Radio » radios

What is the tone on railroad radios used when the train calls the dispatcher?

admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 03:30:38 +0000

What is the tone on railroad radios used for when the train calls the dispatcher? Also are train crews required to use radio pro-words (over,out, roger) when transmitting? Please let me know thank you.

They are the same tones you’d hear on a touch tone phone.We use different keypad numbers for different dispatchers.When you tone a dispatcher it lights up a light on his radio control box so he knows someone wants to talk to him.Some dispatchers might have 20 or 30 radio towers they use so they can’t monitor them all at the same time.His control box is a touch screen.When we tone him up all he has to do is touch the screen to activate the radio the tone was received on. And yes the FRA says we have to use certain radio procedures.We are always supposed to start a radio transmission with our train id such as the UP 4628 West.We don’t use roger and wilco and things like that but they do want to hear over and out used.

Does anyone know what font they use on the new Chevy radios and dash instruments?

admin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:50:30 +0000

I’m trying to figure out if there is a downloadable font that looks like the new radios in the new Chevy’s. I have found a bunch of LCD fonts but they just don’t look like that. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

It looks to me like Arial Rounded MT Bold. If I were making a poster and trying to imitate that is what I’d use. You might need to slightly thicken the strokes to get it just right.

Do car AM radios seem to lose their power over time?

admin — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 07:40:02 +0000

I usually drive my cars until they are 10+ years old, but the AM portion of the radios seem to get worse and worse over time. I notice when I get a rental car, AM works perfectly.

The most common reason for AM reception problems (and this is probably what is happening with age) is poor ground contact at the antenna. It is a big problem with fender mount antennas but also appears with roof mount antennas. The bad ground brings in all sorts of electrical noise because the coax becomes part of the antenna system. Scouring the body with Scotchbrite where the antenna mounts can work wonders, and applying silicone grease can keep it that way.

Does anyone actually want the new digital radios?

admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:52:45 +0000

I have five radios around my home and workshop. Two are reproduction types that look antique.
I really don’t want a digital radio. Does anyone want them?
What will happen to the mountain of discarded radios that we won’t be able to use?
Has anyone thought of the waste of resources?

We’ve only got digital radios, but I detest the idea that everyone should be forced to switch over to them.

It’s a huge waste of resources and will continue to be. I’ll look for the figures, but it costs a lot more to run digital than it does to run analogue.

There’s also the issue of coverage, which isn’t as great as claimed. People living in more remote areas can have difficulty picking up the signal and even in London we find it cuts out inexplicably sometimes.

What is the typical reception range between 2-meter Amateur handheld radios?

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:13:29 +0000

I’d like to know the typical range I could expect between two similar 5-watt radios (without the use of a repeater) in a typical urban environment with moderate trees and buildings.

hand held to hand held, urban location, VHF – FM….. perhaps 5 miles. Both antennas must be perfectly vertical to prevent polarization loss.

Remember that VHF and UHF is line of sight communications, with some really rare exceptions.

Alice Waters: In the Green Kitchen

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 03:37:13 +0000

Listen to the whole interview:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2010/04/06/segments/152958
Alice Waters, champion of the sustainable, local cooking movement, discusses her essential cooking techniques and recipes for good food. Her latest book, In the Green Kitchen, includes more than 50 recipes and instructions on basics from steaming vegetables to dressing a salad to filleting a fish.

Duration : 0:6:57

[youtube H3GoPn_OnZY]

Classic Sesame Street – Yip Yip aliens discover a radio

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:51:16 +0000

I bet I’m the only one who wasn’t traumatized by this clip.

Duration : 0:2:23

[youtube 4qxWGr8VhzQ]

30 Seconds To Mars: Live

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:51:24 +0000

30 Seconds To Mars join us at Absolute Radio to play some live tracks on Geoff Lloyd’s Hometime Show. This session includes the tracks ‘This Is War,’ ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Revenge.’

Duration : 0:13:35

[youtube eJGTcR4bAqs]

Are there small portable Morse radios available for sale?

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:53:37 +0000

If I did get into Morse code, I would want to purchase a small, portable radio to send messages. Portability, for me, would be huge if it were possible to find a portable radio.

Also, how small do these radios typically get? Is it possible to get something as small as a walkee-talkee?

Radios which do morse code can be very small! Personally, I built one and put it in an Altoids tin. I probably could have fit it in something smaller even but you can’t beat the price and they’re everywhere. It’s a 30m rock-mite transceiver and transmits half a watt. It was only $29 from smallwonderlabs.com. Another interesting tiny morse transceiver is the ATS-3b, which has a VFO, operates on 6 bands and up to 4 watts and will still fit in an Altoids tin!

Andrew Jackson Does Emo Rock

admin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:22:20 +0000

The new musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” takes a School House Rocks-approach to the U.S. president. For more, go to http://ow.ly/1uac6

Duration : 0:2:15

[youtube KTbdBeTU11c]