White River,

I have the BC436HP (Home Patrol 2) Scanner. I will admit right off the top, I am not a Ham operator, and there are a lot of capabilities that it has, that are way over my head. Yes, Its pricey, but it does good. I have used it just with the pre programmed channels, as it pulls its database off the radioreference.com site. There is the capability with it that you can enter in a ZIP code, and set a range, and it will look for all transmissions in that area. You can set it to look for everything, or for specific items (specific such as police, fire, emt, military, railroad, etc). You can also purchase the available GPS unit that is designed for it, and it will automatically update your location, and scan accordingly.

I did find it took a while to figure out, and the owners manual is certainly not user friendly, at least to someone who bit off a large chunk of radio tech. What really helped was another website I stumbled across. [new.marksscanners.com] That site helped explain and walk me though things that I was otherwise getting very frustrated wtih. Once I started getting it figured out, I opted to program my own frequencies in. Living in Nebraska, I programmed it, by the computer into system ( UP, BNSF) and then by each system, the Division or area, then by subdivision. This can all be done by specific folders. It was tested on a road trip 2 weeks ago following hwy 30 from Omaha to Cheyenne, and navigating the folders as I had set them up went fairly easy.

Its more than the average railfan needs, but it sure is nice.