Railfan Technology > Desktop scanner suggestion ?

We need a non-battery operated desktop scanner for our Cotton Belt Depot Museum. I say
Non-battery as we will leave it on all day every day, while we are open and don't want to
constantly be replacing batteries. Any suggestions?

How many channels will you be monitoring? And how distant are the radio signals that you want to hear? And where will the antenna be located? The answers to those questions will dictate what radio you buy. Here is the bad news. If you buy an inexpensive desktop scanner with an indoor antenna, it's not going to hear a lot, thanks to two interrelated issues. First, it likely won't have very good sensitivity, so it won't pick up weak signals very well. Second, it will likely also have poor selectivity, so--especially with an indoor antenna--it may pick up a lot of RF interference from whatever electronic equipment is in the building. An indoor antenna just makes all of that worse.

Now, if you are not going to be monitoring a lot of channels, I would suggest getting a used commercial two-way radio programmed to be receive only. Typically, they can be programmed with a scan function, though the scan rate may not be very fast, but likely fast enough if you are only scanning a dozen channels or so. Most commercial users' base radios are simply a mobile radio with an AC power supply, both readily available. Commercial radios are not keypad programmable (they have to be PC programmed), but if the channels where you are listening are not likely to change, the radio should only have to be programmed once. With so many commercial radio users going digital, there are a ton of used commercial analog radios on the market at very reasonable prices (way cheaper than some scanners in many cases). In used analog commercial radios, several of the Kenwood models have the best mix of a high quality radio at a fair price. Icoms are also good, Motorolas are good, too, though one tends to pay a little extra for that Motorola name. Most commercial radio shops have a stack of used analog radios sitting around. The dealer that I deal with on radio equipment is not a large dealer, and he has probably more than a hundred used analog radios sitting in his shop--all working radios and narrow-band capable. Check with a local commercial radio dealer--they might even donate a used radio and power supply to you, and program it for free.

As to the antenna, mount it outside (properly grounded against lightning, of course). That will improve its reception markedly and also get it away from a fair amount of electronic interference.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/17 18:52 by WW.

I second what WW said. It's hard to beat a commercial grade radio. If you can't find one of those, there are several "2 meter" ham radios that would do the job. Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, and others make some that would be more than adequate. You'll need a 12 volt DC power supply for them but that's not a big expense. They might be a little difficult to program but you can figure it out, and if you are only using a dozen or so channels, manually programming it is tolerable.

Getting the antenna 20 or 30 feet above the ground makes a big difference (and don't forget to ground it.) A decent antenna can make or break the overall installation. Raising the antenna 20-30 feet will get it out of a lot of the radio noise in the area. Search some of the other strings here on TO and there are several suggestions posted.

John

It sounds like you just want some background ambiance for your museum and probably want to keep it simple. The BCT15X is overkill for what you need, but the cheaper ones are too hard to program and this is only $215. This comes with a wall wart power supply. The included antenna will not hear much, but a simple 1/4 wave 2 meter ham antenna on the roof will hear lots. Do not go for high gain antennas as you will get a lot more interference and annoy your guests.

https://www.uniden.com/scanner/id-BCT15X/BCT15X_BearTracker_Scanner_with_9000_Channels

Scott

Scott Schifer
Torrance, CA
TinyTrains Website