by Doc Otter and Gary L. Sturm
Introduction
Relm is a new name in the scanner business these days. Their first entry into the scanner market brings welcome competition to Radio Shack and Uniden Bearcat. While the Relm name is new, the company is the same who built the Regency HX-1000, 1200, and 1500 scanners. The HX-1000 was the preferred scanner of railfans a decade ago.
Relm's first scanners are the HS-100 and HS-200 handhelds. Mobile models with similar features are scheduled to be released this year. Upon reading good reviews and comments about the 200-channel HS-200, we decided to try the "little brother" HS-100 model, which seemed better suited to our needs as railfans.
We have been using the HS-100 for several months now in both cities and trackside locations. Our comparisons are the Regency HX-1000, Regency HX 1500, and Radio Shack Pro-51 scanners. We have used these for many years.
The Relm HS-100, with 100-programmable channels, covers the VHF-low, VHF-air, VHF-high, and UHF bands. It has a full feature set similar to current intermediate-priced Radio Shack and Uniden Bearcat scanners. Features include fast scan speed (up to 100 channels per second), 10 banks of 10 channels each, a priority function, limit search, selectable delay, and weather search. The unit comes supplied with a "rubber duck" antenna, an AC adapter/charger, a belt clip, an earphone, and a wrist strap. The battery compartment holds four "AA" batteries.
The new Relm unit measures about 6 inches high, 2.5 inches wide, and 1.5 inches deep. It is much smaller and lighter than the Regency HX-1000/1500 "bricks." It is bigger than the Radio Shack Pro-51. The unit is constructed of a plastic case similar to most Radio Shack and Uniden Bearcat models. It does not have a heavy-duty metal frame like the Regency HX-1000/1500. The entire radio circuitry is contained in a sheet metal case to eliminate outside electrical interference. This metal package lies within the outer plastic case. All electrical connections are through this metal shielding.
The front of the unit is laid out with the LCD display at the top, the keypad just beneath the display, and the speaker below that. The display shows channel number, frequency, status of various functions, and includes a signal strength indicator, which is a first for this type of scanner. The display numbers are reasonably large, but some of the indicators and bank numbers are very small. The display is hard to read at some angles; same problem as with the Radio Shack Pro-51. The display is lit by pushing the 'Lamp' button. The keypad is also lit which is a convenient feature for night operation and another first for handheld scanners in this price range.
The top panel has the standard BNC antenna connector, a concentric squelch and on/off volume control, and a channel selection knob. The right side panel has an earphone jack, barrel connector jack for external power and battery charging, and a place to attach a wrist strap. The carry strap attachment and wrist strap supplied appear poorly designed.
The Relm comes with a sturdy metal belt clip, which is stronger than the plastic belt clips on most scanners today. At the time of this writing, there is no custom case available for this scanner yet, although the small Radio Shack universal case fits. A minor problem is that the speaker holes are on the top of the Radio Shack case, and do not line up with the speaker on the scanner. Likewise, the earphone/external speaker jack on the Relm is on the side of the unit, so you may wish to make a hole in the case to make connections.
The HS-100 runs on four "AA" batteries which may be alkalines, rechargable NiCads, or rechargable Nickel Metal Hydrids. The "wall wart" charger supplied with the unit can be used to run the scanner, or charge nicad or NiMH batteries from 110 Volt AC power. This AC adapter must not be used when alkaline batteries are installed in the radio. There is no provision to prevent charging the alkaline batteries installed. You will need to remove the battery cartridge while using alkalines. Otherwise, you risk exploding the batteries and ruining the radio. NiCads, or Nickel Metal Hydrids may be charged within the scanner with no problem. Most Radio Shack scanners allow for external power even with alkalines installed. This may be an inconvenience.
