BC125AT: Uniden BC125AT improve reception

[thataveragerailfan]

Hello everyone, I have about a year old BC125AT I like to scan railroad frequencies with. I use a Smiley 5/8 Wave 160Mhz Tuned Antenna. What I'm wondering is if there is a way to tweak my BC125AT to give me more wattage to increase the distance and or a way to get a lot further distance, because at the moment from my house I can barely pickup the rail yard clear enough to understand 2 miles from my house any tips/tricks?

 

[jtwalker]

Wattage is a factor of the transmitting radio, not the receiver. What you can do is a high gain antenna, designed for the band of interest and mounted as high above obstructions as possible.

Oh, and my experience is that railroads use folded dipoles to direct their signal up and down the railways they are next to, not towards your house.

 

[mmckenna]

Hello everyone, I have about a year old BC125AT I like to scan railroad frequencies with. I use a Smiley 5/8 Wave 160Mhz Tuned Antenna. What I'm wondering is if there is a way to tweak my BC125AT to give me more wattage to increase the distance and or a way to get a lot further distance, because at the moment from my house I can barely pickup the rail yard clear enough to understand 2 miles from my house any tips/tricks?

There are only a few things you have control over:
Antenna type
Antenna location/height
Receiver sensitivity.

You can't change the receiver sensitivity of your radio, so that's out.

You -can- change the antenna type and location/height.

If you use your scanner at home, you'll get better performance by getting an appropriate antenna outside your home and up as high as you safely can.

jtwalker is right, the railroads design their base stations to direct the signal up and down the rails. The locomotives are using antennas that will be more omnidirectional, so you may hear them better than the dispatchers.


But, a good VHF antenna outside. Get it up as high as you can since VHF tends to be mostly line of sight. The higher up you can get the antenna, the more it can 'see'. At minimum you want it above the roof line so it has a clear view. Higher is better, but that can be a challenge. You also need to use appropriate coaxial cable for the length of the run, plus figure in lightning protectors and grounding.

Kind of comes down to your budget. You are pretty much at the limits of what you can do with an antenna on top of the radio.

 

[hazrat8990]

A multi element beam antenna would work wonders for this. If you can't find one that is specific enough, you could fins one for 2m, and trim it down to make it work. You would definitely need to make some adjustments to the matching section though.

 

[Ubbe]

The most effective antenna are the one you can have outdoors, on top of your roof.

You can use RG6 coax to keep the cost down and then choose a cheap antenna made for outdoor use that will then receive all sorts of frequencies when it is high up. Even having an antenna on the outside of a window will help.

We will need to know what you can do, if you live in an apartment with no outside antennas allowed or if you have a balcony or even have free access to the roof ro simply will need to know the best antenna attached to the scanner for RR frequencies.

/Ubbe

 

[OpenSquelch]

I had fantastic luck with the Diamond RH77CA on most bands with my 125AT. Less than 30$. In my opinion it doubled my reception as well as distance on picking up traffic. Worth a shot if you arent interested in an outdoor antenna and running cables.

 

[thataveragerailfan]

I had fantastic luck with the Diamond RH77CA on most bands with my 125AT. Less than 30$. In my opinion it doubled my reception as well as distance on picking up traffic. Worth a shot if you arent interested in an outdoor antenna and running cables.

Thank you for the advice, I do happen to already have a RH77CA that I tried and tested but didnt seem to do as well as the 5/8 tuned 160 slim duck did for me.

 

[wtp]

and that is how you find out what works best for you.
there are many variables that come into play.

 

[Ronaldski]

On Unidens usually a squelch of 2 is most sensitive without having it go open squelch.

 

[CollinsURG]

The most effective antenna are the one you can have outdoors, on top of your roof.

You can use RG6 coax to keep the cost down and then choose a cheap antenna made for outdoor use that will then receive all sorts of frequencies when it is high up. Even having an antenna on the outside of a window will help.

We will need to know what you can do, if you live in an apartment with no outside antennas allowed or if you have a balcony or even have free access to the roof ro simply will need to know the best antenna attached to the scanner for RR frequencies.

/Ubbe

I also vote for RG6 as an inexpensive alternative. Matters not that it is 75 ohm coax. It is less lossy than RG58 even with the missmatch of impedence and cheaper than RG8.

Your antenna will only exhibit 50 ohms impedence on a very narrow bandwidth anyway, even if properly tuned for a given center frequency.

Get an antenna outside, even if just at the roofline.

 

[oaktree_b]

I got my 125AT for RR scanning, but I use it for all kinds of stuff now (including satellite SSTV stuff). I got a Bingfu 70cm/2m antenna on Amazon, any of the non-name ones seem to work. I'm sure the name brand antenna would work better, but this was 20 bucks and it works great.

 

[RTDillon]

You can also pick up a low noise RF amplifier. You'd want to mount it at the base of the antenna so that it amplifies signal, not noise on the coax. If you get a good LNA you can use cheaper coax like RG8X. Everyone is right when they say get outdoors and up! Best wishes on your journey of discovery.