iPhone scanner apps

[Naismith]

Any recommendations for scanner apps for iPhone that receive the railroad radio frequencies?

 

[PerRock]

Railroadradio.com (or is it .net? .org?) iPhones don't have the radio pickups to actually recive the radio frequencies used by the Railroads (and Emergency Services for that matter). I'm unaware of any SmartPhone that has such capabilities. There are a few Android out there that can get AM&FM frequencies and you might be able to get others with them, however I haven't looked to much into those phones. There may, however I highly doubt it, be an app & add-on device for iOS that can receive such frequencies, but again I doubt it. If so it would be an App and a plug in (similar to the FM transistors).

Truthfully your best bet is to just pick up a radio and carry that around with you.

peter

 

[lthanlon]

I enjoy listening to railroad police frequencies using an iPhone app called Police Radio Scanner. The app pulls the transmissions from online feeds, so it isn't actually receiving the signals directly. The upside is that you can listen to a number of broadcasts worldwide. The downside is that you can't dial in a frequency yourself (or if you can, I haven't figured out how). From what I can tell, you only get the law-enforcement transmissions, not any train crew broadcasts.

There are many, many apps for iPhone that offer police and emergency radio streams. I've only used this one, so can't make any other comparisons.



BNSF by chi_cowboy, on Flickr

 

[the_traveler]

Ii have an iPhone and iPad app called "TuneIn Radio". It has live feeds from radio stations in the US and around the world - and there are a few rail transmissions also!

It is fun sitting in RI and listening to transmissions from the Vancouver (WA) rail yard!

 

[jis]

I use something called 5-0 Radio Pro on my iPhone, which has channel feeds from railroad, air traffic control, police and a whole host of others. It also provides links to many other feed web sites for you to pick from. I find it quite useful not only on trains but also at airports and almost anywhere where I want to do a little CB scanning, indirectly of course.

 

[the_traveler]

Another one that I just found is called "Scanner Radio Deluxe" that has many rail transmissions.

(Chose "railroad" under genre.)

 

[Peter KG6LSE]

there is such thing as a software defined radio .. SDR .. but it needs one heck of a DSP chip.. not a ARM CPU . ..

as far as radio .. If you are geeky enough .. make a skype account ,,

Use a normal radio.. set its jack to the input on your home PC and set skype to autoawnser .. call home and volla . home brew remote base..

Peter...

 

[FHesse]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[VentureForth]

Not an app, per se, but I like to go to radioreference.com. There are many rail stations available there. Downside is that you have to keep the window open. An advantage of these over a scanner is that the host typically has a strong base station feeding the feed. And they can scan all the local relevant frequencies.

 

[Cho Cho Charlie]

There is actually someone who "grabs" the radio chatter from each and every Amtrak train, and streams it over the 'net ???

I would think that this would be the only way for an iPhone (or Android for that matter) to be able to listen in on the crew on your train.

 

[TraneMan]

if a person does this, they better have Wifi or unlimited data!

 

[BuzzKillington]

Railroadradio.com absolutely does work for the iPhone. I listen to it all the time (yes, thanks for the unlimited data plan). It even works when AT&T slows down my speed every month for going over 3GB. According to a friend of mine, though, it does not work on the Android system.