Scanner recommendations

[OldArmy94]

I am planning to purchase a handheld scanner soon and would like to get some recommendations from some of you. My basic ground rule is that I do not want to spend over $150 so that limits me, I understand. However, I have seen the Icom R2, the Uniden Sportcat and a few others out there in this general range. Can anyone help me out?

[Anonymous]

The VX-150 made by Vertex would be a excellent choice. It is a transceiver ( Ham 2 meters ) but you can buy one and carry it. It has very sensitive receive and is light and compact with good audio. It has a 200 channel memory and dual VFO's. This radio is professional quality, and is much better constructed than scanners that you would buy at a department store. Also, I would add that it is relativly easy to aquire your ham tech license. Also, you do not need to learn Morse code to operate on the 2 meter band ( 144-148 Mhz) and get your FCC ham license. Under most state laws, you are allowed to carry your scanner in your car with your ham radio license.

[Anonymous]

Forgot to mention that this rig costs around $129 at most of the big ham dealers on the web. Try AES at 1-800-558-0411. For info on material to study for an Ametuer radio license, contact QRZ.com.

[OldArmy94]

May I use it just as receiver until I get my license? I am not particularly interested in ham radio, per se, but if it's good for picking up trains then I am all for it. Thanks!

[cabforward]

if you're interested in 'economical' in price and fair-to-good in overall quality, there several brands to look at: radio shack, bearcat and uniden.. all have models with various bells & whistles depending on what you want..

dont discount a name like radio shack on first impressions, their stuff is good.. unless you need something for a business, quality equal to what a business would require is unnecessary.. if you're new to the hobby, it's better to start low-priced; after a few months, you might decide it's not for you anymore.. i did that with scanners.. i listened to police calls and r.r. calls.. as much of the context of the messages was left out, i could only guess about what was happening.. it was like listening to half a phone call and guessing what the other person was saying..

i suggest you borrow a unit for a month, or perhaps buy a second-hand unit.. pawn shops have hundreds to sell.. get a unit with the minimum feature wanted.. if you love it after a couple of months, trade up or save for it.. if you expect a tax refund, buy a new unit then.. none was ever sorry they bought a low-priced whatever, instead of going for the cadillac model from the start.. there are bunches of people who bought a cadillac model of something, decided they didn't want it after all and couldn't sell it.. the product always looks good in the store; when you get home, you find out how it looks on you..

[Anonymous]

I use a Radio Shack PRO-89 handheld. It lets you program 200 frequencies so I was able to program all of the known railroad frequencies with plenty of room left over for other frequencies like the local fire dept. and forest service. It also lets you switch instantly to the NOAA national weather radio. Overall a good deal, I paid $149. It does eat through the AA batteries it uses pretty fast but you can get around that by using a car lighter adapter.

Even better you might check ebay or a pawn shop. Just about any scanner will cover all the railroad frequencies, what you would want to check for is how many frequencies it will let you program. Having all the RR freqs. that are used in the country programmed into your scanner is handy.

[Anonymous]

Man, you guys are diehards. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hackin' on ya, but, The RR's radio conversations are pretty dry to say the least. Sometimes I would like to throw my pac-set in the trash just to shut the darn thing up. The most interesting conversation (if you can call it interesting) would be in switch yards late at night. We seem to have a little more fun on the radio than in the day. I have heard guys call for the "dicksmasher," or the "dickscratcher," instead of the dispatcher, and other funny crap like that........

[Anonymous]

jason,just go to radio shack. they have reasonable prices.to have a good scanner.one must spend the money,for quality scanners.if your a real railfan.its worth the money spent............

[RudyRockvilleMD]

I have a Uniden Bearcat BC 100XLT scanner which I think is out of production. It is a good scanner, but it is powered by a NiCad Battery which lasts approximately 8 hours when fully charged so you should have a spare fully charged battery.

I bought my scanner from Scanner World and it cost $150 for the package which included a charger, and a case; however, due to Scanner World's strict return policy I wouldn't buy anything from them again.

The scanner can receive on several frequency bands, but the railroads mostly use the 160.215 MHZ - 161.565 MHZ frequencies in the VHF High Band, 148 - 174 MHz. It has 100 channels in 10 channel banks which is plenty for railfanning. chances are you are not going to load all of the frequencies used by the railroads into your scanner there is no need to do that. Further, if you scan all frequencies assigned to the railroads you may miss something because of the time it takes to complete a scan. Another useful feature is a search feature where you set a lower and an upper frequency, and then you start the search.

I agree you should check out Radio Shack; you should be easily able to find a scanner for your price of $150. There are very few states that ban the use of scanners in cars, check out www.fireline.org for a lsit of the few states that restrict either their use in cars or on public property.

[Anonymous]

All of the receivers that you are being mentioned are pretty good units. But the Radio that I mentioned ( VX-150)is weighted towards the portion of the band that the railroads use. This provides the best receive capability. Most scanners are set up to be broad banded and are not set up to be sensitive to any one particular band. One note however, this transceiver will not pick most police or fire frequencies, anly the ham 2 meter band and VHF high where the railroads hang out. The choice is: more versatility or better reception on VHF high. You can use this radio to receive legally without a ham license, but not transmit.

[Anonymous]

O.K., for some basics here. First off, just about any programmable scanner will do. For best reception however, you need the proper anntenna. For the railroad freqs. you want a 16 inch anntena. The BEST setup will be a 3-plane anntenna (yes, I can't spell the word), you want the center wire from your CoAx cable to run into the center 16 inch spike. The outer strands should be connected to 3 16 inch spikes droping down at about a 30 degree angle. This home setup will give you reception that you won't believe. To take it one step farther, get a TV/FM gain box, and put that inline. The "Radio Shack" gain box can be easily modified to run off a 12 volt car source.
Todd C.

[OldArmy94]

I appreciate the input! I bought a Radio Shack PRO-79 on-sale for $99. It has 200 channels and I think it will work nicely for my purposes. I have an old, old Uniden with 10 channels so I'm not a scanner "rookie". But, I needed to find something with more capabilities. Once again, thank you all!

[Anonymous]

Diehards, yeah, perhaps :)

I don't carry the scanner with to listen to the talk so much as to know where the trains are when I'm out taking pictures, and when I should be expecting one. The scanner helps - a lot.

[Anonymous]

No problem, Charlie. That's what this forum is all about, passing along info. Remember my trick about the "Radio Shack" gain box. That will really pull the signals in.
Todd C.