make a decision after that. After sensitivity and selectivity the rest of the options are just icing on the cake (sort of.) Scanners are much better today than they were 10 years ago. You probably won't go wrong with either type radio.

One thing to keep in mind is the narrow-band and digital conversion. None of the consumer radios will copy the digital signals as of now, but, no one is using the digital format other than a few isolated places. You might want to buy a less expensive radio that will hold you over for about 2 years until NXDN radios for consumers hit the market. I would expect the NBFM (Narrow Band FM) will be the next change so look for a radio that will copy the 6.25KHz deviation.

As others have said, look through this forum and you'll find a world of opinions on this subject and you can just manually search the forum to find what you want.

John

The Diamond antenna seems to do the job the best. A friend bought a "rail road freq. antenna" and donated it to me after using my Diamond. Good listening. I just check Ham Radio Outlet, it has on line ordering of Yeasue FT 250 and 270s. They are on sale. RH77CA runs about 24 to 28 dollars, check and see if you need a SMA or BNC connector. Swede GN X838 NA7SL



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/10 12:18 by swedel.