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Nick, try programming all 97 AAR channels into two banks, and running both of those banks while railfanning. You won't miss a beat on any channel.NSSD70ACe wrote:I have a Bearcat BC125AT as well. Holds up pretty nice and never had any issues with the scanner when I was in a Kalamazoo. The rubber ducky antennas that come with it are decent enough (I was able to pick up a defect detector on the South Bend Subdivision almost three miles away, so it gives me somewhat advance notice). Here in Lansing, I’m having a little more trouble, as CN comes through garbled, I couldn’t pick up CSX, and I was just barely receiving Ingham County Fire dispatch. I’ve made a few changes as well as updated some of the frequencies, but I have yet to field test anything.
Unfortunately, it's not just inside. I have a tough time picking up CN/CSX trackside too.Saturnalia wrote:Nick, try programming all 97 AAR channels into two banks, and running both of those banks while railfanning. You won't miss a beat on any channel.NSSD70ACe wrote:I have a Bearcat BC125AT as well. Holds up pretty nice and never had any issues with the scanner when I was in a Kalamazoo. The rubber ducky antennas that come with it are decent enough (I was able to pick up a defect detector on the South Bend Subdivision almost three miles away, so it gives me somewhat advance notice). Here in Lansing, I’m having a little more trouble, as CN comes through garbled, I couldn’t pick up CSX, and I was just barely receiving Ingham County Fire dispatch. I’ve made a few changes as well as updated some of the frequencies, but I have yet to field test anything.
In my experience, so long as you have a scanner (like you do) which can scan all of the channels in less than a second, then it isn't worth bothering over one or two frequencies, trying to figure out what you need. That's how you miss stuff.
Also if you're using it indoors, in a building made of concrete and steel (like most dorms), you're going to get terrible reception in many cases.
That's certainly a valid way, no doubt. What's nice about the BC125AT is that you can hit lock-out on any channel that is transmitting, and then if you restart the scanner, it clears the lock-outs. So if you find yourself in say Chesterton, and don't wanna listen to the Barr and Garrett Sub DS, then you just lock out those channels.BL2-1843 wrote:Have done that the last two years in northern Ohio, Good for searching, but it may take you 15 minutes to get through all 97 AAR channels because there is somebody talking on most of them all the time. Fun to listen to, but not when you want to know what the next train will be where your at, at given town. Because we know who talks on what channel for road trains and dispatchers at each place we go to, we keep those channels in in on separate banks and just listen to those wherever we are at.
No kidding!BL2-1843 wrote:Don't want to miss anything you know.
You have a dream set-up. I have a j-pole antenna on a mast on the roof. It does great. The coax runs straight to the radio in the living room (I live by myself, so I can have it squawking 24/7/365 and no one cares), but I would love to have a whole-home set-up.BL2-1843 wrote:Is your BC125AT a hand held scanner. My original scanner, a base set Bearcat 210 from 1974 ia still going strong and one of my best ones for receiving even though I have three separate outdoor antennae's attached to three of them. The BC210 will program only ten frequencies to scan at one time, but it too will unlock everything you have locked out when you turn the set off so when you turn it back on they are there again. I like that. My other scanners are all Radio Shack except for one Cobra which is the one in my view when sitting here at the computer. The other four are at various locations throughout the house, to manually be able to control them where I sit or in bed. The fifth is wired for speakers in the basement, both porches, and in the garage so I can go anywhere in the house or outside without missing a scanner conversation as I move about. Don't want to miss anything you know.
I'm not an expert. There are several on this site however. I know enough to be dangerous. The short answer is no, I do not believe you will burn up your scanner. Here is a discussion. There are two principals at play. An earth ground for electrostatic and lighting discharge and a ground plane for polarized radio wave detection. It gets a little confusing between the two.J3rsdm5 wrote:I also have a BC125AT, but hooked up to a PCTEL Maxrad MHB5800 on an NMO mount. I anticipated using it on my car, but 99% of the time, it sits on my desk. I can hear clearly to about 15 miles away, then static past that. I called the guy at theantennafarm.com, he said if I don't have a ground plane disk, it will burn up my scanner. Can anyone verify this?
Excellent, I have ordered one. Thank you!cbehr91 wrote:No. You don't transmit with a scanner. Poor ground plane will, however, hurt your reception if you're using an antenna that needs one, which you are.
You don't necessarily need an industry ground plane disc. If it saves you a few bucks just get the largest pie plate or pizza pan you can readily find. 20" diameter give or take a couple inches would be best. Also, did you trim your antenna to a desired frequency? That will also help.J3rsdm5 wrote:Excellent, I have ordered one. Thank you!cbehr91 wrote:No. You don't transmit with a scanner. Poor ground plane will, however, hurt your reception if you're using an antenna that needs one, which you are.
I haven't yet trimmed it; unfamiliar with the process. I'm sure there's documentation somewhere I can get started with.cbehr91 wrote:You don't necessarily need an industry ground plane disc. If it saves you a few bucks just get the largest pie plate or pizza pan you can readily find. 20" diameter give or take a couple inches would be best. Also, did you trim your antenna to a desired frequency? That will also help.J3rsdm5 wrote:Excellent, I have ordered one. Thank you!cbehr91 wrote:No. You don't transmit with a scanner. Poor ground plane will, however, hurt your reception if you're using an antenna that needs one, which you are.