Railcom Antenna

[CoastStarlight99]

The magazine Railfan & Railroad has an ad in the Febuary 2005 issue for an antenna made by a company called "Railcom" they dont have a website, just an email address. However, I did see this link with a picture of it: http://www.railfanreading.com/Scanner.htm

Would you reccomend this to work better then a normal rubber duckie antenna? According the the ad it has better sensitivity tot he 160-161 RR frequencies then a normal antenna. It is $72+$10 shipping, is it worth it?

Thanks!

[The S.P. Caboose]

I would be interested in how many db's it would help out by. If it can get up a 0.3db rating I would get one, no questions.

I currently use a PRO-76. It works well enough for me. When there was DTC on the coastline, I could hear both ends of the conversations between the engine crew and dispatcher from Simi Valley to Gemco. This would be from the Chatsworth train station.

[Ken W2KB]

The photo appears to be an ordinary mag mount antenna. Any good quality communications grade VHF mag mount can be easily tuned by cutting the whip shorter with a hacksaw for RR frequencies and yield the 3db gain over isotropic. Larsen, Antenna Specialists, etc. See www.hamradio.com for info, links, etc.

Note that it is not intended for a handheld scanner unless the handheld is used in a car or other area where it is not carried about, e.g, awkward for handheld trackside.

[railohio]

The RailCom product is a standard 2-meter band antenna that's been "tuned" for the 160MHz railroad band by cutting it shorter. You could purchase a 2-meter antenna and do the cutting yourself and save a good bit of money. On the other hand, if you know nothing about radio and scanners the RailCom might be a good idea as it can save you a lot of grief trying to figgure it out yourself. Think of it like a model train, "ready-to-run" vs. kit. Food for thought!

[CoastStarlight99]

Actually, thats not just a normal mag mount antenna...It is the Railcom antenna...I used that link because it was the only pit of it online.

If you have the Feb. 2005 Railroad & Railfan, you can see the ad for it where it is advertised for $72+shipping.

And, in the pit on that website, the person using that antenna IS using a handheld scanner...so I assume it would work on mine which is a PRO-64.

But $72+10 shipping, is quite a bit when my scanner cost me $80 used on ebay.

Worth the $ or no?

thanks!

[Ken W2KB]

By normal mag mount I meant that there was nothing about the Railcom antenna that makes it significantly different from other brands of mag mounts, except that you don't need to spend 5 minutes cutting a few inches, as specified in the directions that come with an antenna, off the whip to peak it at RR frequencies. I realized the photo was of the Railcom.

Yes, any mobile antenna can easily be used with a handheld (sometimes a connector adapter is needed as not all base, mobile and handhelds use the same connectors) but that would be in a car, or at a fixed location. You need a metal 'groundplane' - a flat metal surface of at least 17 inches in diameter for the antenna to work efficiently so standing at trackside could be awkward with it.

The point is that there is nothing inherent in the railcom antenna that makes it better than an other generic model antenna for RR monitoring. I strongly suspect that the Railcom antenna is made by one of the regular antenna manufacturers and the seller either has the manufacturer cut, or the seller cuts, the whip to a shorter length desirable for RR frequencies and has a private label on the product.

[CoastStarlight99]

Thanks, I appreciate it...I dont think it is quite worth over $80.

A.

[Ken W2KB]

>>>I dont think it is quite worth over $80. <<<

The Larsen (very good brand) equivalent would be about $60. But as mentioned, you would need to cut the whip.

[Engineer]

If you want a good RR "tuned" magnet mount antenna for $30 or less, do this. I wish I could say the idea was mine, but I found it off a website a while back.
1. Buy the Radio Shack mag mount mobile scanner antenna for $30.
2. Use the included allen wrench to disassemble the sections and use only the top whip section, around a foot or so, in the mag mount base and its a big improvement over the stock wide band coverage antenna.
3. Install it on a vehichles roof or other large metal object for a ground plane and thats it.
It works, really!!!!

[CoastStarlight99]

Like this one->>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... Fid=20-032

[Engineer]

Yes, thats it. I looks like they tripmmed the antenna photo on the website to make it fit, but the top section is actually a foot or so long.
As the others have mentioned, the Railcom antenna is nothing special. They simply took another company's antenna and tuned it to the railroad band, put their sticker on the base and hike up the price.

[starionwolf]

Like this one->>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?c ... Fid=20-032

I have that antenna. It's is 36 inch long and performs well between 30 and 960 MHz. A longer 5/8 wave 2 meter antenna will recieve the 160-161 frequencies nicely.

[Ken W2KB]

Engineer, modifying the rs will work, the best length will be about 17.5 inches for the whip. But note that is a 1/4 wave antenna versus the 5/8 wave antennas discussed here that will provide about 3db of gain over a 1/4 wave. That can make a difference with weak signals.

[Ken V]

I have a general purpose Hustler mag mount thats about 33 inches long with two sections and a ~2" divider. It works much much much better than my original "rubber duck", pulling in signals up to 10 times farther away when driving. I'm wondering whether I would be better off leaving it as-is or cutting it in half and only using the top 15½ inches. Problem is: once it's cut - that's it. Any recommendations?

[clearblock]

I have a general purpose Hustler mag mount thats about 33 inches long with two sections and a ~2" divider. It works much much much better than my original "rubber duck", pulling in signals up to 10 times farther away when driving. I'm wondering whether I would be better off leaving it as-is or cutting it in half and only using the top 15½ inches. Problem is: once it's cut - that's it. Any recommendations?

Leave it as-is. The model you describe sounds like it is presently two "stacked" 1/4 wave antennas on VHF and two 3/4 waves on UHF so you would be eliminating 1/2 of the antenna if you cut it. Also, the 15" section you cut off would be a little short for optimum 160 MHz reception, it should be about 17".

There are some all-band scanner antennas that have a longer (5") coil in the center that are 1/4 wave VHF on the bottom section and then a loading coil for 30-50 in the center so only the bottom part "works" on 160 but I don't think that is the case with your antenna.