FEC To Implement At Least Some Digital

[RadioDitch]

During a conversation about issues with DTMF switches, one of the FEC management mentioned in an online group this week that Florida East Coast will begin implementing NXDN in the next 4 to 8 weeks. He didn't expand as to whether it would be utilized only in the yards, or systemwide. I know they started issuing Icom F3261DT-RR portables a while back to replace their Motorolas. Funny because Icom actually produced (engraved/programmed) too many of them for FEC and has started to selling the excess to dealers as discounted B-stock.

If they do implement full digital, I believe they'll be the first carrier of significant size to do so on a road channel. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[RRR]

I believe they'll be the first carrier of significant size to do so on a road channel. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Columbus & Chattahoochee, Ga. Southwestern, and Ga. Central went to multi site Mototrbo IP site connect in about 2015.

It is not as widely used now as it once was, though.

 

[N9JIG]

Since they have more limited interchange with other railroads they can go digital more readily. They will have to maintain analog access for any connecting roads unless and until they too switch to NXDN.

That said, it would seem that isolated operations like yards would be more likely to switch to digital modes until interchange operations are sorted out.

Shortlines using DMR are pretty common since the radios are cheap (again, usually only for their isolated operations). They would need to retain analog for any interchange activity. If and when their interchange partners go NXDN those DMR radios would not work unless they are also NXDN capable.

 

[RadioDitch]

It's been confirmed they're going systemwide digital using mostly Icom gear. Testing at wayside has commenced. No reported frequency changes expected. Naturally analog access will be present for CSX and NS.

 

[iceman977th]

It's been confirmed they're going systemwide digital using mostly Icom gear. Testing at wayside has commenced. No reported frequency changes expected. Naturally analog access will be present for CSX and NS.

That won’t go well. They need to pick one or the other. Allowing analog and digital to coexist on the same frequencies will undoubtedly lead to issues or accidents.

 

[Bote]

I've noted at least one BrightLine locomotive that shows up on my SDR exactly 2.5KC low at 160.5275MHz, which I guess would be a splinter channel below 160.53MHz. Either that or the radio shop fat-fingered the channel assignment when programming them.

BUT! I read elsewhere that in "very narrow" mode like this they can squeeze them into the same channel allocation by dithering the frequency one side or the other; so analog would be tad low, NXDN would be a tad high. That sounds closer to magic or wishcasting than good engineering to me.

I'm just curious if they will fall back to analog to dial TouchTones into these remote control gates and switches back in Port Everglades or whether NXDN provides an equivalent code-forwarding data channel that reproduces clean tones directly out of the receiver?

 

[RadioDitch]

That won’t go well. They need to pick one or the other. Allowing analog and digital to coexist on the same frequencies will undoubtedly lead to issues or accidents.

You misinterpreted what I meant. What I meant was that they will maintain the ability to go to CSX and NS analog channels for obvious reasons.

 

[Bote]

Right. They interchange with CSX on the north side of the St. John's River drawbridge and farther north with NS, both of which use analog on their own separate channels. Although I have heard the CSX dispatcher acknowledgment tone on the FEC road channel in the past when I was traveling through Jax. I guess the CSX dispatcher would simply use that new digital base as if nothing is different.

 

[iceman977th]

Right. They interchange with CSX on the north side of the St. John's River drawbridge and farther north with NS, both of which use analog on their own separate channels. Although I have heard the CSX dispatcher acknowledgment tone on the FEC road channel in the past when I was traveling through Jax. I guess the CSX dispatcher would simply use that new digital base as if nothing is different.

Either they use the same system as CSX or that's a tone-in for one of the yardmasters, probably.

Mike

 

[RadioDitch]

Switch went into effect at 12:00pm EDT today. FEC has gone full digital. Specifically 6.25kHz NXDN. Same frequencies, just the 6.25kHz NXDN equivalent channels.

 

[RadioDitch]

@Bote If you can acquire the RAN being used, I'll submit an update. I'm expecting either 0 or 1.

 

[Bote]

It has been a chaotic day, but I *JUST* finished beating DSD+ into submission. It was decoding fine, but my extremely complex audio routing on my streaming computer had me fooled so I only now can pay attention to that stuff.

Aside from unit IDs I've only seen zeroes across the board. I read a blurb yesterday that railroads were basically told to keep it simple, stupid and use no RAN at all, which I guess means RAN=0.

A BrightLine train hit an SUV just after noon at Cypress Creek Road (a few miles away) which resulted in a ton of NXDN traffic, but that was before I was in position. Now that I'm ready they've gone silent. Figures.

 

[RadioDitch]

A BrightLine hit a train just after noon which resulted in a ton of NXDN traffic, but that was before I was in position. Now that I'm ready they've gone silent. Figures.

Brightline? Hit someone? Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever.

 

[Bote]

Here's the DSDPlus.radios file from limited transmissions:

; protocol, networkID, group, radio, priority, override, hits, timestamp, "radio alias" NEXEDGE, 0, 0, 21396, 50, Normal, 4, 2023/10/28 13:30, *"---" NEXEDGE, 0, 0, 32884, 50, Normal, 7, 2023/10/28 12:51, *"---" NEXEDGE, 0, 0, 40440, 50, Normal, 5, 2023/10/28 12:46, *"---" NEXEDGE, 0, 10007, 10319, 50, Normal, 10, 2023/10/28 13:00, *"---" NEXEDGE, 0, 10007, 56714, 50, Normal, 1, 2023/10/28 13:03, ""

 

[RadioDitch]

Update has been submitted. I submitted the correct channel names also in case the admins want to use those. Now I just gotta update all my delete the analog from all my FEC Zones. lol.

 

[RadioDitch]

Aside from unit IDs I've only seen zeroes across the board. I read a blurb yesterday that railroads were basically told to keep it simple, stupid and use no RAN at all, which I guess means RAN=0.

Some do. NS radios are programmed with RAN 1 on transmit. With NXDN, RAN 0 (00 actually in Decimal) is a "magic setting" as it will allow the radio to interact with any code.

 

[Bote]

I'm trying out Mixed-Digital because I did hear the dispatcher talking in analog on the Delray Beach base about...2 hours ago(?)
I wonder if they can simply select a different mode from the console or the shop has to drive to each base station to change the mode?

Apparently DSD+ does not pass through analog so on the good side that will block out the repetitive TouchTone commands to throw switches and activate grade crossings back in Port Everglades. They don't seem to understand that if it doesn't work the first time, holding the digits down for 2 seconds at a time only makes things worse. The phone phreak in me cringes at the incompetence.

Last time I checked one of them had an old Motrac bolted to the side of the bungalow connected to a remote panel, but that was quite a few years ago.

 

[RadioDitch]

I'm trying out Mixed-Digital because I did hear the dispatcher talking in analog on the Delray Beach base about...2 hours ago(?)
I wonder if they can simply select a different mode from the console or the shop has to drive to each base station to change the mode?

Shop probably didn't change the channel on the base radio. Dispatcher shouldn't have the ability to change modes. Only select the base, and which available channel to use.

 

[RadioDitch]

Hearing they're already back on Analog for the rest of the weekend cause something wasn't up to par. Guess C&S missed something.

 

[Bote]

Ahh, that explains why I just heard C Dispatcher in analog mode. ALL THIS WORK FOR NUTTIN!!11