Battery life should be about the same as with many comparable scanners. Current drain is about 65-to-70 milliamperes, which is about the same as the Pro-51. Standard NiCads batteries will power this radio for seven-to-eight hours. We use Radio Shack high-capacity NiCads which provide up to 12 hours of use, for a full day of railfanning. An 1100 milliampere-hour nickel metal hydrid will even power the scanner for longer periods.
One interesting feature on this new Relm unit is a battery save function, which is automatically activated when the scanner is in manual mode. The radio checks for a signal approximately every half second, and powers down between checks. This should extend battery life in cases when you only want to monitor a single channel, such as when riding Amtrak. This feature is similar to the battery save function on some of the Radio Shack scanners.
The hallmark of the Regency HX-1000, 1200, and 1500 scanners was their signal reception, which included high sensitivity, tight selectivity, and fairly good interference rejection. How does the Relm compare? Let's take a look.
The sensitivity of a scanner is its ability to receive weak signals. Good sensitivity is very important for monitoring the railroads. By their nature, railroads cover long distances, rather than local areas with most railroad transmissions in simplex mode and not repeated by a high power transmitter. So, the better the sensitivity of your receiver, the better the coverage. Some railfans buy very high quality scanners with greater sensitivity. The Relm HS-100 is much more sensitive on the 160-161 MHz railroad band than any Radio Shack or Uniden Bearcat scanner we have compared. It seems to have about the same sensitivity as commercial radio equipment, just like the railroads use. It is almost as sensitive as the Regency HX1000/1500's. The Relm is probably the most sensitive handheld scanner on the market today for the railroad band. Part of the excellent sensitivity is due to the antenna that is supplied with the unit. It performs much better on the railroad band than most other scanner antennas. There's no need to buy a special railroad band rubber duck antenna for this radio.
The selectivity of a scanner is its ability to reject a signal on a nearby channel. This is sometimes referred to as adjacent channel rejection. The selectivity of the Relm seems slightly worse than that of the Radio Shack Pro-51, and noticeably worse than that of the Regency HX-1000/1500. Strong signals sometimes bleed through and stop the scanner one channel (15 kHz) away from the actual frequency. The manufacturer specifies -50 dB selectivity, but doesn't specify a channel spacing. It is probably about 20 to 25 kHz, which is too wide for the 15 kHz railroad band channel spacing.
Much interference heard on a scanner is due to intermodulation distortion, better known as "intermod." This is caused by overload of the scanner circuitry by two or more powerful signals. Paging transmitters are a common source of intermod problems. The intermod rejection of the Relm is not much different from most other scanners. They all have problems. The Relm suffers roughly the same amount of intermod problems as the Pro-51 and HX-1000/1500's.
Another kind of interference often heard on scanners is image reception. This is particularly common on the low-end and intermediate-range double-conversion scanners most railfans use. Every Uniden-built scanner we have used has received images of police transmissions in the railroad band. The new Relm HS-100 does not have this problem, due to the use of a high first intermediate frequency.
The Relm HS-100 has a problem we have only run into with high quality base scanners, like the AOR AR-2515. That is its ability to desensitize under strong signals. In some large cities, the Relm becomes ‘deaf' in the presence of several strong signals. Putting a less receptive antenna on the HS-100 can actually help in cases where this happens. The signal strength meter provides an indication that this is happening. When the signal strength indicator shows several digital bars while no signal is being received, the scanner is hearing lots of high energy background signals. Even signals that are strong enough to be heard through the background, come in as garbled rather than clear. We've found that using the Pro-51 antenna on the Relm can improve things somewhat in cases where this happens. This problem only appears to occur when close to high-power broadcast transmitters, not out in the country.
One of the biggest complaints about the Regency HX 1500 was the presence of "birdies", or internally generated false signals. The only "birdie" we have found so far on the Relm is 159.810, which is used by some Canadian railroads. This birdie is not picked up when the rubber duck antenna is removed, so it might not be a problem if the radio is used in a car with an external antenna.
