[sci.electronics] Tunnel Radio

dya@unccvax.UUCP (York David Anthony @ WKTD, Wilmington, NC) (07/24/89)

	[The Lincoln Tunnel authorities can break into...]
> normal re-broadcast for emergency messages.  They do this, I believe, on
> every AM channel.

	Does anyone know exactly **how** they accomplish this? The
"every AM channel" system is used in Boston (in the sort-of-tunnel
under Copley, and in the Callahan and Sumner tunnels)....

	I suspect that it is spread spectrum (of sorts) which hits
(swept) from 530 to 1600 kHz every 100 uS or so.

York David Anthony
DataSpan, Inc

bobt@pogo.WV.TEK.COM (Bob Tidrick) (07/25/89)

If I remember correctly as it was explained to me some years ago, The
transmitters are mearly broadband amplifiers transmitting just what thay
receive in a given bandpass. The antena is a longwire matched to the
amplifier. I hope I am right about this it has been a number of years since
I was told this by one of the persons who built the system for our Vista
Ridge tunnel in Portland OR.
                                                Bob Tidrick
                                                GPID Engineering
                                                Tektronix Inc.
                                                Wilsonville OR.

die@cpoint.UUCP (David I. Emery) (07/26/89)

In article <1566@unccvax.UUCP> dya@unccvax.UUCP (York David Anthony @ WKTD, Wilmington, NC) writes:
>
>	[The Lincoln Tunnel authorities can break into...]
>> normal re-broadcast for emergency messages.  They do this, I believe, on
>> every AM channel.
>
>	Does anyone know exactly **how** they accomplish this? The
>"every AM channel" system is used in Boston (in the sort-of-tunnel
>under Copley, and in the Callahan and Sumner tunnels)....
>
>	I suspect that it is spread spectrum (of sorts) which hits
>(swept) from 530 to 1600 kHz every 100 uS or so.


	My understanding is that done with a comb generator driven by
10 khz which produces harmonics every 10 khz.  The relevent ones are
selected with a bandpass filter that passes the AM band and then modulated
with a balanced modulator carrying the AM audio.  This effectively AM
modulates every line in the comb.

	The signal is then amplified in a linear amplifier for distribution.



-- 
	David I. Emery   Clearpoint Research Corp. 
	35 Parkwood Dr, Hopkinton Ma. 01748  1-508-435-7462
	{decvax, cybvax0, mirror}!frog!cpoint!die 
	{m2c}!jjmhome!cpoint!die

ISW@cup.portal.com (Isaac S Wingfield) (07/27/89)

>       Does anyone know exactly **how** they accomplish this? The
>"every AM channel" system is used in Boston (in the sort-of-tunnel
>under Copley, and in the Callahan and Sumner tunnels)....               

Hmmm... I don't suppose it could be as simple as transmitting
on the receiver's intermediate frequency, could it?

Back when car radios used "FET's with wicks", just about all
of 'em had the same IF (I think it was 262.5 kHz). I don't
know if contemporary units are so standardized.

In any case, if there is only one frequency in use, sending
a signal on it should get through to everyone.

Isaac     isw@cup.portal.com