whats a good/small scanner to listen with

[Steve F45]

Lookin for a small/good radio/scanner to listen to some local train activity that and some police bands. What would you guys recommend? Something not to pricey too.

[Devil 505]

Check Radio Shack out . I have two of their hand held scanners and they both work fine.

[Aa3rt]

My wife & stepson gave me a BC60XLT as a gift last year when my 15+ year old PRO-31 finally died. Less than $ 100 @ Wal-Mart. (Check out the automotive section-that's where the scanners are kept in my neck of the woods.) I'm happy with it and use it for listening to the nearby CSX line, local law-enforcement and amateur radio repeaters in the area.

Check out http://www.scannerworld.com. I've dealt with them before with no problems.

Check out the thread at the top of this forum titled Buying your first scanner? Read me first!.

[Steve F45]

Just did a quick search on radioshack.com, they have 2 different types. a metro and a rural, whats the difference?

[keeper1616]

The metro ones have the ability to recieve 800 Mhz traffic and trucking capabilities. Unless you know you need to be able to listen to something in the 800.000 range, you don't need it. All railroads are in the 160.000 range, which the rural scanners will pick up.

[sixty-six]

Can any scanners pick up traffic from say, 5-10 miles away? The NJT NJCL yards are nearby, but i cant get the radio traffic with my handheld.

[pgengler]

Can any scanners pick up traffic from say, 5-10 miles away? The NJT NJCL yards are nearby, but i cant get the radio traffic with my handheld.

The range at which you can receive usually has more to do with the antenna than with the scanner (though the sensitivity can sometimes come into play). The stock antenna that comes with the scanner is certainly not the best, since it's designed to try to pick up a lot of frequencies/bands, but not to do so exceptionally well.
I've had pretty good success using the antenna from an old 2m handheld ham radio along with a magnetic mount for my car; I've been trackside with it and it performs far better than the stock antenna did (I also changed radios between the two 'tests', but from other experiences, I believe it's mostly due to the antenna).

[sixty-six]

Arent those short, stubby antennas supposedly the ones with better range?

[pgengler]

Arent those short, stubby antennas supposedly the ones with better range?

As I understand it (which may very well be wrong), the antennas that come with scanners are designed to provide a large frequency range rather than a large reception range. The reason for this is that the scanner is designed to pick up signals on a number of different bands, which all have different ideal antenna sizes. In order to provide halfway-decent reception on all of those bands, the antennas are designed to try to pick up some traffic on all bands.
Getting an antenna designed for 160-161MHz (or to a lesser extent, one for a 2m ham radio at 144-148MHz) improves reception in that frequency range, at the expense of other bands, like 220 or 440MHz.