Railroad
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Finding Specific Railroad Frequencies
A great place to start is the RRDB for your particular area. Sometimes, there is not any information to be had and this is where it can be fun!
If you live in the USA you can find all the railroad licenses in your area with a visit to the FCC's website
Next, select one of the Frequency (Range) queries and then enter 160.2150 and 161.5650 for the begin and end search frequencies.
For Service select Land Mobile - Private [LP]
For Radio Service select Industrial/Business Pool - Conventional [IG]
You can then download the results or search them and make a custom spreadsheet with only the fields you want and download it.
As always, be sure to submit any new information for inclusion in the RRDB!
If you don't find it here or in the database, feel free to post a message in the RadioReference's Railroad-Railfan Monitoring Forum.
Amtrak routes and frequencies can be found on the On Line On Track Amtrak page
VHF Frequencies
Railroad radios display the transmit and receive frequency as American Association of Railroads (AAR) channel numbers. For example, these numbers will be referred to over-the-air as "1616" for AAR channel 16 (160.350) or "1180" for AAR channels 11 and 80 in full duplex use (Dispatch transmits on one channel and the train transmits on the other channel).
AAR Ch Frequency 02 159.8100 Canada Only 03 159.9300 Canada Only (Used by Trucking Companies in the US) 04 160.0500 Canada Only (Used by Trucking Companies in the US) 05 160.1850 Canada Only (Used by Trucking Companies in the US) 06 160.2000 Canada Only (Used by Trucking Companies in the US) 07 160.2150 08 160.2300 09 160.2450 10 160.2600 11 160.2750 12 160.2900 13 160.3050 14 160.3200 15 160.3350 16 160.3500 17 160.3650 18 160.3800 19 160.3950 20 160.4100 21 160.4250 22 160.4400 23 160.4550 24 160.4700 25 160.4850 26 160.5000 27 160.5150 28 160.5300 29 160.5450 30 160.5600 31 160.5750 32 160.5900 33 160.6050 34 160.6200 35 160.6350 36 160.6500 37 160.6650 38 160.6800 39 160.6950 40 160.7100 41 160.7250 42 160.7400 43 160.7550 44 160.7700 45 160.7850 46 160.8000 47 160.8150 48 160.8300 49 160.8450 50 160.8600 51 160.8750 52 160.8900 53 160.9050 54 160.9200 55 160.9350 56 160.9500 57 160.9650 58 160.9800 59 160.9950 60 161.0100 61 161.0250 62 161.0400 63 161.0550 64 161.0700 65 161.0850 66 161.1000 67 161.1150 68 161.1300 69 161.1450 70 161.1600 71 161.1750 72 161.1900 73 161.2050 74 161.2200 75 161.2350 76 161.2500 77 161.2650 78 161.2800 79 161.2950 80 161.3100 81 161.3250 82 161.3400 83 161.3550 84 161.3700 85 161.3850 86 161.4000 87 161.4150 88 161.4300 89 161.4450 90 161.4600 91 161.4750 92 161.4900 93 161.5050 94 161.5200 95 161.5350 96 161.5500 97 161.5650 -- 161.6100 Shared with Marine (Existing railroad users are grandfathered)
UHF Frequencies
Frequencies on the same line can be paired for possible full duplex or repeater use. 452.9375 is a common EOT device frequency in Canada. 457.9375 is a common EOT device frequency in the USA.
452.3250 / 457.3250 452.3750 / 457.3750 452.4250 / 457.4250 452.4750 / 457.4750 452.7750 / 457.7750 452.8250 / 457.8250 452.8750 / 457.8750 452.9000 / 457.9000 452.9125 / 457.9125 Telemetry 452.9250 / 457.9250 Remote Control/Remote Indicator 452.9375 / 457.9375 Telemetry/Remote Control/Remote Indicator 452.9500 / 457.9500 Remote Control/Remote Indicator 452.9625 / 457.9625 Telemetry/Remote Control/Remote Indicator
Narrowbanding (Refarming) the Railroad Service
Many rumors have circulated regarding the refarming of the railroad radio band and whether or not people will be able to monitor it once the changes are made. First of all, don't worry... These changes will progress very slowly. There isn't going to be a point where everything changes in a day, or even a month. It will take years before the whole rail system adopts a totally new standard. Once it does, you will still be able to monitor it. The way you monitor it may change, but it will still be open.
