Pro-70 Still a decent scanner?

[KC5AKB]

You are not the only one who has been fooled by the lock button. It happens on all kinds or radios. Lots of us have been there.

Yes trains ,and ham are good to listen too
Have fun .

 

[BubbaFord]

You are not the only one who has been fooled by the lock button. It happens on all kinds or radios. Lots of us have been there.

Yes trains ,and ham are good to listen too
Have fun .

It's been a lot of fun to hear the communications I've been missing, for sure. But it's still sort of 'iffy' as far as what I get. I hear dispatch clearly and sometimes I hear the trains clearly, but sometimes I only hear the dispatch side of the conversation. Makes it tough to figure out what's happening sometimes. As far as I know via the intertubes, I am scanning the active road and dispatch frequencies in my area. I wonder if there are some other frequencies I may be missing because I can't understand why I am still missing so much chatter (I mean, I must be because I hear a lot of one-sided sessions). Would this have anything to do with the FMN mentioned earlier in the thread, or trunking or something? I know this is a dumb question, but remember- I did lock my scanner and thought it was broken... so dumb questions are not surprising from me!

*Oh, for the record I am using 160.44 and 160.575 as the frequencies. And I don't think it's the antenna because I switched out my hand cut 25 year old CB antenna and mount for a Traintenna. It's way clearer now but still the same one-sided convos a lot of the time.

 

[trentbob]

Hey Bubba how are you, remember me. It's good the radio is still working!

Sounds like your railroad frequencies are simplex and not repeaters. In my area all the railroad frequencies are simplex like Amtrak and Freight Lines but we do have one commuter rail system that has VHF hi repeaters, I'm going to assume your rail frequencies are just simplex.

That means the dispatcher and the trains are on one frequency, line of sight and it is not unusual that the fixed base will have a substantial antenna and be more powerful. It's not unusual not to hear the train's unless they're fairly close. They're not going to have the same powerful antenna as dispatch will have.

Your antenna is very important in this situation. Tell me more about this antenna that you have? If you can use a metal telescopic antenna with a BNC connection or 1/4 wave antenna the perfect length would be around 15 in long for VHF High and will give you the best results.

 

[trentbob]

One other thing I wanted to mention Bubba as far as the narrow FM or regular FM I often switch to regular FM for rail reception, it can actually improve reception.

 

[BubbaFord]

Hello, sure I remember you. Thanks for responding.

The antenna is this:

TrainTenna 5/8 Wave Mobile Antenna

Specs Gain: 3 dBi SWR: 1.5:1 or Less Pattern: Omni-directional Wavelength: 5/8 Elements: 1 Tuned: 160-161 MHz Band: VHF Railroad Connector: Your Choice Cable: RG58U Cable Length: 17 Feet Mount Type: NMO Height: 43" Magnet Size: 3 5/8" Rated Watts: 150 Features Tuned to Rail Band...

dpdproductions.com

It has improved the quality of the reception (don't know about distance because I only hear mile markers from HBDEs). Far less static and I can make out what they are saying much better.

 

[trentbob]

Yeah that looks like a great antenna for your needs. Looks like it's in good shape, you always want to check your coax to make sure there are no nicks or it hasn't been compromised at all.

So it is on a truck and you probably have a favorite spot were you park and listen near the tracks. You probably have already done this but you can always move the truck around changing the location of the antenna but still staying in the same area you want to be in.

That antenna is great... Just as good as you're going to find in a rail mobile antenna. Since you're only receiving that would be a good antenna to use on the 2m ham band in case you decide to investigate that as was suggested. Good deal!

Just a note as far as the amount of activity on the rails. The virus really did change a lot of things and there are supply chain interruptions and shipping has been way down and there have been many delays also. I've noticed in my area freight activity on the rails is not as busy as it was. Hopefully that's going to get back to normal eventually.

Sounds like you're on track LOL... Bob.

 

[BubbaFord]

It's brand new, I just got it a few days ago. No damage and no degradation of the cable or BNC.

I should have added to the post that the greatly improved reception is also another reason I'm wondering if I am missing something. If the audio now is coming through so crisply and strongly compared to my old 'hack-tenna', yet I am still only hearing one-sided communications a lot of the time, it just puts in my head that I am doing something wrong still. I'm just not experienced with this enough to know. Because sometimes I hear the whole thing- the engineer and the dispatch both, and quite easily. But sometimes -and this is also happens just after the train passed as well as before arrival- I just hear dispatch. So in other words, the engineer is very close to me but still I don't hear him. And since dispatch clearly responds to the engineer's words (i.e. "Understood" or "OK, I'll let them know" and the like), I know the train is talking. But I'm not hearing it. I hear enough to know the train number and the lead locomotive number, but I want to hear it all! If possible, anyway.

It's on the roof of my E-350 van. Quite a large ground plane to work with (as I've read, it uses the vehicle in conjunction with the antenna for reception?). And I do realize that you folks are not sitting in the van with me so it is difficult to provide a specific answer so I really appreciate the patience and assistance.

 

[trentbob]

No problem, love hearing the story about a scanner that age barely used coming to life. Not sure if you're doing something wrong or if there's a programming issue because we're talking about pretty simple stuff and a pretty simple radio. Don't know if you're in a flat surface or a mountainous area. Don't know about what kind of obstructions there are, don't know how many trees there are. So many factors can affect Simplex line of sight communication. I don't have an answer for that one but I also don't think there's anything you can do about it.

One way you can find out is locate your nearest rail yard that these trains originate and terminate at. There will be a separate frequency for the yard and the communication will be between the yardmaster, yard crews, car inspectors and approaching and departing trains. As you know the yard Master controls the location of each train and what track it'll go on. The antenna on the crew room where the yardmaster has his office won't be a big antenna or that high. If you can see the whole yard and you're still getting broken conversations then the situation needs more investigation.

