Railroad digital migration

[Bill_G]

Has there been any forward movement towards digital radio in railroads lately? The most recent articles I find also discuss the upcoming narrowband compliance deadlines, which tells you how old they are. Has the momentum stalled, or is it moving quietly?

 

[TheWizard]

I'd say it's hit or miss, but widely everything is still as analog as ever.

From what I've heard and seen, some larger railroad support agencies have switched to NXDN (ie railroad police). Norfolk Southern Railroad Police switched from analog to NXDN some time around 2010, but lately, I haven't heard them on VHF (or anywhere else) at all in a long time, but it could just be my area.

Some short line operators with not a large quantity of radios or interchange have switched to digital, I recall reading an case study type article from Motorola about a short line somewhere down south moving to TRBO. Local to me, in Michigan, the Adrian and Blissfield and its other short line carriers under the same banner switched to NXDN a couple years ago.

In Detroit, following operating crew complaints about range of the narrow band radios (and generally the iCom radios that replaced Motorola models) Conrail has been slowly trying to roll out a yard repeater system using NXDN technology with an analog patch from an analog channel for non-digital radios to be able to know what's going on. Every major yard has a different repeater. I think this idea may be in place out east in Newark NJ, but I have no way of verifying that.

That's about the proliferation of digital modes in-use on the railroad that I know about.

As far as having radios that are capable of digital, pretty much every radio I've seen lately is digital capable- ranging from base stations, mobiles, and portables. Locomotive radios seem to vary, but slowly the Astro Spectra RR units and some of the older narrow-band capable GE 12R radios are being replaced by the JEMs and Ritron offerings. With 12.5Khz overall working well in analog (perhaps as a surprise to the theorists and nay-sayers), I believe that wide-spread use of NXDN for road trains, dispatching, etc is a ways away, if ever, going to happen. I think the FCC would have to force its hand to 6.25 Khz spacing before that would happen, and by then AMBE might already be phased out for something newer by then.

 

[Bill_G]

Thanks. That's my feel for the progress as well. It's happening, but at a glacial pace.

The reason I ask is because of the cancellation notice for the CDM series mobile (from another thread). I passed the info along to our inside sales team urging them to notify our RR customers that use these as base stations - this is their last chance to buy spares. The hand wringing head wagging discussion that followed was based on rumor and speculation about digital migration, but no hard time lines. No one knew WHEN or IF it would even happen in the PNW region. The lack of published articles about in Progressive Rail and similar mags, or at AAR, suggests it's not front and center with management. But, I could be wrong.

 

[slapshot0017]

Being a buff/employee/radio geek/student I have tried to get all over this subject, but it's so tough unless you have contacts. Even then the guys I know in Conrail, NS, Amtrak and New Jersey Transit are pretty much useless... Hopefully someone who works in a railroad radio shop comments in here because I'd love to pick their brain.

Anyway back to what I know... My shortline railroad has ICOM NXDN capable and in use equipment in the locomotives, but not all of the conductors have NXDN capable radio's. So it depends on who the train master is for the day to say which format to use. The reason they got them back in 2013 was because of the narrow band mandate and the guy who bought them thought why not just get the digital ones too so that when a digital mandate is ever set they are ready. Norfolk Southern is our only interchange partner and I constantly hear the encrypted garble of NXDN when the police talk. Amtrak and New Jersey Transit give all their new employees ICOM portables. I have no idea what they put in the new locomotives, but I think they're just the analog JEMS units... One of my amateur radio peers works in the NJT Medowlands Maintenance Complex in the car department and he told me what they were, but I can't remember for the life of me...

Now before this spring I was a huge Kenwood advocate and all for NXDN, but when I was introduced to TRBO I almost sold all of my Kenwood gear. I didn't obviously though because all of the class 1 FCC License's are set for NXDN emissions and my railroad is using it. Let's just say if I worked in a radio shop for the railroads I would be all over a new TRBO system. It is absolutely amazing what its capable of and one of the big problems I was told about with NXDN was the simplex range. Now anyone who has dealt with a TRBO radio knows that their range and reception is the best in the industry by a long shot. As much as Motherola screwed themselves out of the contract back in the day with extremely expensive gear, they have inadvertently made their way back into business by just making an amazing product and keeping their loyal followers.

 

[Bill_G]

Thanks. This supports my theory it's happening, but so slowly, it's hardly noticed, and with no planned progression.

 

[cyrus]

CN has switched a few yard channels over.