I’ve been hosting the “Southeastern New England Railroads” feed on Broadcastify for a few years now. This is an audio feed coming from my scanner where you can hear the railroad two-way radio communications near my home in Attleboro, Massachusetts. Listeners will hear activity along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor from the Rhode Island/Connecticut state line into Boston, Massachusetts. Also heard on the feed is action along CSX and Providence & Worcester railroad lines near my home.
I’ve been dealing with birdies on the Amtrak Road frequency 160.9200MHz. No, I’m not hearing birds chirping over the radio. A birdie is a phantom signal that often sounds like “dead air’ with a humming sound. This is a form of interference. When this happens it can be very annoying and will stop the scanner from scanning the other channels. I’ve tried a few things to see if I could get rid of this interference. I’ve found the “Jim M75 Pre-Amplifier” stopped the annoying bridies along with improving the reception on weak and distant signals.
Setup was pretty simple. I’m using a Uniden Bearcat BCT15X so I disconnected the coax leading up to my antenna then connect the Jim M75 to the female BNC antenna connection on the back of my scanner. Then I reconnect my antenna coax to the female BNC connector on the Jim M75. The Jim M75 can be powered by an internal 9-volt battery. Since this feed is on 24/7 I’ve opted to use the optional AC power adapter to avoid replacing batteries all the time.
My BCT15X is only scanning the railroad frequencies 160 – 161 MHz so I set the Jim M75 to set the “B” setting covering the frequency range 108 -185 MHz for optimum performance on this band. Next, I adjust the gain. The best way to doing this is by using one of the NOAA Weather Radio channels since they broadcast on 162 MHz. Normally a scanner can pick up a few local broadcasts on their seven dedicated frequencies. I set my scanner to the weakest broadcast and slowly adjust the gain knob on the Jim M75 until the signal and audio improves. After doing this no more birdies and better reception a total win-win!
