Directional receiving regional railroad base stations/operations

[TrainsOfThought]

I live on the flat DelMarVa Penninsula in Maryland.I'm dusting off my old RS 2005/6 and later family of scanners to explore getting back to railroad (and possibly marine) monitoring. Other analog scanners may be tried at a later date.

Special interest centers on the Wilmington, DE area for Norfolk Southern, CSX, Amtrak via home radio base and ops for the shortlines Delmarva Central and Maryland and Delaware RR mobile in the car.

I have the busy Baltimore CSX/NS/Amtrak main/terminals west of me at 32 miles across the Bay.
I have Wilmington area CSX/NS/Amtrak mains/yards and Delmarva rail feeds to the north at 45 miles. I WANT to try receiving Wilmington area only.

Am I correct to ascertain a gain directonal 158/162 or 161/162Mhz antenna, on a chimney, roof or tall mast (code limits to 55 feet in residential), aimed or rotated northerly (depending on terrain etc) would be a better option vs an omni directional gain antenna that will become overloaded with the closer Baltimore terminal radio operations? Some of the Baltimore signals are the same dispatchers/through rail line operations as in Wilmington (NS has different Wilmington area dispatchers), just different locations along the same rail lines and base stations running northeast/southwest through the area.

Marine band monitoring (cozy freqs with the rr band) is a side project interest where I'm assuming the marine omnidirectional antenna would be beneficial hooked to a dedicated scanner. I'd thought marine antennas, of different design, might wind up working w/2 dedicated scanners but different directional signal targets.

Thoughts?

 

[TrainsOfThought]

Thanks to posts in another area of forums, I was able to use Google Earth to trace line of sight elevations from my home in Centreville to various railroad landmarks, especially high elevations/hills of track grade, where base stations or signal relays may be present. Centreville to NS Canal Bridge/Kirkwood at the C&D Canal appeared a possible near perfect high-mounted antenna path to the plateau around Newark/Wilmington. Looks like a fun experiment...

 

[TrainsOfThought]

On the ground research complete thanks to pouring over other forum threads and utilizing the wonderful Wiki!!
I was able to determine the NS railroad radio licenses in New Castle County DE, their physical location, antenna details (elevation, antenna height, power, frequencies assigned to them...), plot line of Google Earth sight elevations to the closest (they are all within a narrow range varying by distance and elevation) giving me...hopefully, an idea height of mast/tower for possible directional reception. The Wiki data indicated a possible range of the NS license over DelMarVa at 55 miles...including Centreville, MD. Thanks for allowing me to think-out-loud peeling the project onion research THANKS to studying the forums and data of Radio Reference!!

Theoretical work completed now time for hardware...looking forward to the fun.

 

[TrainsOfThought]

I recounted today that my FIRST queries re radio signal reception (via ads in Sky and Telescope magazine) was in high school...back in '77-78 via my mentor high school science teacher. He thankfully dissuaded me from answering suspect ads and gave me a quick n dirty explanation re the nature, reception and interpretation of radio waves. This was around a decade before I would obtain my first radio scanner. Always the listener and searcher, my current project has decided on antenna type, transmission bases identified and mapped along with elevation profiles...I'm currently researching antenna mount/erection methods via (wood) ground tilt-up and chimney/tripod for separate marine and railroad. I always work according to a 2-5 year plan for any project...much as I did for my backyard observatory which was decades in the making and STILL needing the final interior completed....but operational

As a thank you for HUGE databases and forum archive material that has assisted me today, fed my lifelong fascination with radio, I signed up for a longest Premium membership/support to Radio Reference. My only hope is, that when my project is complete, I may be of assistance and share my experiences to other radio enthusiasts.

 

[N9JIG]

Just remember that many lineside transmitters on the railroads are directional themselves that might skewe your reception patterns. Sometimes railroads will orient base antennas to point up and down the tracks rather than use an omnidirectional antenna, both to reduce interference to other users and to maximum performance.

Most marine stationary transmitters are omnidirectional but of course there are exceptions that prove the rule.

Trains and boats radios themselves are nominally intended to be basically omnidirectional but by the nature of the antenna placement tend to have pretty good lobes. Trains especially tend to have a lobe toward the front due to the reflectivity of that big metal locomotive as the antenna is usually mounted above the cab.

 

[Dispatcher308]

Dont forget about the Maryland and Delaware (160.695/161.565) you may also want to listen to them since they are local to you! The Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company

Also dont forget about the DelMarva Central (161.040/ 160.935) that runs on the old NS DelMarVa Sub and branches off to several places in MD

Might be good listening for you.

Nate

 

[TrainsOfThought]

Dont forget about the Maryland and Delaware (160.695/161.565) you may also want to listen to them since they are local to you! The Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company
Also dont forget about the DelMarva Central (161.040/ 160.935) that runs on the old NS DelMarVa Sub and branches off to several places in MD
Might be good listening for you.Nate

Thank you...yes. I've gotten the low down on ALL the base transmitters here at RR for NS,CSX, MDDE and DCR...if things work out I might have directional yagi antennas pointing in a FEW different directions...and the dedicated scanners at the other end of the coax.

 

[Dispatcher308]

Very Well, just wanted to make sure, I don't live over on the Shore, only travel for business and have caught MDDE a few times on the radio, but I don't know what they are like on a daily basis.

Happy Railfanning!
Nate

 

[TrainsOfThought]

Very Well, just wanted to make sure, I don't live over on the Shore, only travel for business and have caught MDDE a few times on the radio, but I don't know what they are like on a daily basis.

The 2 rural shortlines are BORING...that's what they are like. I really enjoy the constant hustle and bustle of the Class 1's up in Delaware as well (as their interchange that brings goods closer on the rural bob-n-sway locals), makes me feel right at home from the old 90's days monitoring them, Canton RR and Patapsco & Back River before Beth Steel was demolished. East Baltimore (I grew up and lived in Dundalk) was railfan nirvana. I could likely still pick them up across the Bay if I put my mind to it but I seldom get in those parts anymore...ut still follow major developments.