 

[BubbaFord]

I know where it is; about 6.5 miles as the crow flies. Good idea going there (as close as legally and safely possible of course) and listening. I'll have to try that.

Terrain is flat. Typical trees and stuff. Area is rural with not a lot of infrastructure and no tall buildings. Sometimes, the train stops about a half mile from me. I hear dispatch, (or the yard master, or whoever) telling the train what track it's lined into in the yard and giving him clearance and stuff like that. Yet no response. And other times I can hear the engineer from at least several miles out as he talks about track speed or if he is stopping at the yard, and even sometimes I'll hear him call out a location, etc. and hear him responding to the dispatcher in the normal back and forth. It's the inconsistency that fries my brain.

Where I sit if you care to look at the terrain and stuff:

38°48'56.1"N 90°57'28.5"W · 38.815583, -90.957917

www.google.com

 

[trentbob]

Good report. Since we are talking about the performance of your Radio Shack scanner using it for rail we do want to make sure it is working properly. From your report I have a few ideas.

I would like to do a little investigating about the area, as a disclaimer I do want to tell you that although I retired as a newspaper reporter I did work as a railroad engineer, then in rail operations from 85 to 90. Once I got into operations it was grueling and I decided I did not want to go into Railroad Retirement and landed a great job and moved on.

I'm curious why you can have a train in sight and you are not getting the response so here's a few questions to help me look into it so we can make sure your radio is functioning properly.

First I'll look at the manual of your radio which is readily online. I have your location but if you could supply me the name of every railroad that runs on the lines that you are monitoring including the headquarters location if possible. I have the two frequencies that you say you monitor but if there's any others like the yard frequency that you can come up with that are affiliated with the railroads that you are having broken conversations with I will look into it later. I have a few ideas of what it might be.

 

[BubbaFord]

Norfolk Southern is the only operator on this track as far as I know. That's all I ever see. It is the Illinois division, St. Louis subdivision, and this it the 'Luther to Moberly' line. It is old Wabash track, lightly used, sub-10 trains per day. The dispatch center I hear is by the Wentzville General Motors assembly plant a few miles east.

Unless all the info I've found out so far is wrong...

 

[trentbob]

Okay this is what I've got. As I thought, Norfolk Southern in Missouri at the locations of Wentzville, St Louis and Moberly are licensed by the FCC for just about every railroad frequency there is.

I'm thinking some engines although they are simplex are on a different frequency than the dispatcher, in other words the dispatcher transmits on one frequency and the engine responds on another frequency. There's a possibility as there really isn't a whole lot info when it comes to this remote area for Norfolk Southern. The two frequencies you have are valid but you probably have other frequencies for Maintenance of way, track workers, yard Crews Etc. There's also data frequencies so...

Go to your favorite search engine and download the manual PDF for your radio. You are going to end up reading it from cover to cover. I'm going to give you an image of 46 railroad frequencies handwritten. I used multiple sources. Your scanner holds 50 frequencies and there's 46 frequencies they are licensed for at those locations. Again I'm sure they don't use them all.

Your radio doesn't have service search meaning you could just search railroad frequencies. You have band search which would mean you would have to search the whole VHF high band which is not going to work. This is an older radio that's full of what's called birdies which is just like an open carrier where the radio causes interference that interferes with itself LOL.

It appears that you do have limits search so you could put a limit of the search using the first frequency on the list and the last frequency on the list and it would search it between. It's imperative that you have the 2-second delay on each Channel off. This is important if you're going to hear a reply of an engine to the dispatcher. I believe this is a fast scanning radio and they call it hyperscan oh, another name was turboscan. I'm pretty sure this is a GRE made radio. It could be a Uniden also but I don't think so. Doesn't matter.

Your other option is to program each frequency into the radio making sure the 2-second delay is turned off on every channel. You are only using it for rail. Again it is imperative that you have the 2-second delay off. I didn't look at the manual hard enough as it's getting late and it said it had automatic 2-second delay so I hope it does give you the option to turn the 2-second delay off on each Channel oh, I hope so. So here are the frequencies. It's a lot of work and luckily the manual is very well written and pretty much walks you through everything, nothing like today's manuals LOL. Here's your list. I hope you get the results you're looking for!

 

[BubbaFord]

Wow, that is a lot of effort and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I will get moving on that and report back with results. Again, many thanks for helping out.

 

[BubbaFord]

I haven't been able to do much lately (life tends to get in the way too often), but I have found a few channels that now come in from your list. They seem to be distant and not related to the traffic I'm listening for, but your list has shown there are indeed a few more channels I can hear. More to come on that as time allows.

Also, I got a BCT15X that I was able to permanently mount overhead in the van, which clears up a lot of messy cables and frees up the van's doghouse console again. It's also a pretty good scanner as far as I can tell, clearer even than the 70. Upside, it frees up the Pro-70 so I can easily take it with me now and not have to stand next to the van all the time now which is cool. I also get the feeling I'm slowly falling into the rabbit hole of the scanning hobby...

 

[trentbob]

It gets into your blood LOL. Yes I can see some of those frequencies even though they're licensed out of the three locations very close to you that I looked for, I can see them being used in distant locations. Some of those frequencies might be relevant to your one line but won't be used very frequently, for example track work and maintenance or maintainers, or even a Track Inspector, who will just walk the line. Keep at it and one day you'll be surprised that something will come alive!

 

[ve1sef]

found this this morning, might help you out.
Radio-shack PRO-70 User Manual download pdf (Page 26) (manymanuals.com)