Railfan Technology > Railroad Radio Scanner

thinking about get one..any suggestions ????

Thanks

JLSeale

Uniden is about your best choice unless you go with a Ham or professional two-way.

Uniden makes a killer new scanner in it's Home Patrol line. Pricey at about 450 bucks, but does all the thiinking for you.

If you want RR only, they make several models around $99 that are great.

Danny Harmon
Tampa

Search the "Railfan Technology" forum as this comes up regularly there.
 

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

Seriously consider the Yaesu when comparing.  But, with any
radio, you also need to look at an optimal antenna.  As mentioned,
lots of good info on the Technology Board.

Yaesu FT-270 ham radio
Battery CASE for AA batteries in the event you exhaust the rechargable battery PACK that comes
   with the radio.
RT Systems software and programming cable (Windows)
MFJ-1717S antenna

Good place to buy: Amateur Electronic Supply   (www.aesham.com)
Ask for Matt Welch.

Be Well,

Tim Colbert  K3HX

 

Narr8rdanny Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Uniden is about your best choice unless you go
> with a Ham or professional two-way.
>
> Uniden makes a killer new scanner in it's Home
> Patrol line. Pricey at about 450 bucks, but does
> all the thiinking for you.

I have a Home Patrol and it does work reasonably well. I'm not sure if this is true of all Home Patrol units, but mine is not all that sensitive, even with a home made J-pole external antenna. I do like it for its ability to monitor trunked systems. As noted in other posts, there are probably better choices for RR-only monitoring, models that will pull in more signals.

 

If your gonna use it for listen to only the RR then go with the Yaesu FT-270 or the Kenwood TH-K20A both are ham radios, but will cost a lot less and will out perform scanner as well. If your gonna listen to PD or FD or other stuff then look into higher end scanner that cover digital and such. I have the older FT-250 been using it for years always worked great. Good friend has the TH-K20 and does great job as well.

If your looking for moblie then go with Kenwood TM281A, I have and use four of these. One in my truck and three than run my railroadradio.net online radio feeds. Can be program by hand but can be pain with me using so many i got the software.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/15 16:32 by CPR-489.

I suggest the Amateur Radio devices also.  They have a lot of features that you can't use and might not have any idea what they do so just ignore them.  Because they are so rich in features, they are more complicated to program. Because of that, I suggest the programming software (and cables) from RT Systems.   They are the leaders in the field.  

Recently the Chinese have entered the market.  Baofeng makes a very good receiver but it's not a great scanner.  I have one and it takes about 30 seconds to scan through 100 memories.  Not very good if you are searching for action.  If I'm using mine I just put it on the frequency of interest and leave it there.  The receiver sensitivity is good along with battery life in a form factor that will fit in a shirt pocket.  My Yaesu 170 had a 140 page manual, the manual for the Baofeng was 16 pages.  The MFJ-1717 or similar antenna is a good addition to just about any scanner/radio.  Just make sure you get the one with the proper connector and sex.  

John

My theory was the HAM receiver would have a decent re-sale value, if I move to another style radio or move out of the hobby.

CPR-489 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If your gonna use it for listen to only the RR
> then go with the Yaesu FT-270 or the Kenwood
> TH-K20A both are ham radios, but will cost a lot
> less and will out perform scanner as well. If your
> gonna listen to PD or FD or other stuff then look
> into higher end scanner that cover digital and
> such. I have the older FT-250 been using it for
> years always worked great. Good friend has the
> TH-K20 and does great job as well.
>
> If your looking for moblie then go with Kenwood
> TM281A, I have and use four of these. One in my
> truck and three than run my railroadradio.net
> online radio feeds. Can be program by hand but can
> be pain with me using so many i got the software.

While I agree with the Kenwood TM-281A being a good choice, the FT-270 and TH-K20A hand helds have a serious drawback.  While they are narrow-band capable, they WILL NOT tune the "splinter" frequencies that were created with narrow-banding.  While NXDN digital (which is "very narrow band"--6.25 kHz spacing vs. 12.5 kHz for narrow-band) is likely not to be in wide RR use for several more years, it is highly likely that railroads will begin using the splinter narrow-band analog channels before that.  The TM-281A will tune those frequencies, the FT-270 and TH-K20 will not.  And, of course, once the RR's go to NXDN digital, all of the above-referenced radios become doorstops for railfanning.

The Uniden BC125AT is cheap, about a  hundred bucks less on E-bay, has all the railroad frequency's preprogramed and if you enter frequency's individually you can name the channel by railroad.  If you want a better antenna try Smiley Antennas that you can order cut for the railroad frequency's for about twenty dollars.  Uses AA batteries or with adapters AC or DC power.  Once your hooked think of moving up to a Yaesu or Kenwood.   

I agree with others and would skip the "scanner" radios and go for the HAM equipment or a used commercial rig. They will FAR outperform any scanner you will buy mainly because they are more band specific and have better filtering a result. Models from Yaesu such as the FT-270 or 250 are great single band options and the VX-6R is a very solid performer as well (plus you gain a lot of of other bands for receive and the 440 band for Transmit). The Kenwood TH-K20A is a strong performer and very sensitive. I use both the VX-6R and TH-K20A every day along with commercial equipment.

Hank

To explain my comments about narrow-band analog (12.5 kHz spacing) and very-narrow-band NXDN (6.25 kHz spacing), please refer to this chart:  http://www.dpdproductions.com/page_rrfreqs_newplan.html .
The far left column of channels are the old wide band channels (25 kHz spacing). In the railroad band, the Yaesu FT-270 and Kenwood TH-K20A will only tune those 97 channels--they can do so in narrow-band, but they can not tune the "splinter channels" --designated AAR channels 104 through 197 on the narrow-band (12.5 kHz spacing) column.  The Kenwood TM-281A mobile will tune those splinter channels.  Now, for the very-narrow-band NXDN digital channels (designated AAR channel nos. 302-488), only an NXDN-capable radio (currently only sold by Kenwood and Icom as commercial hand helds, bases,  and mobiles; and Ritron as a clean-cab locomotive radio) will receive those channels.  There is an AOR moblie scanner that will decode NXDN, but it costs about double what a commercial Kenwood or Icom NXDN radio costs, so I don't consider it a very viable option for railfanning.

I use a Yaesu FT-250 and have been very pleased with it, it's very sensitive, the battery lasts a long time and it's easy to use.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/15 16:03 by exhaustED.

Just to let you know, have just rung after talking to RT systems.
Seems my rudimentary/lost skills with Microsoft had to be reset.
Using a recently purchased (from a local shop that deals with
these dastardly machines)
a two year old laptop with Windows 7. So shall at some point
attempt to set up the spreadsheet for the first of three FT-270
two metre rigs. BTW Two will be railway, one for marine, hence three
files as all three radios shall be for radically different listening.

Why my difficulty? Strictly Macintosh computers, since
before 1990 and nor do I allow my computers near anything
Microsoft, not if I can help it.
Rod at RT Systems help desk sounded just a wee bit annoyed
with the problem, loading drivers indeed....and specialty ports;
madness I tell you...
Bottom line up and operating.

Bryce Lee VA3TRN