Commercial radio that will scan all 97 AAR channels.

[JoshuaHufford]

Is there a commercial radio that will scan all 97 of the railroad channels?

I have been using Motorola CDM and M1225 radius radios for some time now, and I love the quality of reception over a regular scanner, but they are restricted to 16 or 24 channels for scanning.

Is there a radio out there with similar performance to a CDM that can scan all 97? A bonus would be one that doesn't require special software to program. I have a good receive site and I'd like to be able to scan all the channels just for fun to see what I can receive.

I don't care if the scan rate is slow. And yes I know about NXDN, I don't feel that will happen on the road channels any time soon, and that is a debate for other threads.

Thanks!

 

[Cameron314]

Really any real radio is going to require the correct "special" software to program. While tons of radios will program 97 or more channels, most won't don't allow that many in a scan group. They aren't scanners. That said most areas are only going to have a few active AAR freqs anyway so...

 

[EricCottrell]

I was able to setup scanning all 97 ARR Channels with a Icom IC-F3261DT that has RR (Railroad) Firmware in it. You need the special RR version of the Icom Software to program it.

 

[jaspence]

Be aware that some railroads are using NXDN and others may change in the future.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

The kenwoods can do it:
TK-2180 (portable)/TK-7180 (Mobile)

For NXDN, you can use an NX200 (portable)/NX700 mobile.

 

[alabamarailfan]

@JoshuaHufford,

@Echo4Thirty is correct. I have the TK-7180 as recommended by a fellow railfan for just this reason. While I haven't gotten the programming completed for it, he verified that it was possible to scan all AAR channels in a single bank. Once I get the programming completed, I will try a test to see how quickly it can scan all channels.

A friend who works for the railroad and has an NX700 did a test for me and it seemed to scan all AAR channels in about 5 - 6 seconds. I am hoping the TK-7180 will be close. For the test, he keyed up his RR issued portable, hit scan on the NX700 and timed how long it took to stop again.

I agree regarding NXDN. I mostly railfan in Alabama, southern Tennessee, and sometimes north Florida and I have only verified one location using NXDN and that was the car shops at NS's Norris Yard in Irondale (Birmingham), AL. I highly doubt road channels will go NXDN any time soon.

Hope this helps! I will try to post more info once I get the programming completed on mine.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

The thing I like is you can set the channel number to the AAR number so when you enable the channel number display, you dont have to waste alpha tag space with the channel number.

This is REALLY handy in the marine band where channel numbers skip around.

 

[wa8pyr]

Icom 3161 and 3400 will scan all 97 channels (actually more than that) pretty quickly. So will most of the more recent Harris stuff (7100 series, XG and XL series).

 

[n0cb]

Cheapo Baofeng portables will scan all 97 channels, and are easily programmed with CHIRP. Scan speed isn't what I'd call *fast*.

 

[KevinC]

While not a commercial radio the Icom IC-R30 will scan all of them and quite fast (200 channels per second) and do NXDN as well if needed.

 

[12dbsinad]

Cheapo Baofeng portables will scan all 97 channels, and are easily programmed with CHIRP. Scan speed isn't what I'd call *fast*.

Yes it will but it'll also be time for bed by the time it completes 97 channels and starts back at 1

 

[cbehr91]

While not a commercial radio the Icom IC-R30 will scan all of them and quite fast (200 channels per second) and do NXDN as well if needed.

This. The Icom R30 pretty much blows anything I've used away reception wise for railroads.

 

[n0cb]

This. The Icom R30 pretty much blows anything I've used away reception wise for railroads.

Agreed. Also no special software needed to program. Just use the CSV import/export function on the R30.

 

[mikewazowski]

MCX1000 with fast lock synthesizer.

 

[kruser]

While not a commercial radio the Icom IC-R30 will scan all of them and quite fast (200 channels per second) and do NXDN as well if needed.

Yep, I agree.
I use both the IC-R30 and IC-R8600 for scanning the 97 AAR channels. They both work great and are reasonably fast.

The only con is neither model will switch to NXDN mode automatically if a NXDN signal is detected when monitoring in analog mode.
I had to create a duplicate bank set to the NXDN mode in the event they ever start using NXDN here. I've only heard a few tests in NXDN on the AAR channels and that was it.

 

[natedawg1604]

I love Kenwood stuff for this; I have several NX-3720's and TK-5710's, they are all great for railroads.

 

[Nasby]

Personally I couldn’t see the need to scan all those channels. Even in the busiest of locations there are only about 20-30 channels in use at any given time. And that’s a stretch.

A properly programmed radio for a certain area will give better results ( no missed traffic etc).
With zones, etc there’s plenty of flexibility for setting up a scan group for many places.

 

[Deeptow]

I use a Yaesu FT-1900 transceiver set up with an RT Systems programmer. You can set up 199 memories in a single scan bank, and it has 10 scan banks. It scans quite quickly. Used in my vehicle with a 1/4 wave 2 meter antenna mag mount. I have about 15 rail channels programmed in and have no problem copying what I need to hear. The FT-1900 is out of production. Their scan bank system does not seem to be available on later Yaesu transceivers.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

I use a Yaesu FT-1900 transceiver set up with an RT Systems programmer. You can set up 199 memories in a single scan bank, and it has 10 scan banks. It scans quite quickly. Used in my vehicle with a 1/4 wave 2 meter antenna mag mount. I have about 15 rail channels programmed in and have no problem copying what I need to hear. The FT-1900 is out of production. Their scan bank system does not seem to be available on later Yaesu transceivers.

Its from the same vintage, but the FT-8800 will do it as well. I have a hypermemory that takes me directly to AAR and all 97 channels are in a scan list as well. Works great!

 

[RRR]

"All 97" Do you scan 1 - 6 in the USA?