Railroad Forums 

  • Casper, WY BNSF dispatch

  • Discussion related to railroad radio frequencies, railroad communication practices, equipment, and more.
Discussion related to railroad radio frequencies, railroad communication practices, equipment, and more.

Moderator: Aa3rt

 #391253  by Zotter
 
Hey all. I'm trying to find some one who has information on who to contact about BNSF's radio system here in town. Preferably a local contact here.

We're getting a BEAUTIFUL, full quieting signal on 146.940mhz - yea, right smack in the 2m ham band. Also happens to be the output freq of one of our local repeaters. And no, we've verified it's not coming through the repeater - by turning it off and still hearing the BNSF traffic on the output freq. Traffic sounds like a dispatcher, talking about switches, cars and rail traffic in Casper, Douglass and Gillette.

Knowing full well this isn't intentional, I'd like to contact someone so we can help get this straightened out. Seems this group may be 'in the know'.

Would MUCH rather make personal contact, help 'em out than be a dick head and go through FCC or some other such silliness. For all I know they may well be having other as of yet undetected issues.

Any and all constructive ideas, suggestions and references welcome!

Thanks!

 #393197  by route_rock
 
Try BNSF.com its our main web site. I know there is a contact us tab on there somewhere.
More than likely they will bounce you around until you finally get someone to talk to you that knows what the score is.Good luck .

 #397745  by jmp883
 
A little late in responding to your post but as a ham I'm surprised you didn't realize it could be skip.

The past 2 weeks or so have seen random band openings all over. I work as public safety dispatcher for two different agencies in northern NJ. At the part-time job, which is VHF-Lo, we were getting incredible skip from a police agency from one of the states in the deep south. They were blowing us right off the air on all 3 of our VHF-Lo frequencies. Unfortunately I never heard an agency name or a set of call letters so I can't identify them.

On the amateur side of things there is a 70cm repeater not far from me that, when conditions are right, allow users to make QSO's nationwide. I've made contacts on 70cm, often cross-banding to 6m or 10m. Those contacts were also radio-to-radio (not Echolink or VOIP), and I've gotten as far west as New Mexico via that repeater.

Like you said it's not intentional, but there is probably nothing anyone can do about it anyway. When conditions are right signals will bounce all over the place. :-D
 #674272  by ke0gb
 
Hello, Rick, KE0GB here.

Railroad Engineer with BNSF in Denver, CO and former radio shop employee.

Just wondering if you were able to resolve your problem there in Casper.

If not, please respond to me as I am in personal touch with the radio personnnel
in the Denver/Powder River areas.

73....

-*-

Richard A. Hendricks, CET, FCC GROL
Licensed Railroad Engineer, BNSF Ry.
Amateur Radio In USA: KE0GB, formerly: DA2WD, AEM1WDR
Email: [email protected]

-*-
 #783914  by EdM
 
could be an image... the local oscillator normally (in most radios) tracks high, though most i.f.'s are around 10.7 mhz .... anyway, a radio also listens on its "image" frequency.... double your i.f freq and add it to 146.94....see if the resultant is near 162... not likely, but who knows.. And just to give you a feel for what could be happening,without putting the numbers in, if he is overdriving his xmtr, the se cond harmonic of your local oscillator could be mixing with his second harmonic to enter your i.f. strip.....and the 2nd with his third, etc etc ad nausium... don't go there.... One of the first computer programs I wrote 45 years ago yields all possible resultant frequencies from the second to fifth harmonics of two signals..... just mentioned to warn you away, GBG..
If you cannot figure out what is happening, the solution, of coarse, is to PL your repeater input... Around metropolitan areas, and NYC is still one of those, all our repeaters are PL access, out of necessity..... it has nothing to do with privacy or exclusion [most repeaters announce their "PL" frequency], but keeps nearby repeaters in adjacent states for keying ours up. Ed
 #786986  by EdM
 
jeez, i wish i had checked the date on this... (cut along dotted line below chin) GBG