Railfan Technology > Best Scanner for Listening to Railroad Operations

Can somebody please tell me the best portable scanner to listen to dispatchers, crews etc.

Thanks in advance.

texchief1

'Best' is a very difficult concept these days. Here's an entry level Bearcat scanner that many people have been doing well with. There's no fancy bells and whistles, there's lots of things that can be inproved upon, but it works for lots of folks. This link is for Amazon but the details can be moved over to the TO search window or Google and checked out. This radio is easy to find, east to operate, there's lots of other scanners out there but they have specific upsides and downsides.

https://www.amazon.com/Uniden-BC125AT-Alpha-Tagged-channels-Lightweight/dp/B00772MR0K?th=1

Suggest doing a TO search and there's lots and lots of good info about a radio scanner, operations, antennas and so on and on.

fwiw my favoirte is Yeasu HAM radios, lots to like but lots to deal with, not an entry level radio scanner.

Hope this helps.

+ after obtaining a radio scanner here's one of many sites on the web to find frequencies:

https://www.radioreference.com/db/browse/coid/1

one method I use is to find an online RR radio feed and use theri proven frequencies, broadcastify works really well and so does this one:

http://railroadradio.net/

Once you Google for those Google can find other sites on the web.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/23 14:53 by TCnR.

texchief1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can somebody please tell me the best portable
> scanner to listen to dispatchers, crews etc.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> texchief1

I'd also note that depending where you are there are radio feeds, ie radio scanner apps where you can get railroads radios on your smart phone.

for instance google northern illinois railroad feed will get you several railroads, the advantage is you can get radio over a large area.  Some of the railcams also tie in local scanner.

Bob

This has been discussed many times on these forums. My $0.02 worth are the Whistler scanners. The handheld is model WS-1040 and goes for $280 on Amazon, the desk . mobile model is the WS-1065 goes for $299 on Amazon. Many will talk about the railroads going to NXDN digital modulation. There are some licenses being issued for that but it's hard to say how soon the railroads will transition to that standard. If you're content with hearing local radio traffic the handheld should work fine, You could get a magnetic base antenna to put on the roof of your car to extend the listening range for a handheld. A mobile can be mounted in your car with an external antenna. An external speaker is helpful. Both radios use the same software to program them and I just completed a 2000 mile trip to California and back from Colorado using a WS-1065 and had very good results. Both of these radios receive both military and civil aircraft bands as well. Www.radioreference.com is an excellent source of radio frequencies for your area. PM me if you have questions!

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



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/23 13:06 by mojaveflyer.