There is a good book about the subject of railroad radio if you are interested. it tells you what you need to know and more. It is called “Railroad Radio - Hearing and Understanding Railroad Radio Communications and Systems,” by Vincent Reh. The book costs $19.95 + $3.50 for shipping, and it is published by Byron Hill Publishing Company, P.O. Box 197, Grand Isle, VT 05458.
I haven’t read the wholebook yet, but what I did read was informative.
If you’re like most people, you’ll end up finding the radio hobby a lot of fun all by itself. A lot of people start out just listening to RR stuff, but end up listening to a lot more.
Dave
-DPD Productions - Home of the TrainTenna RR Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/
I only Monitor the RR Band and nothing else! Anything else is just BORING news.
Now that I think about it…I just wi***hat there where Scanners for the Railroad Frequency Band “ONLY” with nothing else.
BNSFrailfan.
Forget about buying scanners from Radio Shack. I bought a 200 channel scanner from Radio Shack a couple years ago, and I found that it does not stand up to a lot of abuse. You only have to drop a Radio Shack just once on a hard surface, such as concrete, and you will begin having problems with reception. In addition to trains in my area, I also listen in on our local police department and my scanner from RS will often cut out, with several seconds of dead air…so that I often miss what the dispatchers are telling the officers over the air. If I ever get around to buying another scanner, it will most likely be a product of Uniden Bearcat.
That’s the beauty of today’s programmable scanners - you can go out and buy a 100 channel scanner, load it up with the AAR channels from 1 to 100 (or something like that) and away you go. Actually, since there are less than 100 AAR channels, you can always stick an EOT freq in there, too. A tuned antenna finishes the package.
If some of the chatter I’ve seen lately about the RR freqs is true, you might want to get a 200 channel radio, as they are talking about using narrow band VHF and doubling the channels within the existing space.
And - while I get tired of listening the cops go to yet another domestic disturbance, I still like to hear what the local fire folks are up to…
7.5 KHz spacing [:0]. Interesting. I havn’t heard that. Larry, where did you hear that ? If you don’t mind my asking.
I think it was here - it’s been a while. Narrowband is happening in the entire VHF-Hi arena, not just railroad radio. Any new VHF-Hi land mobile radio you purchase today will be narrowband capable.
It is in the FCC rules Part 90.
Thanks for the info guys.
If you’re looking for specific frequencies for Cajon Pass; 160.515 for UP for Las Vegas to Daggett and West Riverside to Santa Fe Avenue; BNSF - 160.950 from Barstow to Lynwood and 161.190 between Lynwood and San Bernardino. These are just the road frequencies.
With all of the NEW Digital crap that is going on now,I don’t monitor the EOT Channel that much anymore! I now use the NEW Digital EOT Frequency for approaching Trains!
It is “SO” much better with this Channel…452.9375MHZ.<–I love this Channel. You can hear them coming way before there almost on top of you! BNSFrailfan.
Yeah, they’ve been talking about it for a few years now… I have the frequency list on my site below. I don’t know when it will actually start getting used though.
Dave
-DPD Productions - Home of the TrainTenna RR Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/
You mean the UP Road Channel is (NOW) 160.740MHZ then what would this 7.5 be all about? I don’t understand. BNSFrailfan.
AAR assigned channels are now spaced 15KHz. they are going to be spaced 7.5 KHz apart.
Ex:
now:
160.320
.
160.335
.
160.350
comming soon:
160.320
160.327.5
160.335
160.342.5
160.350
You mean:
160.320
160.3275
There is no Point “.” between 75khz. At least on my Scanner.
Thanks for the help. I get it now.
But wouldn’t cause Sever interference between let say the BNSF Dispatcher is on Channel 87. 161.415 and the interference would occure on eather side of 161.415?
There would be sound on all Cannels that are so close to that Channel.
BNSFrailfan.
Yes that is true, if you have adjacent channels in the same location.
In reality that shouldn’t happen.
TV and FM radio are the same way. Thats why when you have citys relativly close one will use channels 2,4,5,7,9,11,13 and the other will use 3,6,8,10,12 (there is a space between 4 & 5 so that don’t count).
When your half way in between, the signals are lower and more equall in level so adjacent channel rejection is not really a problem.
Does that explain it?
So when the NEW Frequency’s do start,Will the old ones still be use? Such as 160.740MHZ? BNSFrailfan.
Sorry for being such a pest:(.
I would imagine so. The new freqs. would be used for expansion, to ease congestion on existings channels.
Thank you for the help.
Yes, the whole point is to double capacity. This is the same thing they did on the Euro air band, and will probably do it on our air band as well. They’ve done this on most bands throughout the history of radio, as time and equipment ability progresses.
Dave
-DPD Productions - Home of the TrainTenna RR Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/