So. Cal bnfs on nxdn?

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SKYNET156

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I went to a fast food joint in yorba Linda about 1/4 from my home where alot of rail activity takes place and a bnsf track worker had a VHF Kenwood and speaker Mic with what looks like the NX series nxdn radio...any comments? Also looking for bnsf info for orange county info amtrak metro link or rail police In orange county if anyone has
info?
 

djgrooven

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I went to a fast food joint in yorba Linda about 1/4 from my home where alot of rail activity takes place and a bnsf track worker had a VHF Kenwood and speaker Mic with what looks like the NX series nxdn radio...any comments? Also looking for bnsf info for orange county info amtrak metro link or rail police In orange county if anyone has
info?

Yes BNSF do use Kenwood NX portable and mobile units. They also use Icom radios. These radios are all tri-mode radios and that is all that the BNSF Rwy is supporting in the long run now.
 

karldotcom

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160.650 is the BNSF road channel from Soto Street in Los Angeles to San Bernardino.
160.560 is the Metrolink dispatched channel from Fullerton Jct to somewhere near the Coaster rail yard on Camp Pendleton.

BNSF had handed out Kenwood radios like candy....so I suppose it continues today. My friend worked at Commerce Diesel Service for a while before becoming a conductor, and he had five or six Kenwoods found in various locomotives before he moved away from LA. He seemed to indicate to me that employees weren't held accountable for losing them anyway, so he took them.

Special agents have used Nextel in the past.
 
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Farscan

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I just talked to a friend thats a BNSF tech for the last 30yrs and he did say they will first go NFM and when more radios are replaced they will switch to NXDN with Kenwood and Icom, but wasn't sure how fast radios would be traded out, most due to age and failure.
 

djgrooven

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I just talked to a friend thats a BNSF tech for the last 30yrs and he did say they will first go NFM and when more radios are replaced they will switch to NXDN with Kenwood and Icom, but wasn't sure how fast radios would be traded out, most due to age and failure.

I do know for a fact that the Barstow Yard has already began on the NXDN transition. Yard Channel 71 has gone digital, but has had very little traffic since the transition. I was able to pick it on on my scannner when they where transitioning. I do expect more of the yard channels to go digital cause of the cross interferenece inthe yard. Also 160.650 mhz is the San Bernardino Sub that covers Orange county dispatch. It is also the same same frequency that Barstow uses for the Diesel Service Outbould train building channel or shop switching.
 

SKYNET156

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i appreciate all the help here, would it be wise to invest in a NXDN radio for rail fanning? i live about a 1/4 mile from the main line on orangethrope in yorba linda and i see litterally about 15-20 BNSF engines pulling about 75 cars each of trailer containers and i see the ocassional CSX and i also see Metrolink come through about 10 times per day, so i have a really good amount of activity on my line here, so i am just trying to confirm the frequencies for my side of the main line, is there any AAR police activity around my way?
 
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would it be wise to invest in a NXDN radio for rail fanning?

I wouldn't pull the trigger just yet to get a NXDN capable radio.

There is still a lot of dust that has to settle and many years before the railroads decide to agree to go NXDN or whatever mode everybody decides to go with. At this point I would just settle with programming your scanner or VHF capable radio with the NFM frequencies railroads are moving to.

At the railroad I work for, Conductors and Brakemen carry Icom F3161-DT, which is narrowband and IDAS digital ready. We used to all be issued Motorola XT6550s, which is ready for NFM and Motobro, however, there is no word that railroads are going to use Motobro

I also had a Kenwood NX Portable during my time with the BNSF here in Nebraska, it too was IDAS digital and NFM ready.
 
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stevelton

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and I keep hearing people talk about the railroads using trunking in and around the yards when they switch to NXDN, but the Icom and Kenwood dont use the same trunking type, which means anything NXDN would have to be CAI.

On a side note, our local ham radio ARES group has been migrating toward NXDN, and we have found greater range with digital, not less as people on here have been trying to say.


