SCANNER SETUP

While I am not a ham or electronics whiz, I have been into monitoring
for the last twenty years.

I now own Radio Shack's PRO-2004, and a Bearcat BC-210. Both of these
units are used for base use only. For mobile use I have Regency's
HX1000, HX1500, and Uniden's BC 200XLT.

Enough about the radios, here is what makes them work for me. This 
applies to the handheld units and could also be used on the base units 
for those of you that cannot use an outside antenna.

For the handheld units I use a Kenwood AX-2. This is a shoulder strap 
with antenna base. This consists of a shoulder strap, a length of RG58 
with a BNC plug on one end that interfaces with the plug on the radio. At 
the other end is a BNC female connection for an antenna, this end also 
has a copper strap that is covered with rubber and is used as a ground 
plane for the antenna. This end is also attached to the shoulder strap. 
The strap has hooks that are attached to your radio. The package has two 
screws that are attached to the scanner at the top sides, the hooks are 
then attached to these screws. For those of you that do not want to use 
the screws and strap in this fashion you can attach strips of velcro to 
the shoulder of your jacket or an old shirt and attach the antenna to 
your clothes this way. If you attach the antenna base to your jacket or 
shirt you will have to lengthen the RG58 by using a short piece of RG58 
with BNC male & BNC female attached to either end of the RG58. By sewing 
the velcro fasteners to your shirt or jacket on top of the shoulder you 
can wear the scanner on your belt and get the antenna up on your shoulder 
where it vastly improves the reception.

The AX-2 will accept any antenna with a BNC connecter at the base. On 
fantrips I use the "rubberducky" type antenna that came with the radio. 
But, to really improve reception out at trackside where you are not too 
limited to antenna length I use the AEA model HR-1 antenna. This is an 
end fed half-wave telescopic vhf antenna for two meter use. I live in the 
Dayton, Ohio area and with an outside antenna attached to the handheld 
units I can pick up three different NOAA weather stations. I have taken 
all three handhelds out back and with the "rubberducky" type antennas I 
can only pick up two out of the three weather stations. When I then 
attach the HR-1 to the radios all three stations will come in loud and 
clear. One station is in Cincinnati, Ohio, one is in Dayton, Ohio, one in 
Cridersville, Ohio which is south of Lima, Ohio. I can also pick up the 
station that is in Columbus, Ohio and is also on the same frequency that 
Cincinnati is on. By moving either east or west by five or six feet I 
will pickup one or the other.

I always compare the way a scanner will pickup the NOAA weather stations. 
Since the weather station operates close to the railroad frequencies, I 
figure that the scanner and antenna combination should do just as well 
with the railroad frequencies.

If you don't want to go with the AX-2 setup, then I wholeheartedly 
recommend the HR-1 antenna. It will collapse down to 8.5 inches in 
length. 

By attaching the HR-1 to the back of your base scanner with a right angle 
BNC adaptor, you will notice a vast improvement over the antenna that 
came with the set. 

I hope that this short article will help you get the most out of your 
scanner, and I welcome any and all comments.