Hello everyone:
I’m creating this discussion forum because I wanted some input on a big dilemma I’m faced with in terms of railroad receiving. I’m sorry this is so long but I wanted to tell you the history of everything I’ve tried so maybe you can help me come up with some new idea.
I currently live near Norcross, GA about half a mile from the Norfolk Southern Greenville District. I have a recording system set up in the house with a Uniden BC355N scanner to monitor the train crews movements via a recording system. For this set up I simply use an auxiliary cord to join the external output slot of the scanner to the microphone port of a computer while using the basic default telescoping stock antenna that arrived with the BC355N. With this set up, I can receive the traffic calling signals as far south as Ray and sometimes as far north as Duluth. The system records the daily traffic of the crews and dispatcher so I can then check through the transmissions with a notepad the recording creates to determine the overnight cycle of trains that may have already passed or have yet to pass.
So, my dilemma I’m currently having is with a second similar set up hooked up to another computer. Since I live near Norcross, I’m also 8 miles from the CSX Abbeville Subdivision near Lilburn, GA. I’ve heard the dispatcher sometimes from the BC355N with the stock antenna but no detectors or crews. I did some research about stronger railroad receiving antennas (since the ATCS antenna we currently use on the top of the house, the Comet KP-20, can easily hear CP Goodwin chirps about 7.3 miles away). From the research, it seemed that most results narrowed down to the most trusted and most widely spoken of antenna for receiving train crews with a distance of at least 20 miles away (or more), the Outdoor Vertical TrainTenna from DPP Productions. So that was my first choice I went with to receive the crews and the defect detector 8 miles from our house (SG 552.4). Once the antenna was connected with the N Male and BNC Male 50 ft. coaxial cable (MPD-400 super flex) to the Uniden BC355N scanner, I was immediately hearing the yard in Atlanta—25 miles away, the crews around Tucker (10 miles), Brickyard (Intermediate signal near Harmony Grove Road) (8-9 miles), Lilburn (7 miles), the defect detector at the SG 552.4 (8 miles), and occasionally South Gloster (9 miles). I was very impressed with this set up receiving this much traffic and couldn’t wait to see what a second TrainTenna could receive just for Norfolk Southern.
This testing only lasted a short time, however, because from the time I hooked it all up on December 24th, of 2020 I was only able to continue hearing the transmissions made until January 12th, of 2021. I was now suddenly no longer hearing the crews call out anymore nor was I hearing the defect detector. I simply heard what the BC355N originally received which was the Abbeville Dispatcher. Even the recording system use to have about 30 minutes to an hour of feed recorded each day with the previous working set up. Now it’s only 3 minutes of the dispatcher per day.
I began to test around and see if possibly the attic was interfering with the signal. I took the coaxial cable and the TrainTenna up to the roof and tied it around the chimney temporarily to see if that might bring the receiving range back. Unfortunately, this had no effect and I was still hearing just the dispatcher. So next I began thinking maybe the antenna was malfunctioning.
I contacted Dave, from DPD Productions, to determine if it could’ve been a fault with the antenna (since it’s hard for me to determine how an antenna is working properly without being an expert). I decided after a while of discussing on the phone with him, that perhaps it was best to send it back to Dave and let him test it. When it arrived back in California and Dave began testing with it, he said he was receiving a weak NOAA (Weather-band channel) just fine from his location. So I figured maybe CSX changed something with their radio bands, but I asked the various Abbeville Messenger chats and per the sources in there no channel band frequencies had changed. It still remained 161.100.
After about a month, I decided that since this first antenna worked so great for this original setup, that I should reordered the Outdoor TrainTenna. I didn’t expect to hear anything when it arrived again but in case it might’ve been the coax cable that was malfunctioning as well I decided to purchase an LMR-400 coaxial cable (same as the current ATCS coax) because I’ve heard this transmits the signal the best and it may determine if the previous cable wasn’t strong enough for transmitting anymore or if it had been bent in the attic, but as expected, it still received only the dispatcher once more.
So my questions to everyone here is this, do you think the reason this antenna is no longer receiving the crews or the SG 552.4 defect detector is because of possible changes in the signal, or a new signal causing interference? We have one really powerful radio station in Atlanta (WSB) and have problems with their signals even bleeding over our phones, so I wondered if they may have put up a new transmitter antenna that was bleeding over the RR signals? These signals were once being transmitted so powerfully over the holidays, but then just stopped all in one day after the holidays wrapped up, on January 12. I tested the same antenna and set up for Norfolk Southern and it only receives Ray – Duluth still as well, nothing farther south near Atlanta and nothing farther north of Duluth. On the Norfolk Southern antenna, I had started hearing very short “bursts” of some other sounds---sounds almost like music is trying to bleed over in less than 10-second blips. On the antenna I was using for CSX, right before the signal suddenly dropped on January 12 I’d been hearing a constant “ticking” sound, like 1-second intervals of someone tapping a pencil on a table.
Could another possibility be that 5G cellular band installations increasing around the overall Atlanta region are causing interference? I noticed a new large cell tower has been built within sight of my house, and it think it may be between me and the CSX signals I used to get from Lilburn / Tucker.
Do y’all think it might have to do with the antenna even though it’s brand new? Or one of the above types of interference? Or CSX changing their signals? And is there any way to overcome these?
I’m open to trying out a new antenna should there be any stronger ones y’all can recommend to me. I thought that maybe the Hustler G7-150-3 might work as it’s made for the 161 - 167 MHz but it doesn’t have any current reviews so I’m unsure if it may work for what I need as well. I could attempt an amplifier as well but that still may cause a signal loss, not to mention wouldn’t that possibly only allow me to hear Lilburn at most?
Any comments and links are appreciated and I’m sorry for such a long and involved thread.
