Scanners & scanning

[Sean Paul]

Afternoon once again there Jim:

& once again great to have you aboard.

If I were you & looking for a very basic scanner for listening to rail frequencies. I'd consider the GRE PSR 100 which is a very simple 200 Channel scanner which doesn't have any kind of digital trunking capabilities. You may also consider the GRE PSR 310 which is a little more complex scanner which will do trunking but will not do digital trunking. Both scanners can be programmed using PSR Edit Configuration which is offered in a 30 day demo version & can be purchased for 35 dollars after that. You can google both models for locations of purchase. Also both scanners have a version which is made by GRE America for Radio Shack & can be purchased @ the Shack. The down side to these scanners is they do not come with battery chargers or data cables included as the GRE PSR models do.

You may also want to consider the Wouxun radios which are part 90 certified. These radios are commonly used by amateur radio operators but are not certified for this use by the FCC. The frequency range will cover the rail band as well as a good portion of the UHF radio spectrum. These radios also have talking menus & operations with them. I have one of these radios which I use for amateur operations as well as for use with my GMRS license.

Now that aughta get you started. I'm sure that also leaves you with plenty of questions. So, let the discussion begin. Ask away & we'll see where we need to go from here.

 

[Ron Miller]

Hi Jim,

Sean has already given you good info but I wanted to welcome you aboard as well.

 

the GRE scanners are good choices. One thing Sean hadn't mentioned yet, that will be handy given your specific listening target is that a lot, perhaps all of the GRE scanners have a service search feature which includes Railroad. I've used this to good effect on my PSR-500 while riding Amtrak between Tampa and Miami, Florida. The service search will stop on active frequencies and you can press the Hold key when you find the one you want. In this way, I found the Road channel my train was using and listened to the detectors and the train crew talking to each other.

 

Best regards

 

Ron Miller

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[Sean Paul]

Nicely done Ron. Something I hadn't even thought of. I'm not even exactly sure how to use the service search on our 500's. Also as someone who has very little interest in railroad monitoring. My knolige is limited on it. I do know the freq fall in the 160-161 NHZ range. 

Sean Paul informs y'all from my iPhone 

[jim rawls]

Ron, ok, I understand what you mean here, but, if the scanner doesn't talk to you,
how do you get it to find the channel you want? Jim

[Sean Paul]

Jim:
About the only thing I can add here on this subject is this. No
scanner is going to talk to you. This is where the software is about
as good as it gets. You'd have to program things in to the radio in an
order so that you can direct entry channels your wanting to have
access to.

Sean Paul informs y'all from my iPhone

[jim rawls]

Ok, I understand. Where do I get the software?

[Sean Paul]

Jim:
You can get PSR Edit Configuration from there website which is psredit.com I
do believe. Once you get a scanner if enfact that's the route you choose to
go. You can use our good friend Google to make for sure. Or, I, @ some point
can look it up to make for sure. The software is an after market item & is
not made by Grecom/GRE. If you're a JAWS user, it is very accessible with
JAWS. Once again. This is a down side to purchasing a scanner from The
Shack. You will also need to purchase the data cable from them. Which runs
about 39.95. A little costly in my opinion. If you order from Scanner Master
or somewhere like that off of the internet. The data cable is included. As
is the battery charger. This item from The Shack will run you 20 dollars or
so. So to buy from The Shack. You're probably looking @ another 60 dollars
in cost. Recharagle batteries are sold separately in both locations. Just
make sure you get a GRE model of Scanner, not a Unidine. Don't get me wrong.
Unidine are great scanners & were the original scanner since well before my
time. However, @ this point. No software for programming is usable with a
screen reader as far as I know.
To kind of get back to something which you brought up earlier.
If you're wanting something that talks to you & I personally think is a good
value given your situation. You really may want to consider these Wouxun
radios. They do talk to you for most parts of the radio. As you twist the
dial to move up & down the channels which you've programmed in to them
they'll tell you. If you're programming something in to the radios memory,
they'll tell you. Most of the radios menus do talk to you as you're trying
to work with them. Only a few of the menus do not. I'm given to understand
that there are 99 channels in the band plan which are totally set aside for
use by the railroad. &, they're given specific quote channel numbers. You
could program the channel numbers in the radio in quote there channel
numbers. So, that when you step through them. The radio would say you're on
channel 38 &, that's where you'd be. We'll have to look up which of the
Railroad channels Amtrak uses so you could then make a list & use those
channels. This would take a little work up front. As you'd have to program
those Railroad channels all in to the radio by hand.

[jim rawls]

Sean, that radio is the thing for me to get. Where do I get it? I'd like to see it
before I get it if I can. If the radio has a key pad on it, I don't see any reason
why I can't do it. I have a wife who has eyes, and all my friends do. So... what
model radio exactly should I get, and again, where to buy? How big is this radio?
It sounds like just what I need. Tell me more about the radio please.
And... thanks for all your help and advice. Oh yes, what do these units run? Jim

[Sean Paul]

Jim:
You can get it from http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?item_id=216
If I were you. I'd get the model which says 136-174 & 420-520. This is the
current version which I have. I'm interested in moving up to the newer
version which is the UV6D. & will do so when the fundage allows me to do so.
The radio is about the size of a pack of regular cigarettes not 100s. If
you've ever been a smoker or seen a pack of regulars. It does have a keypad
on the radio. The radio has 128 channels capability, FM broadcast band, drop
in charger, 1700 Milly Amp battery, I also have a copy of a manual for the
radio which has been written for accessibility purposes which if you get the
radio I can send along to you. I currently know of no where to see the radio
before you purchase it. Any other questions, feel free to ask.

[Sean Paul]

The radio is preprogrammed to talk. Now, I can't remember if it is factory
set to talk out of the box. However, if you order the radio from Ed on the
website which I sent you, email him or leave a note in your order. He'll
make sure that it is turned on for you if it isn't by default. Ed is very
aware of accessibility & is a very helpful person for those of us who are
visually impaired.

----- Original Message -----
From: "jim rawls" <jazz...@ca.rr.com>
To: <monitori...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 08:34

[jim rawls]

I'm going up to the website now. Jim