What frequency channels are they using?

[JimBobTerp]

Hi
I live in Tamaqua,PA not that far from the railroad tracks and I’m wondering why I can’t hear transmissions of them talking? I have an antenna and I have all the frequencies programmed in my scanner and it never stops on a channel when they are going to talk. Can someone please help me out on this.

Thanks
James

 

[murphcc1]

How far?
Any hills in the way?
What scanner?
What Antenna?
What freq do you have loaded?
Passenger trains or freight trains?

 

[JimBobTerp]

How far? Not even a mile
Any hills in the way? No not really
What scanner? BCD536HP
What Antenna? https://www.scannermaster.com/SpectrumForce_Wideband_Antenna_with_SMA_p/01-541327.htm
What freq do you have loaded? All the ARR frequencies
Passenger trains or freight trains? I think it’s both

 

[KC3ECJ]

Hi
I live in Tamaqua,PA not that far from the railroad tracks and I’m wondering why I can’t hear transmissions of them talking? I have an antenna and I have all the frequencies programmed in my scanner and it never stops on a channel when they are going to talk. Can someone please help me out on this.

Thanks
James

Which railroad(s) is it?

 

[murphcc1]

How did you program it?
Sentinel?
Not totally familiar with that model.
BUT, do you have the SERVICE TYPE section in the radio, you should have RAILROAD turned ON.

 

[murphcc1]

Menu......
SERVICE TYPE........
RAILROAD-ON

 

[JimBobTerp]

Menu......
SERVICE TYPE........
RAILROAD-ON

How did you program it?
Sentinel?
Not totally familiar with that model.
BUT, do you have the SERVICE TYPE section in the radio, you should have RAILROAD turned ON.

Let it do it by the ZIP Code and I guess railroad and like I said it has every railroad frequency and I do not know exactly what railroad system it is

 

[wtp]

i was wondering how you knew they were talking?

 

[murphcc1]

ok.....you need to make sure the SERIVCE TYPE is on for RAILROAD........
Just doing it by Zip Code doenst mean it's ON.......

And how did you know they were talking?
(got that from WTP)

 

[JimBobTerp]

ok.....you need to make sure the SERIVCE TYPE is on for RAILROAD........
Just doing it by Zip Code doenst mean it's ON.......

And how did you know they were talking?
(got that from WTP)

When I get upstairs I’ll check and see if I have it turned on but I know I was just wondering if they were talking that’s all

 

[murphcc1]

If your RR line in that area is straight through with no yards or anything they may just not have anything to say to anyone during that section of the trip.

 

[JimBobTerp]

Both things are set to ON

 

[DudleyG]

It appears that the railroad that runs thru your town is the Reading and Northern. You can go to the Radio Reference database, click on Pennsylvania, then click the section for statewide frequencies, and select Pennsylvania Railroads and it will list all of them by railroad. Scroll down close to the bottom and you will see the 4 frequencies that Reading and Northern uses.

Since it is a regional railroad, there may not be much radio traffic.

 

[KC3ECJ]

I get the Reading and Northern Pittston yard on 160.770 I'm not sure what Norfolk Southern in Taylor is using now.

 

[trentbob]

This is a very small Regional Rail Road that probably doesn't have a lot of radio traffic. I remember them also doing excursion trips also in the summertime. I don't know about now.

They're headquartered in Schuylkill County near you. Just put the frequencies in and monitor and see what happens. With the information I gave you if you want to do searches on your favorite search engine you will probably find a lot of information.

By the way if you hear a lot of traffic it isn't necessarily this Railroad, some of the frequencies are shared, 160.8 is a very common Freight frequency used everywhere.

 

[JimBobTerp]

Thanks for the help that did give me help I will try to give that a try and I will get back to u all.

 

[wtp]

jimbobterp,
i sent a personal message to you.

 

[JimBobTerp]

jimbobterp,
i sent a personal message to you.

Thanks

 

[RichardKramer]

If you have all the RR freqs programmed you should be hearing something with an outside antenna. NS is pretty busy on a # of freqs here in the Reading area. Weekends are not so busy as they are on weekdays.

 

[KC3ECJ]

If you have all the RR freqs programmed you should be hearing something with an outside antenna. NS is pretty busy on a # of freqs here in the Reading area. Weekends are not so busy as they are on weekdays.

I think what happened was I bumped the lockout button for the channel I assigned to Norfolk Southern.