Licensing & Frequency data archival time?

[dapaq2]

Group,

Does anyone know if there is a way to go back as far as 20+ years and find out what licensing information or radio frequencies were assigned to any particular Railroad company that has gone out of business and is long gone?

Does the FCC or anyone else retain information that long?

Thanks

Doug

 

[twolf816]

good question, i dunno about rail. but i would sure be interested in public safety.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi DC and readers,

An old edition of Police Call and Beyond is a great source and you'll find little has changed over the last 20 years. Basically it's a matter of consolidation, who glommed who up, ownership changed, frequencies haven't. A Web search will turn up lots of old stuff, many sites haven't been updated in that long. That's one of the main reasons I had so much trouble figuring out who uses which frequency and for what until I figured out who is running over which line now and a system map of NJ looks like a spider gone mad had at it.

Then there is the "active search" method. Do a "service search" meaning programmed band search within the limits of the RR segment and do what the crossbuck says, stop, listen and log. Now if you have a CAT capable scanner the software makes part of it very easy. You can set it to log each "hit" once, then after 24 hours you'll have a record of all the active frequencies within range. Program them in memory and scan only them and listen, listen, listen. Take notes and soon enough you'll know who uses each frequency and for what. Those sources noted above will provide useful clues and help prevent "scanning pattern baldness".

 

[dapaq2]

Basically it's a matter of consolidation, who glommed who up, ownership changed, frequencies haven't

But this does not apply in my case.

For most railroad buyouts this would be true, but Im trying to find the freqs assigned to a small 20 mile long shortline that was bought out over 20 years ago by a class one then another class one bought out that class one and neither railroad uses the freqs that were assigned to the original short line.

I know the shortline was using VHF account of the radio antenna, just dont know what freqencies they were assigned.

Doug

 

[Thunderbolt]

Group,

Does anyone know if there is a way to go back as far as 20+ years and find out what licensing information or radio frequencies were assigned to any particular Railroad company that has gone out of business and is long gone?

The best way to find out that kind of information, would be to contact the railroad historical society, which best represents the road your looking for. In most cases, they should have all of this information on hand.

I do know that the Pennsylvania Railroad used 160.800 as their main Road channel, and the New York Central used 161.070 respectively.

Does the FCC or anyone else retain information that long?

No they don't maybe up to 3-5 years in most cases, unless it an active license, which they do reference the year its been on file.

73's

Ron

 

[Thunderbolt]

good question, i dunno about rail. but i would sure be interested in public safety.

The old edtions of Police Call, or other scanner directories should have most of that information listed in them. Moreover, I still have my original edition of Police Call that I purchased in 1976 and would not believe how much has changed since then on the public safety freqs.

An excellent place to buy old copies of Police Call would be from e-bay or Ham Radio swaps.

73's

Ron

 

[dapaq2]

The best way to find out that kind of information, would be to contact the railroad historical society, which best represents the road your looking for. In most cases, they should have all of this information on hand.

Ron,

Again we are talking about a short line railroad, not every railroad has a historical society, including the one im researching on.

Doug

 

[dapaq2]

Group,

I eventually did find out the frequency of the railroad, so the search is over, whew.

Thanks to all who tried to help me out with this.

Doug

 

[Scott_PHX_APP]

Doug,
I understand you found the info you were looking for, but might I offer the following web site for tons of railroad information and such: www.railroadforums.com
If you're not already a member, it's a free site and lots of great people there just like here.
Later...

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for that link, I'm rebuilding my bookmarks after they were lost in a computer glitch.