NXDN radios arent that expensive I dont think. I have a radio shop here in Southern IL and sell Icom LMR stuff, you could easlily get started for less than the price of a new Uniden P-25 scanner
 

Mick

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Here are some related frqs I've logged

160.2450 csq BNSF PBX, input is 161.535 123.0
160.2600 csq BNSF PBX, input is 161.490 123.0 “San Bernardino Sub”
160.3350 csq BNSF PBX “Cajon” input is 161.460 123.0
160.5000 csq SoCal Regional Railroad Authority; “Metrolink”
160.5150 csq UPRR “Dispatch” “Metrolink” (L.A. Sub L.A. To Riverside)
160.5600 csq “Amtrak” SoCal Regional Railroad Authority “S.D. Sub” “Metrolink Work Train”
160.6500 csq BNSF “San Bernardino Sub” “Metrolink”; Amtrak Soto to Fullerton
160.8150 csq SoCal Regional RR Authority; “Metrolink” L.A. “Riv Sub”
161.0100 csq BNSF
161.0550 146.2 Amtrak PD, L.A. input is 161.475 146.2
161.0700 csq BNSF
161.1300 csq BNSF
161.1900 csq BNSF Road; “Metrolink”
161.2050 csq PBX (RR has BNSF Police)
161.4600 123.0 BNSF input to 160.335
161.4750 146.2 input to 161.055 Amtrak PD
161.4750 151.4 L.A. Co. FD
161.4900 123.0 BNSF input to 160.26
161.5350 123.0 BNSF input to 160.245 PBX


I went to a fast food joint in yorba Linda about 1/4 from my home where alot of rail activity takes place and a bnsf track worker had a VHF Kenwood and speaker Mic with what looks like the NX series nxdn radio...any comments? Also looking for bnsf info for orange county info amtrak metro link or rail police In orange county if anyone has
info?
 

burner50

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I wouldn't pull the trigger just yet to get a NXDN capable radio.

There is still a lot of dust that has to settle and many years before the railroads decide to agree to go NXDN or whatever mode everybody decides to go with. At this point I would just settle with programming your scanner or VHF capable radio with the NFM frequencies railroads are moving to.

At the railroad I work for, Conductors and Brakemen carry Icom F3161-DT, which is narrowband and IDAS digital ready. We used to all be issued Motorola XT6550s, which is ready for NFM and Motobro, however, there is no word that railroads are going to use Motobro

I also had a Kenwood NX Portable during my time with the BNSF here in Nebraska, it too was IDAS digital and NFM ready.

I disagree with this post in its entirety.


The AAR has stated in the past that anybody wishing to get tri-mode radios should specify NXDN.


UP used to issue Kenwood TK series radios, now they've switched to deploying massive amounts of NX series radios. I doubt this would happen unless they were sure they were switching.
 

radioman2001

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If you are a close follower of the RR's than know this, the AAR has made a deal with the FCC for accelerated ultra narrow banding of a the RR frequencies. If you apply for any new RR channels from the AAR they MUST be 6.25 kc compatible, not 12.5 kc with 2 channels as MOTOTRBO is. The AAR has stipulated that they are not going with P-25 or any format that isn't true 6.25 kc. The only format at this time that meets that criteria is NXDN. Don't expect the road channels to go any time soon but expect yard frequencies to.
 

burner50

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If you are a close follower of the RR's than know this, the AAR has made a deal with the FCC for accelerated ultra narrow banding of a the RR frequencies. If you apply for any new RR channels from the AAR they MUST be 6.25 kc compatible, not 12.5 kc with 2 channels as MOTOTRBO is. The AAR has stipulated that they are not going with P-25 or any format that isn't true 6.25 kc. The only format at this time that meets that criteria is NXDN. Don't expect the road channels to go any time soon but expect yard frequencies to.

Source?
 

radioman2001

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I would have to look up specifics, but I cannot release documents from my RR when I applied for channels in the last 3 years.(BTW TCI even held up an application for our RR for the splinter channels for 2 years while getting AMTRAK to relinquish their licenses, to ensure their 6.25 plan, and to prevent our RR from getting them) Any conversations I have had with TCI the coordinator for RR channels get the same result. 6.25kc channels only, no MOTOTRBO or P-25. (if there are any legacy systems that 6.25 rule doesn't apply, but is suspect they (TCI)will have those licenses relinquished in the future) We got 18 6.25kc pairs which we are not going to use. I went and got conventional business channels instead. We use the 6.25kc channels for IP transport only using a cross modulation system that converts the analog to digital that transports it to the remote site where it is reconverted back to analog. Go the TCI website yourself and look, their new band plan will spell it out for you in color.
 

rhicks6000

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Hate to revive an old thread. Yesterday I heard a digital transmission on freq 160.59750 from what I could tell it was possibly an intermodal facility. Since I was close to Kansas City,KS I couldn't tell if it was Argentine Yard or the new intermodal facility near Edgerton,KS
 
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