Unbelievably naive newbie asks for scanning help

[dadonatrain]

You won’t believe how little I know but I gotta ask so here goes.

I’m just getting started railfanning. I don’t have a scanner. I’m reading things like Scanning 101, etc, here and elsewhere, and I’m so naive I think I need Scanning 001 first!

it sounds to me that any scanner CAN receive MANY channels or frequencies, only some of which are for railroads and railfans. So I need to tell my scanner “make it possible for me to use you to listen to just the frequencies or channels the railroads use”. Is this what’s meant by “programming my scanner”?

Assuming I’m close so far, once I’ve done that, lets say I’m railfanning next to the tracks where I know I’ll see CSX and NS trains, and they both use separate channels. Do I need to pick just one of those channels to listen to at a time? Like telling my TV to let me watch just ESPN for the moment? Or would I automatically hear every channel being used that’s close enough for my scanner to pick up the channel?

Thanks in advance

 

[tvengr]

A scanner will scan all of the frequencies at once and stop on any one with activity until finished and then resume scanning again. You can program just the frequencies active in your area to speed up the scanning or search all of the railroad frequencies.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Welcome to the RR forums: You also need to take in consideration voice mode used. Skimming through the South Carolina Railroads database page, looks like analog conventional (mode FMN) is still prevalent but some rail traffic has made the move to NXDN (digital). Be sure your receiver covers both voice modes to make sure you don't miss any traffic if you travel somewhere with your scanner. Also for future reference railroad & railfanning discussion is better suited for its respective forum (posted below)

Railroad/Railfan Monitoring Forum

This is the place to discuss monitoring railroad communications.

forums.radioreference.com

 

[dadonatrain]

A scanner will scan all of the frequencies at once and stop on any one with activity until finished and then resume scanning again. You can program just the frequencies active in your area to speed up the scanning or search all of the railroad frequencies

Welcome to the RR forums: You also need to take in consideration voice mode used. Skimming through the South Carolina Railroads database page, looks like analog conventional (mode FMN) is still prevalent but some rail traffic has made the move to NXDN (digital). Be sure your receiver covers both voice modes to make sure you don't miss any traffic if you travel somewhere with your scanner. Also for future reference railroad & railfanning discussion is better suited for its respective forum (posted below)

Railroad/Railfan Monitoring Forum

This is the place to discuss monitoring railroad communications.

forums.radioreference.com

Thx, both.

 

[SamHill2]

I'm pretty new at this too. By Monday, my Boofertyang UV-5RM proggy cable will be here and I will be a Premium Member here by the time CHIRP data is needed. I'm in BFE Texas way south of Dallas were Police still use FMN I can assume this is analog? Small town full of tweakers & drunks the rest mostly a 1-toof very smiley bunch. This should be a crap-ton of entertainment to hear & know who got busted etc....this cheap beginner scanner ($25) from A-moo-zun was my first choice OR the RTS-SDR dongle thingie muh doodle for usage on the spare laptop. Did figure out how to enter the channels, but there must be one special thing to get it to receive the one and only PD freq less than 1-mile away. Storm channel was neato listening to while lighting and hail hit the house today.

 

[hiegtx]

I'm pretty new at this too. By Monday, my Boofertyang UV-5RM proggy cable will be here and I will be a Premium Member here by the time CHIRP data is needed. I'm in BFE Texas way south of Dallas were Police still use FMN I can assume this is analog? Small town full of tweakers & drunks the rest mostly a 1-toof very smiley bunch. This should be a crap-ton of entertainment to hear & know who got busted etc....this cheap beginner scanner ($25) from A-moo-zun was my first choice OR the RTS-SDR dongle thingie muh doodle for usage on the spare laptop. Did figure out how to enter the channels, but there must be one special thing to get it to receive the one and only PD freq less than 1-mile away. Storm channel was neato listening to while lighting and hail hit the house today.

Where in BFE East Texas are you?

