Does any one know what the new narrowband frequencies will be? CSX, NS, ect.
Unless a railroad is using the "opportunity" to reconfigure their frequency plan, the same frequencies will be in use, albeit narrowband.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
If the RR's are going to stick with the same frequencies then are older "wideband" scanners will still be able to pick them up - correct?
Yes, the old scanners will be able to pick them up, but the loudness of the audio will be much lower (by 1/2 theoriticaly).
BUT, if another radio starts to broadcast on an immediately adjacent channel, i.e.: one of the new ones created between the old channels, then the scanner will pick up both and the new one will interfere with the original signal.
Of course that often happens now if two of the old adjacent channels broadcast at the same time. Most consumer type scanners are not really very good at picking up just the signal that it is tuned to and will experience crosstalk/interference in those instances. So it won't be much worse that it was before, especially if the RRs keep the usual spacing of picking frequencies/channels that are not adjacent to those already in use in any one particular area.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Are the RR's planning to really start using the new freqs a lot or is it pretty much going to stay mostly the same?
Sawtooth500 Are the RR's planning to really start using the new freqs a lot or is it pretty much going to stay mostly the same?
I suspect you will see the new frequencies showing up with new railroad operations (either new railroads or new operations on an existing RR), and possibly in places where there is already congestion, especially with the fallout from years of mergers.
The new frequencies will split the existing frequencies, with the result being channel 145 will be on a frequency between the current 45 and 46.
This page explains a lot, including the possibility of digital transmissions, still a way off.
The chart also suggests the possibility of trunking, something becoming quite common in public safety and the commercial world. While trunking might not make sense on lonely stretches of single track main (or even multiple track mains), it could come in quite handy at busy terminals, where a limited number of frequencies can support many more talkgroups than the number of channels.
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