I have a Radio-Shack PRO-164, so I'm not sure how to know if I'm covered or not. Can someone help me understand what this means? Is this the step frequency? How does this affect the AAR channels?
Thanks.
From a quick look at the situation, it appears that there is not only a narrower bandwidth but also an accompanying narrower 12.5 kHz frequency spacing. That would mean that you need to enter four digits past the decimal point in order to be on frequency.
So it looks like there would be two problems.
1) Narrower bandwidth means the volume is lower. You will need to turn up the volume control to hear the voices as loud as they were previously.
2) Being .5 kHz off frequency (in addition to the narrower bandwidth) means that the radio will have a *little* more difficult time capturing the signal. Fainter transmissions won't be heard at all.
So, if I understand it correctly, the older radios will work, but not as well as the newer ones.
Also, I saw something about the railroads going over to digital or trunking systems? If so, then that would require new radios.
My background with this is more than a quarter century in radio, but not much knowledge of whether the rail industry might take advantage of newer technologies or not. If they grudgingly move to narrow band, then older scanners should work after a fashion. If on the other hand they embrace the new technology, then you'll need to buy a newer scanner to keep pace.
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Bud
