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Re: When is the FCC mandated radio freq. changes going to take place??
Author: Shortline Sammie
Date: 04-09-2010 - 07:34
This whole "refarming" thing is ridiculous!!! I simply can't understand why the old "railroad radio service" as the FCC called it has to be the "industrial Radio Pool" and we now have some log truck operator coming through town on legally licensed former railroad channel.
So far as I can see, there is NO additional spectrum need in the UHF and VHF (railroad) bands...all the new spectrum space is needed in the spectrum above 500 mhz. for cell phone / public safety applications. Screwing up a perfectly good VHF system with increased intermod or bleedover is going to get someone seriously injured or killed simply because the radios we have relied upon for years are no longer safe to use.
Changing to the new narrowband technology makes two of the finest radios ever made, the Spectra (both mobile and clean cab versions) obsolete. Motorola has no interest in the railroad market..they made some Spectra ASTRO models that ARE compliant but have also been discontinued and are hard to come by.
To require EVERY shortline to replace every radio made before, say 2005, is ridiculous, especially where a clean cab Spectra cost in the neighborhood of $2,800 new. The replacement is simply a mobile radio in a fabricated housing with a 74 volt power supply...no singletone...no AAR handset...no readable digital display...nothing that I would consider railroad quality or trust my safety with.
While it's probably too late to apply any sense of reason to this matter, shortlines will just have to bite the bullet and spend next years maintenance of way budget on a bunch of un-needed new radios.
Sammie
So far as I can see, there is NO additional spectrum need in the UHF and VHF (railroad) bands...all the new spectrum space is needed in the spectrum above 500 mhz. for cell phone / public safety applications. Screwing up a perfectly good VHF system with increased intermod or bleedover is going to get someone seriously injured or killed simply because the radios we have relied upon for years are no longer safe to use.
Changing to the new narrowband technology makes two of the finest radios ever made, the Spectra (both mobile and clean cab versions) obsolete. Motorola has no interest in the railroad market..they made some Spectra ASTRO models that ARE compliant but have also been discontinued and are hard to come by.
To require EVERY shortline to replace every radio made before, say 2005, is ridiculous, especially where a clean cab Spectra cost in the neighborhood of $2,800 new. The replacement is simply a mobile radio in a fabricated housing with a 74 volt power supply...no singletone...no AAR handset...no readable digital display...nothing that I would consider railroad quality or trust my safety with.
While it's probably too late to apply any sense of reason to this matter, shortlines will just have to bite the bullet and spend next years maintenance of way budget on a bunch of un-needed new radios.
Sammie
