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Electrical interference from power lines is very weather sensitive but it is always broadband noise not a discrete frequency signal. Loose hardware is worse in dry weather and bad insulators or tree contact is worse in wet weather. Some swimming pool heating and other associated equipment is notorio...

With a Yagi, you always go for the peak since there is often a minor lobe off the back and minor nulls are off the back corners and really of no value. Whatever dimensions you picked should work unless you are concerned about use for transmitting on 147. Since the design frequency is 147, the patter...

The dimensions should not be too critical for your application. Any variation in dimensions would probably have a slight effect on beamwidth and impedance but it will still be directional.

Sometimes use of the null off the ends of a horizontal dipole can give a reasonable indication. There is the 180 degree ambiguity but the null is fairly sharp. Even a handheld radio held horizonal will give somewhat of a null with the antenna pointed at or 180 degrees away from the source. Once you ...

I have many years experience in RFI investigation and never heard anything quite like that. So it apparently is a drifting signal affecting a discrete frequency vs a broadband noise? It there any apparent on/off cycle when the signal is active? If it is heard over a wide area, it must be high power ...

My railroad radio exhibit at the New York Museum of Transportation is finally complete and ready for viewing in the NYMT Train Room. It is now a permanent display and it will also be featured during the Antique Fire Trucks gathering on Sunday, September 17. I will be there all day to describe the ex...

I am surprised they were able to walk all the way through the subway. Many years ago (1990's), a friend and I explored from the west end along the freight track connection to R&S. The tunnel ended at a large overhead door near the Gannett Building. It's my understanding they got carloads of pap...

You can check out their web page for contact numbers: https://www.gwrr.com/bprr/contacts/

Most railroads have been buying NXDN capable radios with both the analog and NXDN channels programmed so they may have decided to try NXDN and then switched back to analog.

I got the impression from your original post that the reception was garbled but, if it clearly was the B&P Yard, then that is what you heard. But, even though Toronto reception is not normally possible, with extreme ducting under the right weather conditions over Lake Ontario, Toronto area units...

You may have been hearing CN MacMillen Yard which is NXDN on 160.530 and 160.230, plus many other frequencies, due to enhanced radio propagation at times. The wide use of NXDN in the Toronto area has limited what we have been able to do with our Broadcastify rail feeds in the Western NY area. The Er...

Also, the Welland canal is closing for the winter today 1/7/23 at noon. Should re-open in late March 2023. Algoma Mariner departed Buffalo this morning with coal for Hamilton. Downriver, over the falls, and out to Lake Ontario? :P Closing date was extended to 1/8 but they did cut their departure ki...

The lake freighter Algoma Mariner has arrived in Buffalo and is docked at the former Bethlehem Steel. Doesn't specify if he's loading or unloading nor does it forecast its next destination.....yet. https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:381824/mmsi:316014050/imo:9587893/vessel:AL...

The interference from distant NXDN is generally not strong enough to be a problem on crew portables or locomotive radios. For railfans, most scanners have an attenuator option that can be programmed on a per-channel basis to limit reception to strong, nearby signals. Tuning off- frequency would prob...

The post from ctclark1 describes the situation perfectly. A receiver on the channel in normal analog NBFM mode in carrier squelch will hear the NXDN signal as a very loud pulsating noise and there is nothing you can do to eliminate it. If railroads used coded squelch, the squelch circuit would at le...

You are probably hearing the digital NXDN signal from the Toronto Area on 160.230. I am involved with the Broacastify rail feeds provided around the western NY area by ARS-NET. When we installed the Erie to Buffalo feed ( https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/37641) we had to immediately delete 1...