NS/CSX Lafayette-Logansport-Rensselaer Indiana Print E-mail
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NS/CSX Lafayette-Logansport-Rensselaer Indiana
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OTHER CHANNELS HEARD FROM TIME TO TIME

 

All of the original AAR channels are in use in this region.  A good resource is the CARMA website (Chicago Area Radio Monitoring Association).

 

More distant channels may be added or subtracted from the scan from time to time, or may be heard depending on weather or radio tropo "skip" conditions. if it is an Amtrak day, we often turn off the scan and monitor only CSX road channel 84.

 

NS crew activities in Lafayette sometimes take place on channels 8 39 49 76 and others. Most of the activity around Subaru and between Dayton and Frankfort is now on channel 39. Employees may also use random unlicensed channels for private conversations. Quite a bit of switching also takes place on road channels.

 

 

If you are in the Monon area, check out the

 

Monon museum and whistle stop restaurant

 

north of Monon. Call ahead for their hours.

 

  http://www.mononconnection.com

 

 

 

THE AMTRAK CARDINAL

 

Hoosier State was discontinued July 1, 2019.

 

Cardinal (51) runs northbound on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Train 50 runs southbound on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

 

Most trains between Rensselaer and Lafayette will be heard on CSX if the engineer is calling the signals.  There is a detector at 92.8 between Monon and Reynolds that announces axle count. For Amtrak, 24 axles is the normal count for the Cardinal. If the axle count is more than 24, there is extra equipment, normally coming from or going to Beech Grove (Amtrak's heavy shop facility).

 

 

TROPOSPHERIC ENHANCEMENT

Things sometimes go nuts on the VHF radio due to weather conditions.  We get a lot of signals off of temperature inversions (skip) caused by Lake Michigan, and when low pressure frontal systems move through the midwest. Tropospheric and sporadic-e transmissions may also be heard from time to time.


 

Here is a link for a nearly real-time propagation map. No longer works with all browsers.

 

http://aprs.mennolink.org