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www.railroadradio.net - Still Here... for now...
Author: railroadradio.net@gmail.com
Date: 03-10-2014 - 08:08
Greetings to everyone on Altamont Press Discussion Board
I thought I would post a messaage reminding the old hands, and advising the new folk of our website dedicated to bringing you live railroad radio audio streams from over 50 locations around North America. www.railroadradio.net is the site, and all you need is a streaming audio player such as Windows Media Player, Winamp, iTunes, etc to listen. Site access is free... always has been, always will be.
What prompted me to make this post is my running across an older posting here where someone had stated "Thanks for the reminder about www.railroadradio.net, I'd forgotten that site existed"..
Well, we can't have that now...
Railroadradio.net launched it's current website back on 9/10/2001 (yes, the day before that other date permanently etched in our memories). Since that time we've added (and said goodbye) to many streams over the years.
For the present we plan to stay pretty much at our current number of streams, while we await the Railroads' transition to digital radio communications. Once the migration starts, we'll have no choice but to discontinue the streaming of the railroads/subdivisions that have crossed over to the digital modulation format known as NXDN. The reasons for not carrying the digital format of railroad radio communications are complex and varied, ranging from financial, technical, and ultimately, legal.
We don't know of any fixed dates before railroads start actually using the digital format for mainline operations. All we can tell is that the Eastern Railroads seem to be further ahead in their base-station modernization (something required for the new NXDN digital format) than the western roads. We do see lots of FCC licenses being modified to incorporate use of the digital modulation out west however. The mobile and portable radio fleet for the most part appear to already be NXDN capable, as a result of the railroads purchasing newer 12.5Khz Analog/NXDN capable radios to meet the 1/1/2013 FCC Narrowband requirement of last year.
If people aren't aware, the AAR has a plan in place for railroads to convert from narrowband FM (12.5Khz) to super-narrowband Digital NXDN (6.25Khz) format with no deadline yet imposed.
Some railroads may never change... Caltrain on the SF Peninsula seems to be one that has no plans in this regards.
At the present time, there are no commercially available scanners that will receive the NXDN format. So this will be a real game-changer for trackside monitoring of railroad communications for most fans.
If anyone is interested in further discussion, I'll be glad to share what I know and expect from my professional knowledge of radio communications.. In the meantime, please feel free to visit (and listen to) our site. You'll most likely find something of interest.
All the best,
Jim Groenke
Owner/Operator - www.railroadradio.net
I thought I would post a messaage reminding the old hands, and advising the new folk of our website dedicated to bringing you live railroad radio audio streams from over 50 locations around North America. www.railroadradio.net is the site, and all you need is a streaming audio player such as Windows Media Player, Winamp, iTunes, etc to listen. Site access is free... always has been, always will be.
What prompted me to make this post is my running across an older posting here where someone had stated "Thanks for the reminder about www.railroadradio.net, I'd forgotten that site existed"..
Well, we can't have that now...
Railroadradio.net launched it's current website back on 9/10/2001 (yes, the day before that other date permanently etched in our memories). Since that time we've added (and said goodbye) to many streams over the years.
For the present we plan to stay pretty much at our current number of streams, while we await the Railroads' transition to digital radio communications. Once the migration starts, we'll have no choice but to discontinue the streaming of the railroads/subdivisions that have crossed over to the digital modulation format known as NXDN. The reasons for not carrying the digital format of railroad radio communications are complex and varied, ranging from financial, technical, and ultimately, legal.
We don't know of any fixed dates before railroads start actually using the digital format for mainline operations. All we can tell is that the Eastern Railroads seem to be further ahead in their base-station modernization (something required for the new NXDN digital format) than the western roads. We do see lots of FCC licenses being modified to incorporate use of the digital modulation out west however. The mobile and portable radio fleet for the most part appear to already be NXDN capable, as a result of the railroads purchasing newer 12.5Khz Analog/NXDN capable radios to meet the 1/1/2013 FCC Narrowband requirement of last year.
If people aren't aware, the AAR has a plan in place for railroads to convert from narrowband FM (12.5Khz) to super-narrowband Digital NXDN (6.25Khz) format with no deadline yet imposed.
Some railroads may never change... Caltrain on the SF Peninsula seems to be one that has no plans in this regards.
At the present time, there are no commercially available scanners that will receive the NXDN format. So this will be a real game-changer for trackside monitoring of railroad communications for most fans.
If anyone is interested in further discussion, I'll be glad to share what I know and expect from my professional knowledge of radio communications.. In the meantime, please feel free to visit (and listen to) our site. You'll most likely find something of interest.
All the best,
Jim Groenke
Owner/Operator - www.railroadradio.net
www.railroadradio.net - Still Here... for now...