Brightline Train

[TDR-94]

Brightline has proven itself to be a real killer so far! 99 deaths! That has to be a record. They will never reach their goal of removing 10% of drivers from Florida roads in order to be profitable.

Is the switchover to NXDN for the entire FEC railroad?

 

[Bote]

They will never reach their goal of removing 10% of drivers from Florida roads in order to be profitable.

They're removing 10% of the drivers by plowing into the vehicles stupidly stopped on the grade crossings. They'll meet their goal.

 

[TDR-94]

They're removing 10% of the drivers by plowing into the vehicles stupidly stopped on the grade crossings. They'll meet their goal.

For sure, but those aren't paying customers lol!

 

[wtp]

160.245
160.29
160.32
160.425
160.44
160.47
160.485
160.53
160.575
160.62
160.68
160.71
161.25
161.4
161.49
161.56
those are from the FCC geographical site

License Search - Geographic Search

i just clicked on Florida and then input the exact freq 160.71
then looked up the license and wrote down the numbers and put them here....

 

[batdude]

apparently yesterday at 1200 local time the FEC threw the NXDN switch.

please see:

Florida Railroads (Florida) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Florida Railroads (Florida)

www.radioreference.com

 

[W4KRR]

Would this be NXDN4800 or NXDN9600? I'm still hearing analog on their road channel this morning160.530.

 

[mikewazowski]

This post would suggest Very Narrow/NXDN4800/6.25kHz bandwidth.

FEC To Implement At Least Some Digital

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...

forums.radioreference.com

 

[W4KRR]

Yes, I should have read the other thread. Apparently they've temporarily gone back to analog due to programming issues. That explains why I heard the dispatcher yesterday telling a train "If you can hear me, give me a call on the cell phone".

 

[Bote]

They handed out Icom F3261 portables to employees and my understanding is that Icom does ONLY "very narrow" NXDN.

They ran into a snag yesterday after cutover, so they reverted to analog channels. That's easy for the units out on the line of road, but I don't know if the dispatcher has control over it remotely or whether the radio shop has to drive to each base station to switch it manually?

Anyway, nothing will happen any earlier than start of business tomorrow so keep your ears peeled.

 

[Bote]

My best guesses after finally reviewing the PDF frequency list posted by BatDude who started this thread:

AAR085 161.385 Orlando, WPB yard
This is very likely used by the BrightLine Mechanical department at their RRF (Running Repair Facility) at those two locations.

The following 2 are base station licenses, so maybe conventional repeater outputs?
AAR025 160.485 WPB station AAR040 160.71 Boca, Ojus, Orlando station, WPB yard & station, Miami station, FtL station
Each location is a BrightLine station with Boca Raton and Ojus/Aventura starting passenger service only recently. I'm not sure why they'd need repeaters there and, even if they are licensed for it, that doesn't mean they were built out. If a repeater, then 161.565MHz would be my choice for the input to get as much separation between input and output frequencies.

The rest of them look like they'd be used for onboard services or routine station administrative functions like housekeeping and security. I thought I read somebody saying they used MotoTRBO at the stations?

Anyway, I never paid attention to DMR/NXDN stuff so this is a learning experience for me. I tried to overthink getting DSD+ running yesterday, but it turned out to be working and I just needed to tweak audio output levels due to lack of experience with that program. Now we wait for something to decode...

 

[RadioDitch]

To expand: Apparently the problem they ran into yesterday was a RAN mismatch. They did not use a default RAN of 1 or 0 (with decimal RAN 00 or 0 being universal), and some radios were not properly programmed with the correct RAN. The result was an inability to communicate. They should be able to push an over the air update if enabled, not unlike what P25 is capable of. As to the dispatcher, they can select which channel to use from the available channels at the wayside bases. The wayside bases have both the analog and digital channels programmed in, so the dispatcher merely went from Channel 2D to Channel 2A to revert.

The rest of them look like they'd be used for onboard services or routine station administrative functions like housekeeping and security. I thought I read somebody saying they used MotoTRBO at the stations?

Brightline is using all NXDN.

That explains why I heard the dispatcher yesterday telling a train "If you can hear me, give me a call on the cell phone".

Which was part of the fun cause FRA Emergency Order No. 26 specifically prevents a crew from using a telephonic device without bringing the train to a complete stop and tying it down.

 

[Bote]

They should be able to push an over the air update if enabled, not unlike what P25 is capable of.

I didn't know NXDN stuff had this capability for fundamental programming data like RAN, but pushed from where? Dispatcher's base stations? That's the only infrastructure available to them, no? TNX!

 

[RadioDitch]

I didn't know NXDN stuff had this capability for fundamental programming data like RAN, but pushed from where? Dispatcher's base stations? That's the only infrastructure available to them, no? TNX?

The radio shop should be able to target each radio ID individually, or select all radio ID's, and push OTA programming from the correctly equipped radio/computer with the appropriate management software in the radio shop.

But again, only if they enabled those options.

 

[mikewazowski]

They handed out Icom F3261 portables to employees and my understanding is that Icom does ONLY "very narrow" NXDN.

Kenwood radios will do it as well.

 

[RadioDitch]

Kenwood radios will do it as well.

However, Kenwoods offer the option with NXDN of 12.5kHz or 6.25kHz. The Icoms do not, and will only offer 6.25kHz bandwidth NXDN.

 

[mikewazowski]

However, Kenwoods offer the option with NXDN of 12.5kHz or 6.25kHz. The Icoms do not, and will only offer 6.25kHz bandwidth NXDN.

ICOM radios will do Very Narrow 6.25kHz and Narrow 12.5kHz NXDN. I have a Icom F4300DT which allows both.

 

[RadioDitch]

ICOM radios will do Very Narrow 6.25kHz and Narrow 12.5kHz NXDN. I have a Icom F4300DT which allow both.

I'd love to know where that's available on the F3261DT-RR's...

 

[mikewazowski]

So yes, the F3261DT-RR's will not do Narrow only Very Narrow. The F3400DT's on the other hand, will.

 

[RadioDitch]

So yes, the F3261DT-RR's will not do Narrow only Very Narrow. The F3400DT's on the other hand, will.

And yet FEC just distributed hundreds of the F3261DT-RR's.

That restriction is actually one of the reasons pretty much all the railroads that had them have dumped Icom for Kenwood. The other being their range sucks. Hence why on the railroad ICOM stands for "I Can Only Monitor".

Upgrades to NX-5200's are happening now on the major carriers. Why FEC chose outdated Icoms is behind me. Especially when Grupo Mexico's carriers south of the border use Kenwoods instead of Icoms.

 

[Bote]

That restriction is actually one of the reasons pretty much all the railroads that had them have dumped Icom for Kenwood. The other being their range sucks. Hence why on the railroad ICOM stands for "I Can Only Monitor".

Why FEC chose outdated Icoms is behind me. Especially when Grupo Mexico's carriers south of the border use Kenwoods instead of Icoms.

NOW he tells me.

Yeah, this F3261 isn't exactly impressing me with its receive sensitivity. And the more I delved into it the older were the posts about this specific model, so I was as puzzled as you.

Do any of the Kenwood models have the equivalent of mixed mode where it will receive analog and digital on the same channel? TNX.