Railroads and tone squelch

Status
Not open for further replies.

vocoder

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2017
Messages
659
Location
Indiana
I often wonder why the AAR never set up a universal tone coded squelch system for the AAR channels?
Just like law enforcement and fire use for their mutual aid channels
I figure they could use some kind of coding, even though they would still need multiple frequencies specific to yard, mechanical, road
i know a few rairoads do use it here, but it is very limited. Simplex mode

Each AAR channel has a code paired with it or one code fits all, would be a few examples

73, john
 
Last edited:

wrr20891

Member
Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
114
Just a wild guess,but back in the day of old radios, it cost extra to have tone squelch added to a radio, and potentially increased the maintenance requirements for the equipment. More things in the radio, more things to go wrong. Once programmable radios came on the scene, you'd still have an issue with radios that were equipped and those that were not being in service.

Probably didn't think there was a need, worked fine the way it was.
 
Last edited:

scan-pa

RRDB Admin
Database Admin
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
1,001
Location
Lebanon, Pa.
It is do to openness on each frequency, requirements that they be csq, to prevent train mishaps.. only using repeaters for plants, power, shop and non train traffic, and train police ect. Are allowed to use squelch tones.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 

scan-pa

RRDB Admin
Database Admin
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
1,001
Location
Lebanon, Pa.
Back in the good old days, there were way too many different railway companies and heavy use, and with so many frequencies, it would be a nightmare to have a complete set to programmed radios with tones. It was hard enough for the engineers to select the proper tx and rx channels. 4 dials, 2 to set tx, 2 to set rx.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 

INDY72

Monitoring since 1982, using radios since 1991.
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
14,636
Location
Indianapolis, IN
No problems,... Its all going to tones soon as they go full NXDN... Then you have to find each RRs main ops RAN.... Road and Dispatch, MOW, etc.... Or have the AAR finally had that martini party to discuss the use of universal RAN on certain freqs and make sure no single RR has its own set? A nice set of Nationwide Common Use NXDNs,.. Some Regional... And then etc, ad nauseum?
 

scan-pa

RRDB Admin
Database Admin
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
1,001
Location
Lebanon, Pa.
Ran of 0 would work. That's ran tone free. Open tone, csq.... lol

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 

DJ11DLN

Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
2,068
Location
Mudhole, IN
No problems,... Its all going to tones soon as they go full NXDN... Then you have to find each RRs main ops RAN.... Road and Dispatch, MOW, etc.... Or have the AAR finally had that martini party to discuss the use of universal RAN on certain freqs and make sure no single RR has its own set? A nice set of Nationwide Common Use NXDNs,.. Some Regional... And then etc, ad nauseum?

By which point our grandkids will have grandkids of their own.:lol::lol::lol:
 

timkilbride

Member
Database Admin
Joined
Feb 9, 2006
Messages
1,882
Location
Linn Co Iowa
It is do to openness on each frequency, requirements that they be csq, to prevent train mishaps.. only using repeaters for plants, power, shop and non train traffic, and train police ect. Are allowed to use squelch tones.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

We have a railroad local to me that runs TX/RX PL on all of their analog channels. Its a PITA trying to communicate with them. We have their "main" channel in our locomotives and portables. When we get a foreign engine it gets complex.

Tim
 

cmdrwill

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
3,984
Location
So Cali
We have a railroad local to me that runs TX/RX PL on all of their analog channels. Its a PITA trying to communicate with them. We have their "main" channel in our locomotives and portables. When we get a foreign engine it gets complex.

Tim

Exactly why railroads did not have 'tone', and was not in the RR band/frequency plans.
 

radioman2001

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2008
Messages
2,974
Location
New York North Carolina and all points in between
This was brought up at the AAR around the time of narrow banding. It would have been a perfect time to do so with all the reprogramming. Most RR's could care less, but in the larger cities its a must due to all the electronics that cause interference. I suggested a tone frequency with a DTMF workaround, it didn't go anywhere sine Amtrak wouldn't do it on the N.E corridor through our territory, as it was it took nearly 5 years to add a channel with them when we split operations between NYC and N. Haven.
 

PJH

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 23, 2002
Messages
3,620
This comes up every so often.

The key is INTERCHAGE.

Simplex, CSQ on a standard band plan works great.

In most locations, this is not a problem. There are more electronics, rough unfiltered electrical and all sorts of other stuff going on in the locomotive that if it was a huge problem, it would have already been addressed.

For the most part, large railroads are using Sti-Co /KR Electronics filters between all the RF devices, and its works well.

Anyone that needs to interchange with anyone needs radio(s) to communicate on the ground and in the cab.

At standard interchages per AAR rule, this must happen, unless both railroads use an agreeable alternate means (second radio installed in the cab, such as DMR, UHF, whatever the case may be).

Shortlines that I know of that use other than standard AAR for day to day still maintain and use standard AAR channels when they are required to go to another railroads yard, get authority on another RR, etc etc.

Adding PL, DPL etc over complicates railroad radio for the last 40 years.

NXDN isn't coming on a wide area scale anytime soon. See previous discusssions for more on that
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top