Gentlemen, I was not proposing this as a do-it-yourself proposition, rather one that would take significant R&D, but seems to me to be technically feasible. I agree with Don that two decoders would be hard to sync. And I do not know if current sound decoders transmit low frequency sound waves,
What I would be proposing is a system in which the decoder was engineered with the sounds stored within the decoder along with a signal transmitter that used the rails to transmit the signal to the receiver /amp. It would have to have the signal programmable so that two locos would not compete.
I’m suggesting a complete redesign of current technology.
seems to me that if we model in HO, which if 1:87 scale, the sound should be equivalent… in other words, louder is NOT better, nor would it be more realistic. If the size of the model is 1/87th of reality, shouldn’t the sound be 1/87th of real volume, too? I usually turn down the volume to allow the sound to be part of the total process. Do we operate our model empires for the sound, or do we have sound to add to the operating realism? Just a thought…
Dave
Yes, exactly along the lines of what I was saying earlier . And even if they were in the sound files the “sound procesors” on the decoders aren’t designed to produce them to the output.
Below is the exact e-mail reply I got from one of the vendors (name withheld since people might decide they are garbage based on this which isn’t true. This is not a bottom of the line cheepo unit either. I doubt ANY of the current systems are any better. )
This particular unit cannot even produce a frequency low enough for a sub-woofer to recognize. The sub-woofer would be worthless in this case.