fredevad
Lead Service Attendant
Since getting my scanner as a father's day present this year, I haven't taken the train without it. However, noticed on my last trip that I seem to be missing alot of the scanner action because my scanner is not picking it up.
For instance, one of the volunteers on my recent Milwaukee Road excursion had a scanner and was getting alot more than I was. Most of the time, I'm barely able to get the whole detector message before loosing it at full passenger speed, sometimes even before "Detector Out". I know these don't have a large distance, but the volunteer got the full message loud and clear whereas I lost it before the end.
Since I know how to use the squelch, I attribute this (at least partially, I know the radio can make a difference too) to the fact that I'm still using the stock "general use" antenna that came with the scanner, not one made for RailRoad frequencies. Unfortunately, I didn't ask the volunteer what antenna she was using (I was just a little distracted by riding the vintage private cars
), but it looked like she had a RadioShack scanner that looked similar to mine.
I've been to the On-Track-On-Line scanner antenna page, but a 17.4" antenna is just impractical for my mobile scanner, as I usually wear it on my belt. I also found this post on Radio Reference.com, about someone using a RadioShack 800MHz antenna and got good results. Also, I don't recall the volunteer on our excursion having a large antenna (she may have even had a stub).
Does anyone have any recommendations? If it makes any difference, I'm using a RadioShack PRO-164.
Thanks in advance!
For instance, one of the volunteers on my recent Milwaukee Road excursion had a scanner and was getting alot more than I was. Most of the time, I'm barely able to get the whole detector message before loosing it at full passenger speed, sometimes even before "Detector Out". I know these don't have a large distance, but the volunteer got the full message loud and clear whereas I lost it before the end.
Since I know how to use the squelch, I attribute this (at least partially, I know the radio can make a difference too) to the fact that I'm still using the stock "general use" antenna that came with the scanner, not one made for RailRoad frequencies. Unfortunately, I didn't ask the volunteer what antenna she was using (I was just a little distracted by riding the vintage private cars
), but it looked like she had a RadioShack scanner that looked similar to mine.I've been to the On-Track-On-Line scanner antenna page, but a 17.4" antenna is just impractical for my mobile scanner, as I usually wear it on my belt. I also found this post on Radio Reference.com, about someone using a RadioShack 800MHz antenna and got good results. Also, I don't recall the volunteer on our excursion having a large antenna (she may have even had a stub).
Does anyone have any recommendations? If it makes any difference, I'm using a RadioShack PRO-164.
Thanks in advance!
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