1. Akirasho

    Akirasho TrainBoard Member

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    DROOL!!!

    Ya, I ran into a fellow fan a while back and would have jacked him (just kidding) for his radio if we hadn't been next to a police district station (just kidding?! He demonstrated frequencies that covered a very wide territory as well as picking up on automated fault detection. Maybe I'll slide over to Amazon this weekend.

    Downside... another distraction in a highly distracting world!!!!
     
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  2. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    A good distraction seeing my as how many different distractions there are. It could be worse.
     
  3. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I'm listening to northern IL rail radio via the Internet tonight as I work on my model railroad. The Midwest has been subjected to some fierce early summer weather lately and the BNSF dispatcher is calling each train on the Mendota Sub [between Aurora, IL and Galesburg, IL] to alert them to 70 MPH winds at various locations. I never realized that monitoring systems captured wind speeds, but it makes perfect sense.
     
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  4. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I am in need of a new scanner. My old Radio Shack unit from 18 years ago is done. I wonder, is there an app for a smart phone that pulls radio freqs?
     
  5. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    You'd need an actual radio receiver to listen to transmissions, unless you happened to be in an area covered by one of the Internet sites that provides rail audio and you could access the website. I was in Roanoke, VA a few years ago and a local fan was using his smart phone in this way. There was a time delay on the Internet site he said, but only a few minutes between actual transmission and his phone audio.

    My common Uniden scanner is perhaps 15 years old. Despite it being dropped a few hundred times and it being badly battered and scratched, it still works. Its sensitivity is crap though. When I run into fans, they're always pulling in audio I'm not. Most recently, I talked with a fan with a flexible whip antenna he got on eBay and it worked great. For $13 it might be worth a shot.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/771-BNC-RE...OoAAMXQQJBQ7m87:sc:USPSFirstClass!29229!US!-1
     
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  6. Akirasho

    Akirasho TrainBoard Member

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    After missing a train recently, I'm back in the market. Anything new on the horizon?
     
  7. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Not that I know of. From what I read, railroads are in no rush to transition to digital technology, so an affordable analog scanner will continue to do well for railfans. I'd read some product reviews before buying. Some years back, I met a fan who carried a Baofeng scanner. It had excellent receiving capabilities, but at the time Baofeng's were notoriously difficult to program. This may have changed since then. The programming on my ancient Uniden drives me nuts at times. It's like the designers decided to put as few keys as possible on the pad and the multiple uses of each key makes me crazy.:confused:
     
  8. sidney

    sidney TrainBoard Member

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    if you have a ham setup could you not use that ? i dunno, don't have ham but have been told it gets every signal . i know nothing about that sorta stuff.
     
  9. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    If you get a HAM radio that is a name brand such as Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom or any of the larger name brands it will not receive the rail or police frequencies. The off brands such as TaoTao and Baofeng are kinda "Universal" as they will transmit and receive in bands not approved by the FCC here in the US. Listening on one is not illegal but transmitting is. Even if you are a licensed HAM these radios are suspect to legitimate transmission. I have several Baofeng radios but they never go to HAM meets with me, I use my Yaesu for that!
     
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  10. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I picked up the BC125AT recently, and the ability to plug it into my laptop and type using my keyboard to program it is a killer feature. Alpha tagging is nice, as I can assign AAR channel numbers and know at a glance who's talking. Just need to upgrade the antenna, as in the hills reception is a challenge. I get the dispatcher several miles away, and a train 2-3 miles out. On the flatlands reception is a bit better, and that's the standard rubber ducky antenna.
     
  11. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    I’ve really enjoyed my BC125AT
     
  12. Philip H

    Philip H TrainBoard Member

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    I have a Yaesu and it receives railroad frequencies just fine.
     
  13. Massey

    Massey TrainBoard Member

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    I just checked my radio's spec sheet and yes it should receive those freqs. I am not sure why when I try to input a freq that is out of band for TX that is just beeps and tunes to my old freq. I will need to look into why that is when I get home.
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2020
  14. sidney

    sidney TrainBoard Member

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    hummm so they can get those as well. ive been pondering ham for around 10 years now. have a few friends that have them. most of those gents are from military radio operators ect. i have not looked into the licensing aspects of that. in still pondering the idea. maybe i need to stop pondering and just jump in with both feet hahahah:)
     
  15. Akirasho

    Akirasho TrainBoard Member

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    Ready to jump.... any thing better with features and price point? My finger is itching...



    Uniden Bearcat BC125AT Handheld Scanner.
     
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  16. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    The NOAA weather frequencies (162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525 and 162.550 Mhz) on most scanners are handy too.
     
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