Railroad Forums 

  • Antenna For Stealth Scanning

  • Discussion related to railroad radio frequencies, railroad communication practices, equipment, and more.
Discussion related to railroad radio frequencies, railroad communication practices, equipment, and more.

Moderator: Aa3rt

 #1381466  by Ken W2KB
 
Engineer Spike wrote:A 2m antenna is not very long, and is close to the railroad band. I don't think the antenna would draw any undue attention. Many cars have extra antennas on them. Many companies have mobile radios for their businesses, in regular passenger vehicles. It is just paranoid to feel that an antenna would draw attention. I'm sure that there are hundreds, if not thousands of hams who live in the for mentioned states who have no trouble. I live in New York, and have never been questioned.
I have had one or more ham antennas on my cars since 1968 and never once have had an inquiry from any law enforcement officer.
 #1505248  by mtoney
 
SInce I both live in Indiana and am a licensed Ham radio operator, I will chime in despite the age of the post. When I first started railfanning at 16, we got around the scanner crap by just having RR freq's in our scanners. That kept most officers happy. I usually railfanned with a couple other young railfans from the model train club and we got tired of being harrassed about the scanners. So, I got my no code technicians ham radio license. That stopped the nonsense, when a cop stopped to see what we were doing trackside and started the BS about the handheld scanner, I just said I have my ham radio license and that ended the discussion right there. I got more involved with the ham radio hobby as a side benefit and eventually upgraded my license to use the the radios on the HF bands to talk to others around the world. My Yeasu brand 2 meter moble radio in my Jeep can receive(but not transmit) on any of the railroad bands and can be programmed to scan a bank of programmed frequencies as well. Its well worth the little bit of time to study(its just a written test now, no more morse code requirement). Many railfans are also hams and the 2m and 440cm bands are used to stay in contact and relay train information among the group. For just a RR band only tuned antenna that is mag mount, MaxRad offered one that is also rated to transmit on that band as well. We used these on a couple of the local shortline engines when the "firecracker" style antennas failed. Mike T N9XLZ