Railfan Technology > Any Suggestions

I'm looking to upgrade my desktop scanner. My old one from RS was destroyed in my recent fire and was wondering would it be better to get another desktop scanner or should I go with a mobile ham radio since narrowband is coming.

Any suggestion that you would have would be greatly appreciated.

SP7615

Depends on you. Do you already have a mobile HT radio?

The Uniden Bearcat BCD996XT Scanner is what I use. I love it. Its a bit expensive at $500 but it will do just about anything and should pick up the digital stuff when it comes out.

Yea, make better use of the subject line.

Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/11 14:06 by robj.

In talking to the folks at Icom and Kenwood about their digital radios that the railroad are going to use, no one manufacturers a scanner yet that will receive the signals.

Last summer I visited with one of the scanner manufacturers who did not know what I was talking about. I suggested that they talk to Icom and Kenwood who was at the same National APCO conference in Houston.

I will be attending the IWCE Conference in early March in Las Vegas and then I will update everyone.

Just because a scanner say's it digital there is no guarantee that it will receive the NXDN signal.

More later in March.

Pat
WA5VRO
Austin, TX

I had to read about three answers before it finally dawned on me that this thread was about radio scanners and not slide scanners. Personally, I like Epson scanners. :^)

Con

There is no date set for the railroads to switch to digital. It could be ten years from now, or possibly never. When the FCC finally hires some technical staff and discovers that nobody wants to buy VHF spectrum for broadband, they might lose interest in narrow banding.

radar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is no date set for the railroads to switch
> to digital. It could be ten years from now, or
> possibly never. When the FCC finally hires some
> technical staff and discovers that nobody wants to
> buy VHF spectrum for broadband, they might lose
> interest in narrow banding.

while I think you may be on to something, remember that the gov't, broke as they are, is dying to reap the $$$ that narrowbanding will create.

chico
http://www.heartlandrails.com

radar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is no date set for the railroads to switch
> to digital. It could be ten years from now, or
> possibly never. When the FCC finally hires some
> technical staff and discovers that nobody wants to
> buy VHF spectrum for broadband, they might lose
> interest in narrow banding.

Sorry but it is already happening on UP. They started last November 2010 with a pilot program in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas subdivisions through Nov. 15, 2010. Their plan is to comply with federal regulations and have everything switched over in the next two years by converting all two-way radios – more than 54,000 devices – from wideband to narrowband.

According to UP, this is the final phase of an effort beginning in 1998 to upgrade UP's radio hardware and comply with a federal mandate that reduces standard operating bandwidth by half.

HB

There is a two step process for going narrow band. The first is to convert from 25 kHz channels to 12 kHz channels, with analog FM modulation. The FCC has a deadline set for this step and many users are already making plans to comply. Any radio will still receive, but the audio level will be low and and noisy.

The later step is to go to 6 kHz wide channels with digital modulation. There is no date set by the FCC. I have heard 2018 tossed around, but a lot can change in that time frame.

The GRE400 is a nice scanner for around $165, its a base/mobile and it has the stepping for the narrow banding when that comes into play.

Trogdor Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Uniden Bearcat BCD996XT Scanner is what I use.
> I love it. Its a bit expensive at $500 but it will
> do just about anything and should pick up the
> digital stuff when it comes out.

I have the HT version BDC396XT - it will not receive NXDN digital, only P25 digital. They are a different standard.