Thanks thats what I am lookig to do.
I recently bought a Yaesu FT 250R hand-held 2 meter radio, and it does abetter job of picking up transmissions than my scanner. I would order an alkaline battery holder for the radio in case the NiMH battery dies. You can fill the pack with 6 alkaline cells, and continue what you are doing instead of having to wait to charge back up.
The Yaesu radio can be set to scan the railroad frequencies in the 160-161 MHz carrier frequency range which is mostly what you are interested in. It will not receive the End-Of-Train transmissions which convey little information, and are weak signals to begin with.
1) Get a ham radio license (no morse code required, sample tests are on-line). See arrl.org for list of test locations.
2) Buy a YAESU hand held (priced from $150 to $600, pick your price) and an earphone/microphone to listen in noisy environments (you can't hear it in traffic or when the train passes by). Don't mess with other manufacturers; they cannot stand the abuse a hand held gets (in your briefcase, computer case or backpack). There are cheaper ones but you will spend more on replacing it. I have a 12 year old Yaesu VX-5 that has been all over the world and is my railroad radio at the Minnesota Transportation Museum. It has been dropped off the train, dropped into the engine room muck and dropped on to the cab floor 100's of times.
3) Set the hand held to scan the local VHF channels. All of the Yaesu handheld radios tune from 137 to 174 Mhz (weather band, ham band, railroad bands) but only transmit on the ham bands. You can scan the entire railroad band or specific channels that are local. Some of the Yaesus will scan and remember what channels they hear and save them in the memory. Even when the railroads change to narrow band, the ham radio is already narrow band.
4) Enjoy
It's been done. Virtually any commercial grade VHF radio will provide better performance that most scanners.
Just make sure that you don't have it programmed to transmit on any frequency for which you don't have a license/authorization.
As for brands - can't help you.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Does anyone have any suggestions on a 2 meter hand held radio to listen to rail traffic.I hear they do better than scanners.
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