Clueless conductor needs a little help with his radio...

Greetings,
To make a long story short, I'm a conductor on the NS. My old radio bit the dust a few weeks ago. It was a Motorola and one of the channels was preset to the National Weather Service. It was a used radio when I got it, I'm guessing the previous user set it up, since I don't know of any other RR employees that get the NWS with company issued radios.

Anyhow, my new radio (Kenwood TK-290) is set up with 16 of the most common channels on the NS, but I won't ever use at least four of those channels. It's new, the radio shop boys at the company set it up. How can I modify this badboy to get the weather service? It would be great if I could get an FM station too...


TIA

Channel programming requires the Kenwood software and special cable that your radio shop has. It is not user programmable. You could ask the Radio Maintainer about programming the weather in one channel for you.

It can't get FM broadcast.

Hummm okay..thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

-r

Even if your hardware could get commercial FM stations, radio shop wouldn't do it for you anyway. It's company policy outlined in your rulebook. Or are you just testing us? ;-)

The Nat'l Weather Svc is not a "commercial" broadcast- indeed, it would be a GOOD thing for conductors to get weather reports, as they are in the field and can watch for bad weather. One good summer storm can wreak havoc on a mainline with trees down and washouts.

JBlaisdell wrote:The Nat'l Weather Svc is not a "commercial" broadcast- indeed, it would be a GOOD thing for conductors to get weather reports, as they are in the field and can watch for bad weather. One good summer storm can wreak havoc on a mainline with trees down and washouts.

Some RRs recognize this and program the "spare" channels 1, 98 & 99 in an AAR radio or unused channels in portables for the NWS channel(s) used in the area. That is why I suggested "razor" ask the radio maintainer if this was allowed and could be done with his radio. If not, I think it would be a good topic for a safety suggestion.

UP radio shop allows the NOAA wx to be prgrammed in the older Motorolos as well as the new digital Motorolas. And since the NOAA broadcasts on the 162 Mhz range which is just a step above the railroad freqs of 160-161 Mhz, the broadcast comes in just fine with the supplied antenna on the handie.

On the UP, we actually had a machine, in the yard office at Settegast, that you put your radio into, and selected the channels you wanted, and they were programmed right into it. A great thing, for guys on the extra board, who worked all over southern Texas and Louisianna. I remember there being 3 weather channels to chose from, as well as UP, BNSF, PTRR, KCS and various shortline frequencies to chose from. We didn't need a radio shop, to do it. The thing was like a vending machine. Very, very helpful, to guys carrying portables. Our radios were 16 channel, with keypads on the radio, for DTMF purposes. Regards

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:On the UP, we actually had a machine, in the yard office at Settegast, that you put your radio into, and selected the channels you wanted, and they were programmed right into it. A great thing, for guys on the extra board, who worked all over southern Texas and Louisianna. I remember there being 3 weather channels to chose from, as well as UP, BNSF, PTRR, KCS and various shortline frequencies to chose from. We didn't need a radio shop, to do it. The thing was like a vending machine. Very, very helpful, to guys carrying portables. Our radios were 16 channel, with keypads on the radio, for DTMF purposes. Regards

Still have one where I am at...nice machine indeed.

Ya there are 7 NOAA frequencies most areas you can receive more than one.

162.400

162.425

162.450

162.475

162.500

162.525

162.550

It would be great if I could get an FM station too...

I know NOAA is not a commerical broadcast, but the original poster was asking if he could get FM stations on his radio.

"Why didn't you get that last switch?"

"Sorry boss, I was rocking out to Metallica on 102.7."

-otto-

Well, first off, the TK-290 allegedly holds 160 channels, which is way more than enough for all the AAR channels and the NOAA weather channels. I know Motorola radios have various channel capacities, but Kenwood seems to stick with one amount per radio, and it's usually well in excess of 100. Look into it, I guess...

As for getting FM radio on it, it's not gonna happen. The TK-790 covers the VHF band only (136-174 Mhz).

Otto Vondrak wrote:

It would be great if I could get an FM station too...

I know NOAA is not a commerical broadcast, but the original poster was asking if he could get FM stations on his radio.

"Why didn't you get that last switch?"

"Sorry boss, I was rocking out to Metallica on 102.7."

-otto-

FM broadcasts are 150 KHz wide. Railroad transmissions are 15 KHz wide. The filters in a railroad or similar radio will not pass FM broadcast radio signals.

Ken W2KB wrote:FM broadcasts are 150 KHz wide. Railroad transmissions are 15 KHz wide. The filters in a railroad or similar radio will not pass FM broadcast radio signals.

Tell that to my roommate (not a ham) who purchased a VX7R and listens to FM on it (and nothing else)...

keeper1616 wrote:

Ken W2KB wrote:FM broadcasts are 150 KHz wide. Railroad transmissions are 15 KHz wide. The filters in a railroad or similar radio will not pass FM broadcast radio signals.

Tell that to my roommate (not a ham) who purchased a VX7R and listens to FM on it (and nothing else)...

The VX7R ham transceiver has a wideband FM filter to accomodate FM commercial radio broadcasts. I would be surprised if Motorola or other high quality FCC commercial band tranceiver has this option.

That said, the VX7R is one heck of an expensive low-fidelity receiver to use for FM broadcast.