-> One thing that you could do is to have a technician with a "service
-> monitor" (essentially a high stability RF oscillator and receiver
-> with metering and other stuff) to selectively tune the RF stage for
-> the VHF high band to the railroad segment that you want to listen to.
-> This will mean that you won't be able to easily hear anything out of
-> the rilroad segment - 160 to 162 or
  Well, the problem is not life-threatening. The scanner in question is a 
PRO-67, a typical Radio Shack/Uniden triple conversion, 200-channel, 
30-1000MHz (with a few gaps), no cell phones affair. Everybody's consensus is 
that I'll never be able to get rid of the pagers, as the signal is simply too 
overpowering, without spending a huge sum. OK, I can live with that.  As long 
as the pagers pop up every now and then, rather than taking over all the 
frequencies, I can handle it.
 As it turns out, the local constabulary's radio traffic is much more 
interesting than the trains, and (much to my surprise) I listen to the police 
more than I thought I would. My town, Alexandria VA, used to be a big RR 
town, but that's largely a thing of the past. Still plenty of trains, but 
they don't generate the radio talk they once did.
  Thanks to everyone. I think I'll hang on to the scanner.
 Blair
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