The basis for these changes are the various mandates that the FCC has imposed for radio systems... Their overall goal is to reorganize the radio spectrum so there's more room for all of the wireless equipment being put into use today, and also to try and create more interoperability between various services. One of the ways they're creating more space, is by narrowing the channel spacing in different service bands by splitting them.
The original AAR railroad radio band has a 15 kHz spacing between each channel. Modern technology allows channels to be spaced much closer together now, which creates more channels in a much smaller amount of radio spectrum. The FCC mandates that new radio systems use a smaller 12.5 kHz spacing by 2013. They also want new radio systems to eventually be capable of an even smaller channel spacing, mandating that manufacturers make all new equipment capable of a 6.25 kHz spacing by 2011, and that end users of new systems use a 6.25 kHz spacing by 2018. The new railroad band plan shown below is the one that would be adopted for the first 12.5 kHz mandate by 2013. This plan does not require radios to be digital. However, due to technical limitations for the much tighter 6.25 kHz channel spacing that will eventually happen, that plan will most likely require radios to be digital. It's this second new plan due in 2018 that has railroads experimenting with digital and trying to decide how exactly they will go about the change. Most radios being purchased now are capable of both analog and digital, or they're at least capable of being modified to digital.
So what will digital mean? For now it's hard to say exactly how it will all work. The most important thing to emphasize though, is that this will be a very slow change, and it will most likely NOT include any encryption on normal voice channels. For now, two digital protocols seem to be getting tested by the railroads and evaluated. The earliest one is APCO-25 or 'P25'. This protocol is already widely in use around the US on various civil and private radio systems. However, Motorola has indicated that they don't seem to have much interest in the railroad industry at this point, due to the fact that they've discontinued both the railroad Spectra and Astro Spectra radio models. Also in the running for the new digital protocol for railroad radio is the Kenwood / Icom format called NXDN. This protocol is newer and proprietary to Kenwood and Icom equipment. It's also cheaper to implement than P25. Having a proprietary digital protocol for the rail industry wouldn't be that much of a problem, because unlike civil services, the rail industry is fairly self contained. They don't need their system to be compatible with other services. It's been reported that the big roads have been testing not only P25 but also the NXDN protocol. Which one will be the winner is still up in the air; perhaps neither in the end. As of late 2008, some of the new radio equipment being fielded by the large roads is:
- Norfolk Southern: Kenwood TK-290 portables, unknown mobiles.
- CSX: Icom portables, Motorola mobiles and Kenwood portables.
- BNSF: Kenwood TK-290 & TK-2180 portables, some Motorolas, Kenwood TK-790 and 740 mobiles.
- UPRR: Kenwood TK-290 & TK-2180 portables.
Motorola no longer produces a dedicated 'clean cab' railroad radio, such as the Spectra or Astro Spectra. Motorola does have the P25 capable XTL2500 and XTL5000 mobiles, but these are not dedicated 'clean cab' style radios. There's basically three known 'clean cab' style radios other than the old Motorolas. They're produced by JEM, Wabtec (Kenwood NX-700s with custom control head), and GE (formerly Harmon). In 2008, Ritron Inc. introduced a newly-designed clean cab radio.
Proceed to Narrowband VHF Railroad Frequencies
Frequencies and Links
- Railfan Radio FAQ
- Current VHF Railroad Frequencies
- Narrowband VHF Railroad Frequencies
- UHF Railroad Allocations
- Radio Reference Live Rail Feeds
- Railroading/Railscanning/Railfanning links
- Motorola Spectra Railroad radio
- Federal Railroad Administration
- Advanced Train Control System (ATCS) Frequencies
Forum Threads
Related Software Applications
Mailing Lists
Return to DB page: Railroads
Return to Wiki page: Common Frequencies
- US and Canadian Common Railroads Frequencies
- Alabama Railroads
- Alabama Railroads Frequencies
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- Alaska Railroads Frequencies
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- Arizona Railroads Frequencies
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- District of Columbia Railroads Frequencies
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- Rhode Island Railroads Frequencies
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- West Virginia Railroads Frequencies
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- Wisconsin Railroads Frequencies
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- Wyoming Railroads Frequencies