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bratkinson said:
being able to broadcast in an emergency does NOT require a ham license
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This is a wishful-thinking and self-serving myth perpetuated by the survival community. There is absolutely nothing in FCC Part 97 (the rules for ham radio) that authorizes non-hams to transmit on ham frequencies, regardless of the circumstances. Nor is there anything in the other relevant FCC regulations (Part 2, Part 4, etc) or Title 47 of the United States Code that lets unlicensed persons do anything they want in an emergency. The FCC can issue temporary regulations that waive its licensing restrictions. Otherwise, emergency or not, all that's available to an unlicensed person is Part 15 (very low power) and the services specifically meant for unlicensed persons (CB, etc).
Are you likely to be caught and prosecuted for transmitting when and where you are not authorized to? In a true emergency, no -- unless you misuse the channel by, for example, trampling on a legitimately licensed station such as a first responder or don't limit your use to the minimum necessary. It's like running a stop sign if you are trying to escape a rapidly advancing forest fire or bringing a badly bleeding gunshot victim to a hospital. Go ahead and run it, sure, but if you have an accident in the process, don't expect to be absolved.
 
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If someone is more technical, but still very thrifty, they can find an SDR dongle for ~$25 or less, plug it into a computer with an antenna (many come with antennas) and receive the voice transmissions that way. It requires a lot more effort though.
 
Brian: also, look into FreeSCAN, that's the software I use to program my scanner. It's freeware. I usually look up the frequencies I want to listen to in RadioReference, which John mentioned, and then copy and paste them into FreeSCAN using its EZ-Grab feature. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or need any assistance with this.
 
daybeers said:
Brian: also, look into FreeSCAN, that's the software I use to program my scanner. It's freeware. I usually look up the frequencies I want to listen to in RadioReference, which John mentioned, and then copy and paste them into FreeSCAN using its EZ-Grab feature. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or need any assistance with this.
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I've been pleased with FreeScan software (I use it with my BCD396XT). I use it set up my train travels...one "group" contains all of the AAR channels. Other groups are created, one for each route I will be traveling. Each frequency is "number-tagged" with its corresponding AAR channel number for ease of access. I have not yet had a need to program the new "splinter" channels.
 
xyzzy said:
bratkinson said:
being able to broadcast in an emergency does NOT require a ham license
Click to expand...
This is a wishful-thinking and self-serving myth perpetuated by the survival community. There is absolutely nothing in FCC Part 97 (the rules for ham radio) that authorizes non-hams to transmit on ham frequencies, regardless of the circumstances. Nor is there anything in the other relevant FCC regulations (Part 2, Part 4, etc) or Title 47 of the United States Code that lets unlicensed persons do anything they want in an emergency.
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It looks like I'm an unsuspecting victim of believing what I find on the web <sigh>.
 
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As a licenced radio ham, and one time "pirate radio" station operator (Shush!), I am surprised that the public have so much access to official communications in the States?

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This side of the pond, the police and similar transmissions are all encoded, so cannot be listened to without the correct reciever.

Anyone know what the percieved benefit to the police might be, to allow public and criminals to monitor their radio activities, for example?

Please excuse the quality of my photo, it looks over a hundred years old, but is from the 1960's.
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Who is the good looking guy???
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I don’t think that there is so much a perceived benefit as much as it is there just hasn’t been a strong move towards moving to newer systems that would prevent ordinary scanners from working.

Much of that is due to different organizations at different levels of government needing to interoprtate, and trying to coordinate a radio update amongst Federal, State and Local governments is apparently too hard for us Americans to do.

There was a big push and some spectrum realignment in the post 9-11 world, and in many places you need at least a scanner that can handle trunking to be able to follow police/fire comms.
 
Encryption is coming to the U.S. for first responders. There are reasons why it's taking longer here than TETRA did in Europe. In the meantime, the mobile operators have begun pushing for all first responder traffic to be migrated to 5G which will have QoS and the other features that first responders need.
 
Depending what one wants to do with their radio monitoring (along with what can actually be accessed in an evolving communication and encryption environment) I'd recommend going either really low end and inexpensive or really high end and costly.

As for amateur radio licenses, while it requires taking a test, it isn't terribly difficult to obtain.

de -. ----. .--. .-. --.
 
