Anouther wasted journey

As I sit and listen to silence on the frequencies assigned to CSX in New York. This is the second POS scanner I've had. I need to buy a Uniden.

Uniden is real good. I get transmissions from NS, CSX and Amtrak. Knowing that I am not anywhere close to any rail lines.

I have a Uniden BCT-8 and a Radio Snack Pro 94. I would highly recommend both of them. I don't use either for listening to railroads (unless I'm traveling), but they both have great pickup and fine-tuning. Its all about the programming and antenna selection. If you know how to tune a scanner and pick a good antenna, the front end of the scanner doesn't really matter all that much. (I use a motorola 1/4 wave VHF antenna ~$35 including mounting hardware)

Although I still need to put this out there - If you're only listening to one band, say only railroads and nothing else, nothing will beat a radio that is programed to receive the channels you want, and its legal in all states. You can find radios in the 160 range for less than $100 if you look around.

Actually I figured before i beat it to death, I reset it one more time and just left it on 160.800 with the squelch set on just to make it silent and it suddenly started working.

lol u got lucky there

If anyone wonders what I was doing wrong:

I assumed that the channels would have constant chatter, not long periods of silence. My scanner was finding the channels rarely because it only locks onto non-static. So by resetting it and narrowing it down to the 160-161 band, i could find the channels i needed by setting the squeltch to max and manually moving forward, then turning the squeltch to remove the static.

I'm a dummy.

This is off topic but trying to pick up railroad signals yesterday I some how got fast food orders coming over my scanner. LOL

Maybe the engineer was ordering fast food to be delivered at the next stop .

I've said it once, and I'll say it again - ditch the scanner and get a radio!

The order: 6 piece chicken and a medium sprite.

keeper1616 wrote:Although I still need to put this out there - If you're only listening to one band, say only railroads and nothing else, nothing will beat a radio that is programed to receive the channels you want, and its legal in all states.

Are you sure about that? Someone told me there are still some frequencies in that range sanctioned for (non-RR) police use by the FCC. I don't know, just curious.

Ken V wrote:

keeper1616 wrote:Although I still need to put this out there - If you're only listening to one band, say only railroads and nothing else, nothing will beat a radio that is programed to receive the channels you want, and its legal in all states.

Are you sure about that? Someone told me there are still some frequencies in that range sanctioned for (non-RR) police use by the FCC. I don't know, just curious.

There are some close the rail frequencies, not to mention the NOAA bands, either way most places it isn't against the law to possess a radio, it is illegal of course to transmit, others will tell you any type of scanner without a ham radio license is illegal, then again all scanners are illegal some areas. You have to check up on the laws in your area or country.

Yeah, the NOAA bands are insanely close to railroad bands. My scanner would always find them.

Being legal and not being harassed by the guys with the badge are two different stories.

It was really fun to hear the radio chatter. I heard an engineer finding out he was going to be working overtime and staying in Rochester because they needed to deadhead something to Niagara Falls for Monday and he could only make it as far as Rochester before hitting the hours limit.