I’m creating this discussion forum because I wanted some input on a big dilemma I’m faced with in terms of railroad receiving. I’m sorry this is so long but I wanted to tell you the history of everything I’ve tried so maybe you can help me come up with some new idea.
I currently live near Norcross, GA about half a mile from the Norfolk Southern Greenville District. I have a recording system set up in the house with a Uniden BC355N scanner to monitor the train crews movements via a recording system. For this set up I simply use an auxiliary cord to join the external output slot of the scanner to the microphone port of a computer while using the basic default telescoping stock antenna that arrived with the BC355N. With this set up, I can receive the traffic calling signals as far south as Ray and sometimes as far north as Duluth. The system records the daily traffic of the crews and dispatcher so I can then check through the transmissions with a notepad the recording creates to determine the overnight cycle of trains that may have already passed or have yet to pass.
So, my dilemma I’m currently having is with a second similar set up hooked up to another computer. Since I live near Norcross, I’m also 8 miles from the CSX Abbeville Subdivision near Lilburn, GA. I’ve heard the dispatcher sometimes from the BC355N with the stock antenna but no detectors or crews. I did some research about stronger railroad receiving antennas (since the ATCS antenna we currently use on the top of the house, the Comet KP-20, can easily hear CP Goodwin chirps about 7.3 miles away). From the research, it seemed that most results narrowed down to the most trusted and most widely spoken of antenna for receiving train crews with a distance of at least 20 miles away (or more), the Outdoor Vertical TrainTenna from DPP Productions. So that was my first choice I went with to receive the crews and the defect detector 8 miles from our house (SG 552.4). Once the antenna was connected with the N Male and BNC Male 50 ft. coaxial cable (MPD-400 super flex) to the Uniden BC355N scanner, I was immediately hearing the yard in Atlanta—25 miles away, the crews around Tucker (10 miles), Brickyard (Intermediate signal near Harmony Grove Road) (8-9 miles), Lilburn (7 miles), the defect detector at the SG 552.4 (8 miles), and occasionally South Gloster (9 miles). I was very impressed with this set up receiving this much traffic and couldn’t wait to see what a second TrainTenna could receive just for Norfolk Southern.
This testing only lasted a short time, however, because from the time I hooked it all up on December 24th, of 2020 I was only able to continue hearing the transmissions made until January 12th, of 2021. I was now suddenly no longer hearing the crews call out anymore nor was I hearing the defect detector. I simply heard what the BC355N originally received which was the Abbeville Dispatcher. Even the recording system use to have about 30 minutes to an hour of feed recorded each day with the previous working set up. Now it’s only 3 minutes of the dispatcher per day.
I began to test around and see if possibly the attic was interfering with the signal. I took the coaxial cable and the TrainTenna up to the roof and tied it around the chimney temporarily to see if that might bring the receiving range back. Unfortunately, this had no effect and I was still hearing just the dispatcher. So next I began thinking maybe the antenna was malfunctioning.
I contacted Dave, from DPD Productions, to determine if it could’ve been a fault with the antenna (since it’s hard for me to determine how an antenna is working properly without being an expert). I decided after a while of discussing on the phone with him, that perhaps it was best to send it back to Dave and let him test it. When it arrived back in California and Dave began testing with it, he said he was receiving a weak NOAA (Weather-band channel) just fine from his location. So I figured maybe CSX changed something with their radio bands, but I asked the various Abbeville Messenger chats and per the sources in there no channel band frequencies had changed. It still remained 161.100.
After about a month, I decided that since this first antenna worked so great for this original setup, that I should reordered the Outdoor TrainTenna. I didn’t expect to hear anything when it arrived again but in case it might’ve been the coax cable that was malfunctioning as well I decided to purchase an LMR-400 coaxial cable (same as the current ATCS coax) because I’ve heard this transmits the signal the best and it may determine if the previous cable wasn’t strong enough for transmitting anymore or if it had been bent in the attic, but as expected, it still received only the dispatcher once more.
So my questions to everyone here is this, do you think the reason this antenna is no longer receiving the crews or the SG 552.4 defect detector is because of possible changes in the signal, or a new signal causing interference? We have one really powerful radio station in Atlanta (WSB) and have problems with their signals even bleeding over our phones, so I wondered if they may have put up a new transmitter antenna that was bleeding over the RR signals? These signals were once being transmitted so powerfully over the holidays, but then just stopped all in one day after the holidays wrapped up, on January 12. I tested the same antenna and set up for Norfolk Southern and it only receives Ray – Duluth still as well, nothing farther south near Atlanta and nothing farther north of Duluth. On the Norfolk Southern antenna, I had started hearing very short “bursts” of some other sounds---sounds almost like music is trying to bleed over in less than 10-second blips. On the antenna I was using for CSX, right before the signal suddenly dropped on January 12 I’d been hearing a constant “ticking” sound, like 1-second intervals of someone tapping a pencil on a table.
Could another possibility be that 5G cellular band installations increasing around the overall Atlanta region are causing interference? I noticed a new large cell tower has been built within sight of my house, and it think it may be between me and the CSX signals I used to get from Lilburn / Tucker.
Do y’all think it might have to do with the antenna even though it’s brand new? Or one of the above types of interference? Or CSX changing their signals? And is there any way to overcome these?
I’m open to trying out a new antenna should there be any stronger ones y’all can recommend to me. I thought that maybe the Hustler G7-150-3 might work as it’s made for the 161 - 167 MHz but it doesn’t have any current reviews so I’m unsure if it may work for what I need as well. I could attempt an amplifier as well but that still may cause a signal loss, not to mention wouldn’t that possibly only allow me to hear Lilburn at most?
Any comments and links are appreciated and I’m sorry for such a long and involved thread.