While a number of the smaller, still rural, counties are using conventional radio channels, in some of the piney woods counties, agencies either have moved, or will be moving, to a trunked radio system such as TxWARN P25. Simple, conventional means scanning can be easy and cheap. Not so if they have moved to a digital trunked system.

 

[SamHill2]

Where in BFE East Texas are you?

While a number of the smaller, still rural, counties are using conventional radio channels, in some of the piney woods counties, agencies either have moved, or will be moving, to a trunked radio system such as TxWARN P25. Simple, conventional means scanning can be easy and cheap. Not so if they have moved to a digital trunked system.

An hour southeast of Dallas. RR Database shows Police Dept and surrounding towns to still use FMN in the 155.0000 Mhz range. Hope to have my fun until they change over. Then we can decide if it's fun enough to invest in real & quality equipment.

 

[BinaryMode]

You won’t believe how little I know but I gotta ask so here goes.

I’m just getting started railfanning. I don’t have a scanner. I’m reading things like Scanning 101, etc, here and elsewhere, and I’m so naive I think I need Scanning 001 first!

it sounds to me that any scanner CAN receive MANY channels or frequencies, only some of which are for railroads and railfans. So I need to tell my scanner “make it possible for me to use you to listen to just the frequencies or channels the railroads use”. Is this what’s meant by “programming my scanner”?

Assuming I’m close so far, once I’ve done that, lets say I’m railfanning next to the tracks where I know I’ll see CSX and NS trains, and they both use separate channels. Do I need to pick just one of those channels to listen to at a time? Like telling my TV to let me watch just ESPN for the moment? Or would I automatically hear every channel being used that’s close enough for my scanner to pick up the channel?

Thanks in advance

A lot of scanners already have a pre-programmed search mode called service search for rail or marine or Ham radio or weather or... you get the picture.

Yes, rail is bringing the digital modulation NXDN (Next Generation Digital Network) online. So in order to hear Comms that uses the NXDN modulation you need a scanner capable of receiving NXDN. My Uniden BCD325P2 can hear NXDN for example. Keep in mind that this is a paid upgrade. You would create an account at Uniden and buy the upgrade that way. What you do is add your scanner's serial number and another number (who's name escapes me now. I think ESN) and then after you pay you get this other number you enter in the scanner to unlock the NXDN capability. In total there are three paid upgrades: NXDN, DMR and Provoice.

Yeah, scanners "scan". They scan all the channels at once. It's called a scan rate in channels per second (CPS). You can hold onto one channel if you wish. With new scanners that button is typically the "hold" button. With older scanners that button is typically the "manual" button.

Also keep in mind Uniden has a feature called "Close Call". What happens with "Close Call" is that if you're near a transmission or a transmission has a significance wattage behind it, the scanner will automatically tune to that transmission. Providing it's withen the scanner's range. I've seen this as I was crossing railroad tracks while a train was stopped nearby and when they keyed up on the radio my scanner in the car lit up with their transmission.

It's funny with the use of Close Call now because back in the day while in high school I used to live near railroad tracks and when I wanted to know exactly what frequency the train was using I connected a Radio Shack frequency counter to my outside Radio Shack discone antenna and when I heard the train I quickly looked at the frequency counter to see what the frequency was when they made a transmission.

 

[BinaryMode]

Oops, can't edit my post. It's NXDN: Next Generation Digital Narrowband.

 

[SamHill2]

Here's what I'm understanding so far....
-Scanners aren't the simple thing like in the good ole days
-You need to know what you want to listen to then learn if their signal use is analog or digital or encrypted
-Your choice in scanner make/model must be able to receive the type of signal
-Try learning from others watching YT vids for your specific scanner functions & abilities
-Never try to fit a square peg in a round hole and always wipe front to back

 

[bearcatrp]

Get the new Uniden 160 that comes with DMR and NXDN. $249.00. Simple. Done.

 

[BinaryMode]

...and always wipe front to back

HA! Side to side is more efficient. LOL!

Get the new Uniden 160 that comes with DMR and NXDN. $249.00. Simple. Done.

If anyone lives in California they might want to reconsider...