Railfan Technology > Hand-held scanner advice

Today I managed to lose the antenna off my trusty Bearcat scanner. I'm asking for suggestions on buying a new hand-held. What are you guys using and are you happy with it? What would you recommend?

Dave

Have you checked online for a new antenna? Places like Antenna Farm.

Radio wise, I have been using a Baofeng UV-5R Plus since March and I like it with one exception. The exception being that the speaker isn't as loud as my old Motorola. Picked it up on Amazon for $35 + about another $12 for a 14.5" antenna. I have experienced an average range of 15 miles with this radio and antenna setup. Very lightweight and fairly durable. Programming can be done manually or via computer with the additional purchase of the data cable online and the use of the software found on the Miklor website.

On Amazon you can find a Baofeng UV series receiver. I bought one but it did not work out for my needs.
In September I had to replace my Radio Shack scanner. They had one on sale, the PRO 649, $99.95.
I use the antenna for the Bofeng and it is just as sensitive as the Diamond RH 77CA I have used in the past.
It needs an adapter from BNC on the receiver to the antenna. Radio shack had them also. It
was a quick and easy replacement. Best of luck.......Swede...NA7SL.....Albany,Or
PS. The software is not comparable with MACs.......NLL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/14 18:35 by GN_X838.

Any 'ham' 2 meter handy talkie. They're good for listening.

John, aka K6KMJ.

The Boefeng radio is pretty decent. The manual is only about 16 pages and kind of limited. It tells you what each function does but it doesn't tell you how to use them to program a channel. For example, it tells you how to select a frequency, how to select a channel, how to ad an alphanumeric title, how to select the transmit frequency (remember, it is a ham radio transceiver), how to select transmit power, but not how to put them all together to program the info you want into a memory channel. The other thing that I don't like, or I havent found a way around it, you can't disable transmitting on channels. As a ham I'm licensed to transmit on some of the frequencies but I'm not licensed to transmit on railroad, public service, or business frequencies. One other thing I don't like is that it has and antenna connector that I think is called a "reverse polarity SMA." There's nothing wrong with it except other SMA antennas and cables I have won't fit it... wrong sex. So, if you buy one and you want to use an external antenna or an aftermarket antenna, you have to make sure you get the right sex. The picture below illustrates the two connectors The one on the left is what the Chinese radios require. The one on the right is what just about everyone else uses.

The actual performance of the radio is pretty good compared to my Yaesu VX-170. Run time / battery power is pretty good also. The speaker is small but that's pretty common on handheld radios. It's not a scanner. It will scan but like other ham radios, it doesn't have some of the features you find on some scanners, such as searching for nearby transmitters. I still prefer my VX-170 but it's out of production now and it cost about $125. The FT-270 is the replacement but it cost about $100 more than the Chinese radios.

I had trouble with the programming software that was included with mine. I bought the RT-system software and cable and had no problems. The cable that came with the radio didn't work with the RT-system software.

If you lost your antenna for your scanner and you were happy with the scanner you can buy new antennas for under $20. The MFJ Enterprise MFJ-1717 (BNC connector) or the MFJ-1717S for SMA is a real up grade to a standard duck, however, it is about 16 inches long.

Hope this helps

John

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My favorite scanner is my Yeasu FT250R. It gives good reception of distant signals and can be programmed with the keyboard. However, not having the programming software, I cannot set up banks.

I also have a Bao-Feng UV5. It's loud and has good reception but I do not recommend it. Programming cannot be done using the keyboard. A channel cannot be locked out in the field. The scan rate is so slow that it misses transmissions. For that reason I would not recommend putting more than 20 channels into it. The Bao-Feng was cheap but not very practical to use.

You may be better off with the latest Bearcat or simply getting a new antenna for your original scanner.

KG

kgmontreal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> For that reason I would not recommend putting
> more than 20 channels into it. The Bao-Feng was
> cheap but not very practical to use.
>
> >
> KG

I have to agree with the comment about scan rate. I have all 99 channels programmed into mine plus some amateur radio frequencies. I started a scan and timed it. Only took about 30 seconds to go through 100 channels. That's about 3 channels per second. A decent scanner will step through 20 per second, some will even do 40 or more. My Yaesu goes through 100 channels in about 5 seconds. When I use the Baofeng I pick a channel I want to listen to and just leave it there.

Thanks KG for mentioning that. Very important difference between a "monitor" with some scanning functions and a "Scanner."

John

To get back 'on the air' suggest getting a replacement antenna for the Bearcat on order right away.

To upgrade I endorse the Yeasu FT-270, great performance, even with it's quirks and limitations. An issue I have is not getting the EOT frequencies, another model receives both Bands but is no match for the FT-270 in other 'useability' features.

Wow, I'd heard about those reverse SMA connectors, kinda scary. Good info on the Boefeng radio.

I will second the Yaesu FT-270 handheld. I bought a better antenna and a magnetic mount car antenna. It works great at picking up distant repeaters beyond the hills in my area, when connected to the car antenna. I have no complaints. Takes a little to program, but buy the programming software.

Since it is VHF only, it wont work for EOT tracking. I still use my old Radio shack handheld to monitor the UHF EOT/DPU channels and all I need is to pick up a mile or two away.

Gary

I'll add my endorsement to the Yeasu 270... They are the equal of any commercial radio ive ever used... Gary's post above contains lots of good advice...

leroy



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/14 04:44 by leroy82646.