Aside from a good antenna for the 160 band, the radio must have a good sensitivity to it which is why most railfans look into buying those HT's from the likes of Yaesu and others. Compare the sensitivity range of the scanner and then look at a HT or a mobile ham radio's sensitivity range and with Yaesu's radios, the lower range just means better reception. There are some scanners having equal sensitivity just like the ham radios. For my listening pleasure, my Larsen 150 model which was cut to the 2 meter band works just fine in the same respect as does my other antenna I bought from Railcom.net for which I cut it to 42" which is smack dab in the middle of the RR band.

Both perform very well with my Yaesu mobile radios giving me what I seek while out & about!