The audio from the Relm is reasonably crisp, clear, and loud. It is about as good as you will find in any handheld scanner on the market today. The earphone jack is the proper size to accept a Radio Shack external speaker. The squelch action is also very good, without an annoying static burst or tail at the end of transmissions.
There is a slight hiss when the scanner is not receiving a signal. The hiss can barely be heard under normal operation, but can be annoying when using an earphone. It's not as loud as the hiss from the Regency HX 1000.
The previous Regency radios were not as easy to program and operate. The frequency entry and limit search on this new Relm are very similar to that on the older Regency models. But the channel lockout and bank control features operate like a Uniden Bearcat scanner. Overall, this radio is much easier to use and program than a previous model Regency, but not quite as quick to program as some of the Radio Shack and Uniden Bearcat models. It is an improvement and can be used in the field without too much difficulty.
One feature on this scanner that is not found on comparable scanners of other brands is a channel selector knob. This allows the user to step through the channels using the knob rather than constantly pushing the 'Manual' button. We have found this useful. Turning the channel selector knob also puts the scanner into manual mode -- a feature I could live without. It is annoying if you bump the channel selector when the keypad is locked. In order to resume scanning, you must first unlock the keypad (hold the 'Keylock' button down for three seconds), press 'Scan,' and then relock the keypad. Some commercial radios with channel selector knobs will automatically resume scanning a few seconds after an incoming signal stops.
We both programmed our HS-100 by AAR channel number in channels 07 through 97. Channel 98 contains 161.610, the former Rock Island channel which is still in limited use. Channels 99 and 100 contain 452.900 and 457.900, the two UHF railroad-only voice frequencies. We program channels one through six as needed with frequencies for industrial rail operations, Canadian railroads, and FREDs. We normally leave all banks active, and scan all the railroad channels. With the fast scan speed, we don't miss much. The bank programming is of limited use when programmed this way.
The signal strength meter consists of a series of five LED bars at the bottom of the display. More bars are displayed with a stronger incoming signal. This is convenient to obtain an indication of the distance to the transmitter. Signal strength meters have been standard equipment on CB and ham radios for years. It's about time they showed up on scanners.
As with the Regency HX 1500, the scan delay is an all-or-none function on the Relm. A delay only on certain channels, and not on others, cannot be set as with the Radio Shack Pro-51. What we would really like to see is a three-way delay function: all, selected, or none. In some cases, it is beneficial to be able to set, or defeat, the delay on all channels with one keystroke. In other cases, it is nice to select, or defeat, delays on a channel-by-channel basis. Three-way delay would provide the best of both worlds.
Concentric knobs are not a favorite of ours so we are not thrilled with the squelch and volume controls on this radio. We'd rather have a keypad programmable squelch -- just set it and forget it.
The keypad lamp stays on for only three seconds, unless other keys are pushed. It doesn't stay on if you are using the channel selector knob. And there is no provision to leave it on for long periods of time, which might be helpful if you used the radio in a mobile installation.
The Relm HS-100 is currently listed in the Scanner World catalog for $142.99 plus $8.00 shipping and handling. It may be available from other sources for a similar price. At that price, the HS-100 is a great scanner for the money. If you need 200 channels, the Relm HS-200 is a very similar unit, priced at $239.99 plus shipping and handling. The HS-200 includes 800 MHz band coverage and coded squelch functions, all of which are generally useless for railroad band monitoring. Those extra features are why the price of the HS-200 is almost $100 higher.
The Relm HS-100 is a very good choice for a railroad band scanner these days. Its excellent sensitivity combined with fast scan speed and 100 memory channels make it excellent for railfan use. Rejection of adjacent channel interference is no worse than other similarly priced scanners. It introduces several handy features which are long overdue in intermediate price range scanners.
It is probably the best handheld scanner on the market today for listening to railroads. We wouldn't be surprised if it became the new railfan standard, following the tradition of the bygone Regency HX line.