by Douglas Manor
I'm taking another trip in August aboard VIA#1 to Vancouver, and was wondering if anybody had any tips regarding radio frequencies used by VIA. I recently completed a trip in May, utilizing a 50 channel scanner to monitor conversations along the way. I had purchased the latest Canadian Trackside Guide, and downloaded what I thought were most of the frequencies I'd need. For the dispatcher portion of VIA to CN dispatch, everything worked like a charm, and I was always able to listen hotbox detectors, the CN dispatcher, and head-end conversations through CN's main channels from 1-8 or 9. However, when it came to the VIA employee's handhelds, I noticed I kept missing complete conversations altogether, or only recieved short tail-end snippets of conversations. ( employees were notifying passengers of bears etc. along the route, and I missed that communication altogether ) The two main frequencies listed in the guide for engineer to OBS were 160.200 and 459.2250. I asked my car attendand about the channels on her radio, but she was unable to provide additional information, as she indicated she was handed her radio on the morning of the trip, and had no idea as to the programmed frequencies. Are there additional channels I'm missing and not aware of ? I'm leaving Toronto Tues Aug 2nd, and was hoping to solve this situation.
