Railfan Technology > Railroad Scanners

Has anyone heard of Scanner Master? They offer a Railfan package for $199.95, which I just ordered. It comes with 500 channels, two adapters, a carrying case, and a rail antenna. Is this a good choice I made? There many scanners out there, I hope I made a good choice. So what are some of your opinions on this matter. I had an old Radio Shack many years ago, but that didn't pick up any railroad action at all. So I had to get rid of it. I hope this one will be a lot better.

Looks like the package comes with a Uniden BC125AT handheld scanner, and a tuned antenna (no brand mentioned) - BNC connector, 6 3/4" long, and Helical design.

On the surface, the setup seems OK. I defer more comments to the amateur radio experts.

BC-125AT is OK, but not super. At $199.95, the package is no bargain. The BC-125AT can typically be bought for less than $100 at Amazon. A good gain type antenna tuned to the railroad band is around $25-$30. Go for an inexpensive Chinese gain type antenna (and some of them are OK, though not as durable) and they can had for about $10. Cases go for various prices, but likely less than $30 for most. Oh, and the BC-125AT uses a mini-USB cable for charging, so, if you have anything that uses a mini-USB charging cable, you already have the cable . . .



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/17 18:49 by WW.

They have been around for quite a while. The package deal is similar to the camera 'kit' idea. The scanning radio itself seems to be a decent hobby scanner, decent sensitivity and operates over multiple bands for Police, Fire, Public Safety, marine bands and RR. The kit includes an antenna that is said to work better than the stock antenna which is easily possible, but the stock antenna would work in all the bands including the RR Band.

As mentioned above the deal is basically an extra $100 for a nice carry case.

LindsayLovesTrains Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had an old Radio Shack many years ago, but that didn't
> pick up any railroad action at all. So I had to get rid of it.
> I hope this one will be a lot better.

FYI, I've done a side-by-side comparison of Radio Shack Pro 92 (made by GRE), and Uniden BC72XLT last year in the Arizona Desert. Don't know which model you had, but the GRE had problems picking up the "FRED chirps" (EOTD, or End Of Train Device transmissions), so I'd hear the chirps when the train was already visible... DOh! Uniden did fine, giving me the ~5 mile/~5 minute warning consistently.

The GRE did very well in picking up voice conversations on the railroad frequencies, and there was a noticeable difference in sound quality, where GRE sounded better than the Uniden.

The BC72XLT is not a good scanner and should be avoided.

KG

kgmontreal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The BC72XLT is not a good scanner and should be
> avoided.
>
> KG


I have one of those intended to be a 'throw away' during business travel, and I should have.

It's motto would be ignorance is bliss, if you don't know what you missed it's blissful.

kgmontreal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The BC72XLT is not a good scanner and should be
> avoided.
>
> KG

I got one cheap from Fry's on sale almost 10 years ago, thinking once I learned how to use it, I'd get something better.

Well, that didn't happen because with the right setup, I was able to hear trains 10-15 miles away in Stevens Pass, and of course, radio chatter was loud and clear for distances more than necessary out in the desert with the BC72XLT. I've compared it with someone else's Yaesu before, so you can say I should know better (worse than ignorant), but I'm still bliss.

As I said in another thread, if the scanner is a supplemental tool, it shouldn't negatively affect railfanning that much, and in my case, I think I have a pretty good kill ratio for nabbing trains. It's of course silly to use the BC72XLT to host a radio feed.

For some reason the BC72XLT picked up the EOT/DPU channels really well. Worked great in the right place but in many places simply... blissful.

I bought a BC 125AT back in the spring with an antenna cut to the correct freqs for railroads. It works quite well for me. Undoubtably there are better ones, but I have no complaints. It comes pre-programmed with ALL of the AAR frequencies (and about a zillion others in air, police, etc.). No need to buy programming software unless you have a lot of "special" freqs you want in it.

DH

A have a new BC125AT and find it great.
Like the temporary lock out feature a lot and the free program to load in frequencies!

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

This radio is great for me. I can put in r.r. initials for the freqs. and I can scan all the r.r. freq's at the same time as they are preprogrammed.
A couple of key strokes gives me weather, fire, ems or police. It pleases me and it is very reliable. At $200 to me it"s a bargain.

DMC