Professional Railroad Radios for Hobby Use

[bobcraig]

Hi everyone! I've been around for years and don't post much, however I'm curious about something that I haven't seen addressed here. Is it possible, or wise, to buy an actual handheld railroad radio for railfan use? Are they even sold to hobbyists? I would want a way to disable the PTT button because I wouldn't want to accidentally hit it and cause issues. I know the BNSF uses ICOM radios here in Iowa. Would any of these radios do analog plus DMR AND NXDN? I'm not a HAM, but I have been a scanner listener for years. I ride Amtrak a few times a year and currently use the new Uniden BCD160DN. It does ok, but there are times that there may be a conductor in my car who is using the radio, and my scanner doesn't pick it up. Other times it seems to work fine. Any help you can advise I would surlily appreciate it.


Bob in Ankney, Iowa

 

[mmckenna]

Yes, you can buy a suitable commercial radio. Kenwood NX-210 will do what you need, analog + NXDN. Programming is not easy. It requires specific software and programming cable. Learning, understanding, comprehending the software will take quite a bit of time.
The radio will be limited to the VHF band. It will not do UHF, or any other band. It's also only capable of analog and NXDN. You can find those used for $200 or so, plus the cost of software and cable.

Kenwood does sell a radio that does analog, NXDN and DMR, the NX-5200. It's going to be expensive and the programming software is leaps and bounds more complex than the software for the NX-210.
$500 or so used, plus you must buy the software from Kenwood, no exceptions and no way around that, plus the programming cable, plus several bottles of aspirin, plus bottles of Rogaine to regrow the hair you'll pull out trying to learn the software.

Take a step up to the EF Johnson VP8000, and that will do VHF, UHF, 700 and 800MHz, plus analog, NXDN, DMR, P25. But you are looking at several thousand dollars.

On the other hand, a good scanner that will do analog, DMR and NXDN, plus it'll do all the bands, and you can download programming info from this webpage and save yourself a lot of pain and suffering.

 

[dryfb]

Scanning on the NX radios is also fairly slow compared to a scanner just scanning within one system/bank. I have 2 zones in my NX-210 with the first 97 AAR channels and the 2nd with the splinter channels and it takes a good 10-20 seconds to get thru each zone. My NX-5000 radios don't seem any faster. If you don't have any transmit needs then I'd say stick with a scanner.

 

[AK9R]

I ride Amtrak a few times a year and currently use the new Uniden BCD160DN. It does ok, but there are times that there may be a conductor in my car who is using the radio, and my scanner doesn't pick it up

Your Uniden BCD160DN is a good choice since it already can monitor NXDN transmissions which is the digital voice mode that the railroads are (very) slowly moving to.

Is this a programming issue? IOW, are you sure that you have the correct frequencies programmed to scan? On some railroads, there is:
--a "road channel" that is used for comms between engineer and conductor, comms between engineer and MOW crews who may be working in the area, and for line-side defect detectors, and
--a "dispatcher channel" that is used for comms between the train and the dispatcher. In very rare cases, the train-dispatcher comms use a duplex configuration where there is a train to dispatcher channel and a separate dispatcher to train channel.

 

[kc2asb]

When traveling on Amtrak, do you use the railroad service search or are you scanning programmed frequencies? If the latter, the service search might be helpful in revealing other frequencies that are in use.

It's unfortunate that the 160DN does not have Close Call - that would be invaluable in finding the frequency that conductor was using.

 

[bobcraig]

Well, I don't need to pull out what little hair I have left! The AAR channels are already in my BCN160DN, which is what I am monitoring. The times I have not heard a nearby radio are rare. I was just kind of wondering because I had never seen it addressed. Also, the slow scan speed would be a definite turn off. I'm going to keep my life simple and stick to my little scanner. Thanks everyone and have a great week!

Bob in Ankeny

 

[bobcraig]

To answer kc2asb, I just scan through the standard 97 channels. Plus, I use the online Amtrak frequency guides from On Track On Line.

Bob

 

[kc2asb]

To answer kc2asb, I just scan through the standard 97 channels. Plus, I use the online Amtrak frequency guides from On Track On Line.

Bob

Nice! You definitely have the bases covered. Happy listening!

 

[bobcraig]

Thank you, sir!