I’m fielding this question primarily to the European forum members, but if anybody Stateside knows the answer, please feel free to put in your 2 cents’ worth. I enjoy listening to railroad radio transmissions between dispatchers and train crews on the internet, but my railfanning would be greatly enhanced if I could listen in on Germany’s DB transmissions. I tried contacting the DB about this, and was told that “civilian monitoring” of railroad radio frequencies is prohibited due to security concerns.
That sounds pretty bogus to me. Is this really true? If not, where can I purchase a scanner that will pick up on the DB’s frequencies?
I would strongly advise that you contact the nearest German consulate and ask about bringing a scanner. Don’t think for one moment that what is legal in the US will be legal abroad. Even in Minnesota a permit is REQUIRED to carry a scanner in your car. Europe takes security very seriously. Always carry your passport when watching trains. Americans generally stick out like sore thumbs too. Germany is a great place for riding and watching trains and since re-unification even better. It is not worth getting into a problem with customs or the cops because of a scanner.
According to the websites I found, Deutsche Bahn is converting to a single digital system that carries voice, data, and signal information. My guess is that it is a proprietary system that scanners can’t decode, yet.
Lee: In Europe trains operate frequently so do you really need a scanner?
To all:The last I heard Canada does not restrict the mobile (in-car) or the portable (listening on public property) uses of scanners. I have listned to scanners in cars in Canada several times without any problems.
Hmmm… I guess I’ll just have to be content with listening in on North American railroading. I also heard about the transition to a standardized European digital transmissions system that the UIC has agreed upon. Once again, German railroads are the frontrunners in switching to the new system.
I just don’t see what harm could be done in listening in on them. I could understand the reluctance on the part of the DB if, for example, I were using a device for transmission, as that could surely mess things up. On occasion I have heard some joker interfering with NS radio communications around Harrisburg, PA.
Sure, there are plenty of trains passing by, so you don’t need the scanner to find them. I just like listening. We once flew United Airlines from the US to Germany, and one of the channels of the in-flight entertainment was a live broadcast of cockpit communications. It was really cool hearing the air-traffic controller giving the pilot instructions to adjust course, and then feel the plane fly through a curve. I even convinced the stewardess to let me keep my earphones (back when they were complimentary) through landing and taxiing, which was a real eye-opener on how complex a routine landing can be.
It’s sort of similar with railroad transmissions, even though most trains in Germany are scheduled.
In the Netherlands the railroads switched to GSM-R on 1-1-2007, replacing Telerail, a radio system.
On platforms you can still here radio communications between conductors, switching locomotive engineers and service people (the people that seem to come from nowhere when there is a disruption of traffic and give you info on alternative routes) and the station dispatchers. This is short range stuff however. In Germany they call this Rangierfunk.
Unless you speak German you probably can’t tell what they’re on about.[8D]
But indeed, you don’t really need a scanner to sniff out traffic: even freight trains move to a certain schedule. If you are interested in Dutch freight traffic, there’s a really good and up-to-date site that publishes 'timetables" for freights of all kinds of different carriers. Really a must-have when trying to railfan freight in the Netherlands.
As for it being illegal to listen in on radio transmissions: I’m not a legal expert, but as far as I know the rule is if it’s floating in mid-air, it’s up for grabs. If they don’t want you to listen in, they’d have to encode / encrypt it or something like that. Now, broadcasting is a whole different field… That IS illegal without permission.
And although I’ve never been asked to show my ID (which you are legally obliged to carry with you at all times - but I never have it on me) as long as I can remember, if you’re a foreigner in a country, always have your ID with you. Don’t for a second take the chance, because if you run into the wrong police officer they’ll make your supposed-to-be-fun holiday into a let’s-never-go-back-there-again experience. [V]
Lee: There is a web site www.police-scanner.info which has informtion on the restrictions on the use of scanners in the US and foreign countries. It is up-to-date on the restrictions on scanners in the US, but I am not too sure how up-to-date it is on the restrictions on the use of scanners in Europe.
Thanks, Marc and Rudy, for the links. I’ll have to check my local electronics store about purchasing a scanner. I think the DB told me that the new digital communications could not be listened to, but they made no reference to “Rangierfunk”, or yard communications. I’ll have to enquire about legally scanning those transmissions before I invest in a scanner, though.
By the way, I live in Germany and am pretty fluent in the language, so understanding transmissions should not be too difficult.