radio channels- AM or FM

[Anonymous]

Will soon be visiting CA [%-)] from sunny England. Can anyone tell me if the railroads use AM or FM to transmit on as i will be hoping to use a scanner when i am over here.
Also are there any restrictions, places you should not use a scanner, please let me know as i do not want to be thrown out of your country as a spy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve

[rrnut282]

Is CA for Canada or California? Not that it makes a lot of difference. Railroads generally use frequencies around 159.9 MHz to 161.5 MHz with a few oddballs here and there. Best thing to do is search for a website dedicated to the area you are going and see if they list the specific frequencies in use so you can avoid spending hours (days) searching to find them. Keep a low profile (stay on public property) and don't use your scanner in a moving car and you should be alright.

[Anonymous]

We are visiting California, LA, SD, SF and places in between hopefully with a trip to Portola museum before we return.

Thanks for the info, however my question still is AM or FM ?????

Thanks,

Steve

[jchnhtfd]

FM

[Overmod]

Use of a scanner to detect police frequencies is (IIRC) technically illegal in California. Unfortunately, I believe the definition goes by what the scanner is *capable* of detecting, rather than how the unit may be programmed -- and the modern units I'm familiar with use synthesized tuning rather than crystals, and so are capable of hearing the 'prohibited' bands at the touch of a few controls. However, I do not believe there is any technology in place to 'detect' scanner use, as there is with radar detectors, so you should be OK in monitoring rail traffic so long as you don't fla***he scanner or leave it where it can be seen easily.

The situation would be VERY different if you had a comms set that was capable of voice transmission on the railroad bands -- "interference with broadcast" is a Federal offense in the United States, and I believe this applies to private licensed bands as well (it's been dog years since my FCC Radiotelephone Class I exam!)

[Anonymous]

I've been saying this for years........Why don't thay make scanners only for railfans to monitor railroads only?
BNSFrailfan.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys,
To be honest, i am a licenced radio ham and was thinking of using a transmitter for ham bands which had a wide coverage recieve, but thought better of it- paperwork, immigration etc.
Will settle for my scanner and be done with it.
Anybody got frequencies for Tehapachi, visit on way back to LA, understand there is a viewing platform too.

Steve

[Anonymous]

Steve,

I think it is safe for me to say that all railroad two-way radio communications are always in FM mode. I am also a license amateur radio operator, also radio sanniing hobbyist.

BNSF SD70MAC,

Regarding to your question, I do not think it is worth to manufacture radio dedicated particularly to that service. The market might be too small and the manufacturer might not see the hope of generating much enough revenue. People out there who want to enjoy operating railroad via MS Train Simulator have got bad news of MS turned the development of MS Train Simulator 2 down. I think the number of people who want just to listen to the railroad radio might be even worse. It is not impossible actually to find some radios with only railroad channels. It can be done by programming the frequencies into the radio board. It is, however, the transceiver model, not scanners.

Karn[:)]

[Anonymous]

Thanks!
BNSFrailfan.

[tree68]

It would be very easy to turn a 100 channel scanner into a "railroad" scanner by simply programming the AAR Channel numbers in to the appropriate scanner channels. I don't recall if there is a "AAR Channel 1", but if there isn't, a body could simply put in an EOT frequency as most scanners like to have a channel 1

VHF High-Band generally isn't as susceptible to interference as some other bands, so you shouldn't have too much trouble leaving all the channels open. When one lights up, you can tell the AAR Channel by looking at the scanner channel.

There are several websites that have state-by-state scanner laws, as well as sites listing all the AAR Frequencies. A search should bring them up. If you don't have a 100 channel scanner, the tactic of searching for local frequencies lists is the method I use most often.