Radio Scanner for smartphone?

[lone geep]

Does anybody know of a good radio scanner app for railfanning? I've looked at the Google play app store but most of them are police radio scanners. My phone uses android.

[tree68]

It's not the scanner app - it's the sites that monitor the channels and send the audio out over the 'Net so the apps can play them.  There are sites that monitor railroad radio traffic - search for "railroad scanner feeds."  Depending on where you want to listen, you may have some luck.  

Not a lot of folks who want to tune in to trains, but many want to see what their local police and fire folks are up to.  

Pretty much anything you can get with one of the scanner apps can also be monitored on the web on your computer.

If your smart phone has a browser (most do), you can simply use that to listen in.

All that said...  No smart phone can, by itself, monitor any sort of land mobile radio traffic - railroad, police, fire, etc.  They simply don't work in the same frequency ranges.

A word of caution - scanner feeds can be bandwidth hogs.  Be sure you have a data plan that will support your "habit."

[lone geep]

Thank you for your advice. I was hoping to find one I could use trackside without using data but I guess that's not possible. I'll just have to put a real scanner on my Christmas list next year . On that note, what are some suggestions for good radio scanners?

[tree68]

lone geep

On that note, what are some suggestions for good radio scanners?

Depends on where you live and what you want to do with it.

If all you want to listen to is railroad traffic, a decent analog scanner will do just fine, although you may want to look into upgrading the antenna (the usual weak spot).  With the exception of EOT devices, almost all railroad comms are in the 160-161 MHz range.  There are those who suggest "go big or go home."  I tend to suggest that you buy the best scanner you can afford...

The question "base/mobile or handheld" is best answered by how you'll be using it.  If you watch a distance from your vehicle, a handheld (pocket) scanner would be best.

The next hurdle is whether you listen to local emergency services or other services.  You'll need to know what frequencies they use and get a scanner that includes those.

And the next hurdle, if you listen to local emergency services is digital/trunking.  You'll have to learn how to set up your scanner with the frequencies being used as well as talkgroups if the system is trunked.

The railroads aren't headed to digital in the immediate future, although they may well go there eventually.  The downside there is that there have been suggestions that the railroads may go with NXDN.  Since I haven't shopped for scanners lately, I don't know if there are any that handle NXDN.

An option some folks go to is to pick up a transceiver (walkie talkie) and program it for the desired frequencies.  The danger is that they might also set up transmit frequencies, and transmitting on a frequency you aren't authorized to use can get expensive if the FCC gets involved...

Be sure you are aware of local/state laws regarding scanners, especially in vehicles.

[beaulieu]

lone geep

Thank you for your advice. I was hoping to find one I could use trackside without using data but I guess that's not possible. I'll just have to put a real scanner on my Christmas list next year . On that note, what are some suggestions for good radio scanners? 

I use a scanner App from Google Play all the time. It is called "Scanner Radio" and it works great. However it will only play scanners that output to the Internet. Three good sources for Railroad radios over the Internet are Broadcastify.com, Railroadradio.net, and Railstream.biz The data used by a scanner App is minimal.

I just checked and the nearest are both to the east of you, one at Hamilton, ON (Railroadradio.net) and the other in Milton, ON (Broadcastify.com).