Scanners . . .
Yes, I believe all of my scanners do have that feature (i.e., search for active frequencies within a range), but I've never used it. But come to think of it, the branch lines probably have so little activity, there's probably not a lot of transmission going on. As an aside, even though a lot of police agencies converted to APCO25 Phase I years ago (and now Phase II), most agencies still simulcast on analog frequencies. I still get all LAPD frequencies, plus all our local agencies on my old Radio Shack analog scanners (which still work great!).
I have a mobile GPS antenna for my newest Uniden mobile scanner (below) which will automatically load local frequencies, if traveling cross-country, for example. For APCO25 Phase I reception, the Uniden Home Patrol 1 is a great buy right now at only $250, and comes already pre-programmed for all major US cities (no subscription required). The new Home Patrol 2 is all-black, and is Phase II-compatible, but costs almost twice as much at $458. I bought the windshield-mount for mine, and use it as a mobile scanner, but it also comes with a stand so you can use it as a desktop scanner. The cool thing about the Home Patrol scanners is that they have a built-in digital recorder.
Uniden Home Patrol 1 APCO25 Phase I digital scanner.
Scanners are an odd product category. The price of my little handheld Uniden BCD396XT APCO25 Phase I scanner (below) dropped like a rock from over $600 when first released to under $200 after the Phase II version hit the market (I bought mine for $239 a couple years ago). It then skyrocketed last year after it was discontinued because everyone preferred its small form-factor over its much larger Phase II-capable successor. Used BCD396XTs currently sell for over $400 on Amazon, when just two years ago, they were selling for only $198 for brand-new units.
But I just love this scanner! It's a bit more old-school, and unlike the Home Patrol, you have to plug it into your USB port using a DB-9 conversion cable to download frequency databases. A modest, one-time subscription fee to radioreference.com and some PC-only freeware is required. I bought a refurbished ThinkPad laptop with a 256GB SSD for super-cheap, just to program this scanner.
The Uniden BCD396XT is really small and compact and a lot of fun to use. You can also change the color of the backlight, too (I have mine set to green). It comes with a sturdy belt-clip and rechargeable 'AA' batteries. In a pinch you can use standard alkalines. Though it has a built-in speaker, I use a coiled earpiece which plugs into its 1/8" mono-headphone output jack when listening in noisy environments.
Uniden BCD396XT APCO25 Phase I handheld digital scanner.
If anyone's interested in railfanning via real-time radio monitoring, any cheap Radio Shack analog scanner should do the trick (assuming you're within range of a repeater), since I'm guessing that most railroads haven't switched to digital radios. I get amazing reception on my scanners with just the built-in antennas, but perhaps Los Angeles-area police agencies have repeaters, like, everywhere. I was once listening to a 211-in-progress at a 7-11 about 50 miles away in Orange County, clear as a bell, on one of my old analog Radio Shack scanners.
Just check the frequency-range on the scanner's specs and see if they fall within your railroad's frequencies. Class 1 railroad frequencies can be found at radioreference.com (their published listings are free, it's their downloadable frequency databases which require a subscription). For me, the most exciting monitoring is when you hear an out-of-breath LAPD police officer running after a suspect, who's also talking to the helicopter above, as well as the dispatcher, and other officers.
