Ok ,it’s 2006, and just woundering who got a new Scanner for Christmas?
I use my 2 Scanners. I use my Pro92 on my Truck with the Railrom. And my Pro95 with the 7inch Motorola Antenna. What do you use?
Didn’t get them for Christmas (that was the Digital Rebel this year), but I use two RS ‘pocket’ scanners - one trunking, one not - depending on where I’m headed. Usually just use the rubber ducks unless I’m on the road and use the RS multi-band magnetic mount.
My usual mobile set-up is a Bearcat 16 channel with a simple whip, not really tuned to anything. It works for what I need. I’m usually within reasonable range of everything I want to listen to.
I got a cheep radio shack special that doesn’t even have the model no. on it. I bought it a few years back when my last one got stolen. when out and about I use the rubber duckie. I have a magnetic mount somewhere and if I knew where I would probably use it in the car. Actually I have several mag mounts for different freqs and they are probably all in storeage.
As for the base unit I am temporarily in an apartment so it’s not set up, But I have setup that I have used for years at several houses I lived in. It’s a cut TV channel 5 1/2 wave yagi (full wave at railroad freqs). I mount it verticaly on a 20’ mast on the peek of the roof, good for 35’ total ht. I also have a tunned preamp that I use. The gain is unbelieveable. I have recieved hand helds 40+ miles away and mountaintops well over 100 miles away.
I’ve also got a Radio Shack special, the cheap 100-channel model that I picked up a few months ago. It fits nicely in my Rebel’s camera case after removing the BNC-mount antenna.
Your better off than me, mine is only 16 channels. But sience I only use 3-4 channels at a time it doesn’t bother me much.
Well at least you guys have something rather than nothing [;)].
Well Allan in my opinion it’s a must have for any real railfan (at least out here) I highly recomend you beg,borrow or earn the $$$ to pick one up. But then again I know many people that are happy without one.
I wish i had one. Have been asking Santa For about 3 years now [8D]! But if anyone has any old one feel free to donate[(-D]!!
I use a Radio Shack Pro 83 with a collapsible 1/4 wave antenna that is tuned (cut?) to the 160 mHz railroad frequencies when I am trackside or out of the car. I use a Max Rad mag mount antenna with a Uniden Bearcat BC 100 XL in the car. The ability ofeither scanner to pick up transmissions varies with the distance from the source and the topography although the Max Rad - Bearcat combination seems to do well at Sandpatch.
I use a Vertex VX-150. This is not technically a scanner, but a transciever. It can actually transmit on non-railroad frequencies. It does scan 200 channels, but it is not as fast as a Uniden or Radio Shack scanner, but with its limited frequency range 120.000-162.000 the sensitivty is better. For the price it is about $100-$110 via online stores, about the same as a radio shack scanner.
I use a railroad frequency tuned antenna that I bought, but I don’t recall the name of the store but I just got a new computer and lost my Favorites list. But together it is a great combination.
Keith
I use a RS PRO-83, purchased in October, in the truck and handheld, in the truck it is connected to a mag mount Larsen tuned to frequency antenna. This combination has very good range but the top of that extended van provides a very good ground plane. I also have a PRO-89 but I have never been happy with its sensitivity so it has been made a work scanner where the sensitivity is not a big issue. At home I have a very old but very sensitive Bearcat 18 channel scanner connected through a tuned cavity with RG8 cable to a tuned to frequency 5 element yagi mounted on a rotor and a fifty foot tower. That setup has some ears.
i scan with my eyeballs for the green signals and headlights…
You but if your out Railfanning and the Railfan just down the street hears on the Radio that there is a Special going the other way that you don’t know about,then,your outa luck. Train Dispatchers do have a habbit of saying the “S” word every once in a while. Just last year the UP Dispatcher said that there was an Eastbound Special that was coming East on the Blair sub. I knew it was coming,Then I lost intrest. I saw it go by the house and missed it as it went by,oh well,no big loss.
Motorola JT1000. Best scanner I have ever used for railfanning.
So Richard, it looks like I am not the only one that goes big with antennaes.
allan allan bo ballan… knowing what’s going on sometimes takes the fun out of it. the element of suprise is half the fun. by the way, i use the ‘S’ word quite often, so it’s nothing new to me.
Ok,you got me there. LOL.
Chad: It’s the DXer in me, it’s in my blood. I also have an FM broadcast yagi spinning around with the 161 VHF. I did have television yagis up there too but DXing television became impossible from my location when we clusted all of the local stations less than ten miles from my home and they started broadcasting 24 hours per day.
I have a Uniden Bearcat BC60XLT-1, which ercently replaced my old Radio Shack PRO-70. I have an old CB antenna I modified to work witrh VHF, but it’s on the fritz, so I haven’t tried it with the new scanner yet. The “rubby ducky” works adequately well for the railfanning environment I operate in, so it’s no big deal.
I got into “DXing” when my family moved to Alturas, a small town in very remote NE California. Our nearest TV station was over 100 miles away. We could get some stations from Redding,Ca., Medford and Klamath Falls,Or, and Reno,Nv. but they were mostly NBC and ABC. In most spots getting CBS,PBS and later FOX required some effort. I started my career installing home antennae systems, some quite elaborate. Eventually I started working for a guy that maintained TV and FM translators all over the so. Oregon,NE California and NW Nevada. That was interesting, especialy going on antennae de-iceing missions to mountaintops in a snow cat armed with a 12 guage. Then I got into cable-TV and have built many comercial a