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I purchased on ebay and have been extremely satisfied with a Motorola HT1250. It came programmed to all the AAR frequencies in a receive mode only. Transmit is disabled. Its the same radio many station agents in the Amtrak network use.
 
I just received my scanner and I figured out how to hear the weather, but when I input the local railroad frequency I hear nothing but static. The line is a low frequency local freight line about 2 miles away. Is the static likely due to the lack of trains, distance to the tracks, or am I doing something wrong?

Sent from my SM-J327P using Amtrak Forum mobile app
 
Neophyte here regarding scanners, so I'll ask a really ignorant question. I realize that there are varying degrees of quality in scanners, but generally speaking, what is the typical range to pick up signals? Appreciate any guidance on this.
 
Ryan said:
Can't hear something that isn't there.
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So if there aren't any trains at the moment will it just be static? I suspected that at first, but I also tried picking up other local stations and only the NOAA one resulting in anything other than static. I'm going to be spending tomorrow night a block away from the tracks so hopefully there will be a train that allows me to test it out.
Sent from my SM-J327P using Amtrak Forum mobile app
 
brianpmcdonnell17 said:
I just received my scanner and I figured out how to hear the weather, but when I input the local railroad frequency I hear nothing but static. The line is a low frequency local freight line about 2 miles away. Is the static likely due to the lack of trains, distance to the tracks, or am I doing something wrong?

Sent from my SM-J327P using Amtrak Forum mobile app
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If you are hearing "noise" when there is no signal, you might adjust the squelch threshold until the radio "quiets". When receiving a signal (of sufficient strength), the squelch should "open" to allow the signal to be heard. Unless you are near a busy yard, there may be fairly long periods of time with no activity (even on a main line).
 
PaTrainFan said:
Neophyte here regarding scanners, so I'll ask a really ignorant question. I realize that there are varying degrees of quality in scanners, but generally speaking, what is the typical range to pick up signals? Appreciate any guidance on this.
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The antenna makes all (well most) the difference in the world. The "rubber duckey" on a hand-held will require you to be pretty close to any activity to hear it. An antenna mounted high and in the clear will allow you hear activity from several miles away. Local terrain (flat vs hilly) will affect reception too.

If you are on the train, you should have no problem hearing the conductor and engineer and often the dispatcher too.
 
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Although a scanner has a small antenna, it should pick up transmissions from several miles away. It is often more a question of how much power the transmitting station is using, which will project their transmissions further.

If you don't have the instruction manual, you can often find a pdf manual by searching on the internet.

A scanner can be set up to monitor all channels between two frequencies, and will stop when it picks up a signal. As FrensicPic said, you should close the "squelch" control so that the background hiss only just cuts out. It won't scan if the hiss is not "squelched".

As to ease of becoming a radio ham, I found it required quite a lot of knowledge back in 1970 in the UK, sadly I have since forgotten most of what I did know! I understand that some of the levels now allow "novice" hams to operate, not an option back in the day.

(G0oai is on QRZ.com)

Ed.
 
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An additional issue is the topography of the area. VHF and UHF radio signals tend to be very obstructed by hills, and large buildings. If you are only 8 miles from the railroad, I would expect you to pick up their radio traffic, if the ground between is fairly flat.

There are some "internet" scanners that stream information, which you can listen to on the computer, and also free SDR radios that you can "tune" via your computer. "web sdr" is a good search term... (SDR stands for "software defined radio".)

Ed.
 
Rairoads still use analog radios. Analog only scanners are very cheap used on ebay. Get one second hand and there's little to no downside if you don't want it. Police, fire, etc, use digital trunked radios now and scanners to decode them are much more expensive and in much higher demand.
 
PaTrainFan said:
Specifically, I live about eight miles as the crow flies from downtown Pittsburgh. Was wondering if I could pick up transmissions from trains coming through town on the mainlines. I'm guessing I'm on the outer edge the range.
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I find with my scanner in non-ideal conditions (clipped to my pocket on the train) the range I can pick up is rather small - I can usually only hear yard traffic while I'm in the yard or perhaps up to a mile out. I can hear the conductor chat fine, but not always dispatch. I'd imagine with the right antenna and radio eight miles wouldn't be an issue, but I wouldn't count on it with a standard handheld scanner and stock antenna.
 

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