Good VHF Radio for railroad

[BillQuinn]

I was wondering what kind of VHF transeiver would be good for to listen to railroads. also, a good mobile magnet mount antenna that has good recieve. A vhf handheld. thanks

 

[BigC801]

As for handheld, we use the HT1000 and MT2000, they work good and dont break to easy, even after a 15ft drop off the loco lol.

 

[savelkoul]

HT1000 is super tough, Also dropped from locomotive onto paved grade crossing. Put some marks in the plastic but it still works like new!

Minnesota Commercial Railway Conductor,

St Paul, MN

 

[Allan_Love_Jr]

HT1000 is super tough, Also dropped from locomotive onto paved grade crossing. Put some marks in the plastic but it still works like new!

Minnesota Commercial Railway Conductor,

St Paul, MN

Damn. That is one hell of a good Radio. LOL

 

[timkilbride]

A shortline I worked for had Motorola PR860's for handhelds. They were a good radio and the battery lasted forever. I recall one day talking from the handheld to the locomotive with a distance of 7 miles. The locomotive was equiped with a 5/8 wave antenna.

 

[BigC801]

A shortline I worked for had Motorola PR860's for handhelds. They were a good radio and the battery lasted forever. I recall one day talking from the handheld to the locomotive with a distance of 7 miles. The locomotive was equiped with a 5/8 wave antenna.

That would be nice lol most of the time UP just puts a coat hanger on the roof and runs a wire through the window.

 

[burner50]

i have a kenwood tk-2180, recieve kinda sucks at long distances (cant hear the dispacher in some places) but i can always communicate with the loco, batteries last forever, has a backlit lcd and keypad and 512 channels

 

[BillQuinn]

Ht1000

who could program the ht1000 could i put in all AAR radio frequencies?

 

[BigC801]

not on the Ht1000 it only holds 16 ch's, Our MT 2000's have all 97 AAR CH's, and they have a screen on the front. The only time my MT2000 stoped working is when i droped it into the blue water in the Head lol other then that u can kick them around and they keep on ticking.

 

[w5cyc]

The Vertex 150 works well. It's tough, can hold all the channels, and has good receive, particularly with a tuned VHF gain antenna. And they're cheap. Can get one for less than $100 on Ebay.

 

[BigLebowski]

The Vertex 150 works well. It's tough, can hold all the channels, and has good receive, particularly with a tuned VHF gain antenna. And they're cheap. Can get one for less than $100 on Ebay.

I second the VX-150. The audio isn't the best, but it's a great little radio.

 

[Nasby]

Plus with the VX-150 programming is free, you do it yourself. It is much more compact and has a alpha numeric screen readout that can display the channel number, name of the railroad, etc.

 

[BigLebowski]

I would also point out that if you MUST have a Motorola, I would go for the MT2000 Model III (Full Keypad) with the wideband antenna. Stay away from HT1250's. I would recommend an XTS3000, but those seem to have issues sometimes on certain railroad frequencies. My XTS3000 doesn't seem to like 160.800 and my XTS5000R doesn't seem to like 160.440 or 160.800.

 

[K2KOH]

I see a lot of Motorola MT1000 99 channel radios going, with RR receive already programmed in them. Check out Fleabay...the MT1000 is pretty popular among rail scanners.

 

[Astro25]

I have an AstroSaberII that I've used. Not a bad radio.

 

[BigC801]

woops

 

[BigLebowski]

Just helping but its MT2000 or MTS2000, there the ones that hold all the ch's. there isnt a MT1000 just HT1000 with 16 ch's.

Yes, there are mt1000's that do 99 channels.

 

[BigC801]

your right just found them lol, never heard of those, i was used to the ones we have been using i guess. sorry for that

 

[mypoppa]

Do not talk on the radio.The chief Dispatcher will have some one looking for you.

 

[mikepdx]

As for handheld, we use the HT1000 and MT2000, they work good and dont break to easy, even after a 15ft drop off the loco lol.

They also make decent wheel chocks in a pinch. LOL

Seriously, they're both fine radios.