pierson@dec-kirk.UUCP (04/24/86)
A brief and (hopefully) useful discussion of RR Frequencies
These frequencies are authorized by the FCC, and are allocated
according to a set of rules. The source for frequency info
is the FCC office, in larger cities. You can just walk in with
paper and pencil and look through the uFiche. Its a public
document. (The Federal frequencies aren't listed...)
Railroads are coded LR, and run roughly from 160.5 MHz to
161.5 MHz, with channels every 15kHz. There is an additional
block of frequencies up in UHF around 470Mhz. Each RR can apply
for what it thinks it needs, and gets what is available.
Simple, right? WELLLlll...
Local Governments operate all the transit systems, so THOSE
frequencies are scattered fairly well.
Industrial (captive) RR are likely to be on the frequency the
parent uses, out of the I? pool.
Railroads are sometimes authorized Marine VHF frequencies, used
to be for car float operations, now mostly for Drawbridges.
Neither the government nor the industrial pools consist of nice,
neat chunks the way the RR (LR) pool does.
The FCC list can be purchased, and is sold in a variety of formats,
"scanner master" being one commercial one.
I havent touched on slave loco control or end-of-train monitors.
160.800 is a fairly common frequency for road channel use on
Conrail, 161.070 being one yard channel. Conrail has dozens of
frequencies, Amtrak some private ones, though 160.8 is good in
the corridor.
Query:
Does anybody know what frequency the end-of-train monitors use?
It may not be in the usual scanner range(s)...
Have a good day
dwp
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