Re: Yet more radios needed

[mauried@tpg.com.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <396F83F0.99EDCE6B@lisp.com.au> John MacCallum <johnmac@lisp.com.au> writes:
>From: John MacCallum <johnmac@lisp.com.au>
>Subject: Re: Yet more radios needed
>Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 07:19:44 +1000


>> One of the most fundamental and obvious problems that arise whan a single
>> organization is broken up into smaller but autonomous groups like the old
>> NSWGR has been, is that every group then wants to do its own thing,and the
>> basic logic of having a single radio system that all of the parts can use is
>> simply lost.
>> This problem has manifested itself Nationwide since 1980 when Vline went
>> Motorola and all the other systems then introduced their own and incompatible
>> radio systems,ie the well being of the whole industry is simply ignored.
>> Contrast the mess we now have in the Rail industry with the aviation industry
>> where we have a single worldwide accepted standard for radio comms.
>> Its just a matter of good will and common sense ,of which in the Rail industry
>> there is neither.
>> 
>> MD
>I agree whole heartedly Maurie.
>There should be an allocated band for Rail use. This could be a trunking
>system with Simplex Repeaters as well. Then depending on what
>area you are travelling through you select the appropriate channel.

There is.
The ROA (Railways of Australia) commission approached the SMA ( now the ACA ) 
in the late 1970s to request that a common block of channels be allocated 
Australia wide .
I was working for the SMA at the time and its no mean feat to find 40 channels 
in the one band that are clear across the whole country but we did it.
The channels are all in the top two megs of the 410 - 420 Mhz band primarily 
in the 418 to 420 range with the reverse channel 9.45 Mhz lower.
The intent was that given there were 40 channels available Australia wide for 
Railways,then the Railways would use them in a common way.
Vline , the then AN and Westrail all used the common spectrum but used 
incompatible equipment in it ,and the SRA used 450.050 plus some of the common 
spectrum .
The Cityrail system I beleive operates between 450 and 460 Mhz.

I dont know what QR uses.
To make matters worse the old SAR used VHF as did also Tasrail.
In short the idea didnt work.
I cant help thinking that if the old NSWGR still existed then at least NSW 
might have just one common system.

MD