New Antenna

[csxjs]

I was railfanning at cp 43 on the River Sub today and noticed a new antenna on the metal control box that had "Digital Antenna" printed on it. It is about 12" in height. Does anyone know what this is used for?

[DutchRailnut]

Looks like its for the voice transmissions of a detector

[cifn2]

I have seen one of these when they replaced signals on the Illinois Sub Vincennes to St Louis Line. I wonder if it is not some sort of effort at progressing towards the future for PTC, or if it is related to having ATCS.

[csxjs]

I have another- I went to CP 43 and saw this folded dipole array- It was erected next to the dispatcher tower pointing N-S
Any Ideas? Is it related to PTC or ATCS as mentioned above?

[Freddy]

Looks like a 'Uni-directional' antenna like we had on the Lineville Sub.(CSX) for the radio control signal system that was used.

[RSD15]

Also looks like two of the antennas are for UHF transmitting and the other two for VHF.

[indie1361]

Hi,

I have an older scanner, probably about 20 years old. Whenever I railfan tourist lines, I pick up their radio chatter perfectly. But whenever I've been out to the Reading and Northern, NS, or Amtrak, I can't pick up any radio chatter, I can only seem to pick up bits and pieces. Anyone know what the problem might be?

[DutchRailnut]

the railroads are converting to narrow band 12.5 spacing, a lot of tourist railroads are still exempt.
Your old scanner may need to be replaced with a newer unit that can do both 25 or 12.5 khz band spacing.