Help a newbie out...

Hey everyone,

Young railfan here. Yeah. I'm Frank, I've been into trains for pretty much my whole life. A few years back I started shooting trains around Chicago a few years back and have wanted to buy a scanner forever. I'm kind of a dumbass when it comes to scaners and radios and whatnot. I'm really confused. I have no clue what I want. I know I want a handheld model with a headphone jack. But can someone explain to me the programming process on your average scanner, and point me in the right direction.


Lets say I'm starting with a frequency and channel like so.
161.220 74

Anything else I need to know?


Frank
http://www.flickr.com/photos/franklinc55/

Pick up a frequency guide with your scanner. Make sure that the things that you want to listen to can be programmed on your scanner, ie. that they're on a band that your scanner receives. Get a programmable scanner.

If you're planning on using the scanner for strictly railfanning, your band coverage won't be a problem. You start having to watch what you buy when you want airplane band, 800 mhz, etc.

I've never seen a hand held scanner like you want that wasn't direct entry. Those are usually base/mobile units, so to program your 161.220:
-Press manual [MANUAL]or[MAN]
-Enter the channel you want to add the frequency to using the keypad.
-Press manual again.
-Press the program button (if equipped, may not be) [PGM]. If not skip to next step.
-Enter in your 161.220 using the number pad
-Press [ENTER]

Repeat to add freqs. to other channels.
If you DO find a hand held that is not direct entry, read the manual. The non-direct entry scanners all program differently.

For convenience, be sure to program the frequencies to the channel numbers that correspond to the railroad frequency plan. That way you can more easily switch knowing either the channel or frequency in use.

Thought I'd toss in a few links to websites that might help in the purchase of a new scanner.

http://www.scannermaster.com
http://www.scannerworld.com
http://www.universal-radio.com

All these websites offer the same scanners, just at slightly different prices. Uniden/Bearcat scanners are probably the best radios out there, though GRE and Radio Shack scanners are just as good. In fact most of Radio Shack's scanners are built by either GRE or Uniden.

Look for a handheld at the lower end of the price scale. It sounds like all you want/need is to monitor your local railroads. You won't need a radio that can monitor trunked systems or APCO-25 systems. The lower-priced scanners also have the advantage of being much easier to program manually. As has already been posted most scanners are programmed by putting them in program mode, entering the frequency and pressing 'Enter'. As you go up in features and price you also go up in programming complexity. Unless you really get into scanning as a separate hobby a basic handheld will do just fine for you.

Of course scanning and railfanning fit very well together and you might just find the scanner bug biting you! Maybe you'll start wanting to listen to local emergency services, or aviation, or countless other services you can hear with a scanner. If that happens then you'll want to move up to the more sophisticated scanners that offer trunking, APCO-25 capability, alpha-numeric tagging of entered channels, and other bells and whistles. Or maybe you'll want to get your ham radio license. Me...I'm a ham, a scanner buff, and a railfan/modeler. Professionally I'm an emergency services dispatcher....I just can't get enough radio!

Whatever you choose.....good luck!