Railfan Technology > Scanners

I'm buying a portable, handheld scanner. Any suggestions?

Bill

Hi Bill,

A few months ago, I re-entered serious railfanning for the first time in about 15 years and was in the market for a scanner. After some research, I purchased the Uniden BC125AT. The combination of price, features and lack of unnecessary things like digital coverage and trunking made the decision easy. It has text tagging which was missing from the less expensive BC75XLT. Comes with a pair of rechargeable AAs and can also be charged via USB, very handy in the car!

I upgraded the supplied antenna to a railroad band optimized one and also purchased a magnetic mount RR band antenna for the car. Been very happy with performance and coverage.

Total outlay for the scanner and the 2 antennas was about $250.

Hope this helps.

Marc

After noticing this is posted on all of the individual Boards I would recommend trying the Search function using terms like 'radio' or scanner (but expect lots of hits for slide scanners). There is lots of interesting pointers about scanners and antennas to be found in the archives. Yeasu is another good search term, also Kenwood or Bearcat, or similar.

+1 for the Yaesu FT-270R, I'm a ham and have this radio but you don't have to have a license to buy one (you can't transmit and it only transmits on the 2 meter ham band anyway), great reception and it's affordable!  My best advice though, get the PC programming kit, I wouldn't even know where to start if I had to program it manually!

I've always had good luck with Uniden Bearcat scanners.  Check on E-Bay, they usually have plenty available.

Brian
Burlington, Iowa

The one you want is a bearcat BC 125 AT all the railroad frequencies are now narrow band it also has a optional antenna that is tuned for the RR frequencies.

Posted from iPhone

Wish railroads didn't go to narrowband, I miss my 1000 channel scanner I bought from Radio Shack back in 06!

Are there any Radio Shacks left, or is it a Fallen Flag of technology retailing?  I would guess that a 2006 vintage scanner is about like an analog-only TV receiver.

ProAmtrak Wrote:
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> Wish railroads didn't go to narrowband, I miss my
> 1000 channel scanner I bought from Radio Shack
> back in 06!

If you're talking about NXDN, it will be a long, long time (if ever) before that becomes a problem (at least for road and yard operations on Class 1's or others that interchange with them).  There's just too much equipment that would have to be changed over. Only small isolated operations may change over.  (The Cumbres and Toltec and the LA Metro light rail are the only ones that I know of for sure although there probably are a few others.)  Right now (and for the foreseeable future), your scanner from 06 should work just fine for almost everything.  Certainly mine does.

 

DNRY122 Wrote:
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> Are there any Radio Shacks left, or is it a Fallen
> Flag of technology retailing?  I would guess that
> a 2006 vintage scanner is about like an
> analog-only TV receiver.

GRE, who made the Radio Shacks, was selling them under their own name for a while.  Now Whistler has taken over all those designs and is continually improving them.

The biggest advances since 2006 are in trunking.  That can be important for police and fire, etc. but is not used by railroads, at least for road operations.  Even for police and fire, it MAY not be that important.  In the southern part of the LA basin (where I live), the only "public safety" that uses trunking is the LA Port Police.  I understand that trunking is much more widespread in the northern part of the basin, however.

For strictly railroad use, a 2006 vintage will still work quite well.  (I have a Radio Shack PRO-2006 that dates back to 1995 or so, that still works fine on railroads and on public safety in my area.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/16 06:11 by jmonier.

Kind of depends what you want to listen to besides railroad stuff.  Yaesu VX170, I think they still sell it, is a great option for railroad stuff.
If for other services, police, fire, EMS, etc.  then one of the Uniden or Whistler would work good.
If digital police, fire, EMS, then the cost goes up and the same Uniden or Whistler.
No digial scanner for railroad yet.
Good luck.

Pat
WA5VRO
Austin, TX
 

I can second the Yaesu recommendation.

I believe the recently released Whistler TRX-1 hand held and TRX-2 mobile will be NXDN capable... I believe the updates for NXDN will be available this fall.

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

Yaesu is selling a FT-270 these days, heck of a nice product at a good price but it's full of tricky little HAM world features that a scanning receiver doesn't need. Very sturdy with good audio and long battery life. I also have an FT 60 that covers the End of Train telemetry frequencies, nice heads up on most trains and the DPU activity as well. Not quite the same radio package or audio but very robust with superior sensitivity compared with most hobby scanning receivers.

Beware of the method of entering frequecies into these radios, many of us simply use an aftermarket software package to make the chore very easy. But the price goes up a little and it brings PC and Laptop requirements with it.

Radio Scanner or  Photo Scanner  ?

Radio...

mundo Wrote:
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> Radio Scanner or  Photo Scanner  ?

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

On this topic,I'm looking for a battery holder that holds 6 Double AA batterys. I broke a small piece off of one end and Radio Shack don't have any parts for them. It is a PRO 50 radio scanner, if anybody would know of a place to get one. I have searched on the internet but nothing any place. Or if you have a old one laying around that's in your way. PM me. Thank you in advance. upkpfan

upkpfan Wrote:
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> On this topic, I'm looking for a battery holder
> that holds 6  AA batteries. I broke a small
> piece off of one end and Radio Shack dosen't have
> any parts for them. It is a PRO 50 radio scanner,
> if anybody would know of a place to get one. I
> have searched on the internet but nothing any
> place. Or, if you have a old one laying around
> that's in your way, PM me. Thank you in advance.
> upkpfan

Some surplus houses to try:
Marlin P.  Jones           http://www.mpja.com/
All Electronics             http://www.allelectronics.com/
BG Micro                    http://www.bgmicro.com/
Electronic Goldmine  http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/

Look under "battery holders."

Be Well,

Tim Colbert  K3HX

Thanks for all the input
Bill

Have some (or all) of you tried a Bao-Feng?
I bought one a few months ago and the thing is a beast. Difficult as all get-out to program but once the workflow becomes clear, it's a great little railfanning radio. I'm a die-hard Moto man but nowadays I bring my "Bao-farola" everywhere.
I got one for $39 on ebay.

Danny Harmon
Tampa