RAILROAD RADIOS

[LIMARC]

I have two questions.

1 how much is a radio new with all the ARR radio frequencies & can i run it in my house on AC with a power supply??

i would like i real railroad radio.

also what are the price ranges for the one with APCO 25 CAPABILITY

are there any other companies that make radios only with ARR frequencies in them???

thanks

[escomm]

The railroad models have been discontinued...

I saw an ad in Trains magazine from Railcom that they have the Astro RR radios in stock... but I am sure they are going to ask you for your firstborn (and perhaps and arm and a leg) for one...

[k2hz]

The GE 12R Series II seems to be the only AAR 12-2 locomotive radio still in production.

You can sometimes find Analog RR Spectras on eBay for around $500 and you can run them in receive only with a 12V supply rated at at least 4 Amps. If you want to listen to more than one frequency you need to be aware the radio has no scan capability.

Also, in buying any used Spectra, beware of the possiblity it suffers from the leaky capacitor problem. Make sure the seller guarantees it is in good working condition.

Last I knew, new locomtive radios were in the several thousand dollar price range. You need the budget of a major railroad to even think about buying one.

You can sometimes get a good deal (under $100) on eBay on an Aerotron Alpha 1700 locomotive radio that is very similar to the Analog Spectra.

[Leadenwah]

Motorola's Railroad radio sometime called the " Clean Cab " is nice one for
dedicated railroad buffs, but it's hardly ever close to clean when found on
Ebay. If it doesn't come with all cables and connectors, you may have a
chore in finding them. Not all of them are plug and play.
I don't believe that it scans so consider that as well. Many railroad devotees
have an abiding love of authenticity where expense and hassle are not
problems which would be one of the few reasons to undertake this one.

A good old Spectra VHF would serve you well, but heed the warning about
leaking capacitors in the previous post. Will on this forum does a very
good job replacing them. If you get a decent price on a Spectra you should
get the caps replaced and then you've go a nice radio with room for all the
RR channels plus a few extra to boot. The Spectra A5 and A7 heads give
you an 8 character alpha-numeric display which is all you need to ID each
RR channel.

The old MT1000 VHF 99 channel handheld radio is sometimes sold on Ebay
programmed with most if not all RR frequencies and sold as a "railroad" radio.
You can pick up one of these and program it yourself for much less usually,
but you only have a numeric display on top ( 01-99 ) to ID the channels.

[Radio99]

I am by no means an expert but I will tell what I know about railroad radios. The MCX100 Railroad preceeded the railroad Spectra. It had 97 channels installed. There was no scan. To change or add frequencies beyond the original 97 you would need a prom and a prom blower. While this was a drawback, the audio quality was outstanding and in my opinion surpasses the audio of the railroad Spectra. Yes I have an MCX100 and am babying it along so it keeps playing. It is no longer supported and parts are no longer available.

The railroad Spectra replaced the MCX100. It weighs in at 18 pounds and could probably take a direct hit from a surface-to-air missile and keep playing. It has a 99 channel capacity along with 99 "home channels". It is programmed with Motorola Radio Service software and will do PL or DPL on any channel or "home" Channel. It does not scan. It has an internal microphone but also has provisions for connecting an external mic or telephone type handset.
It will run off 12 volts DC or 72 volts DC. It has a universal power cable that fits into the side connector. The display shows the standard AAR channel configuration (79 79) but you can customize the "home" channels with up to eight characters (CSX CH 1), (AMTRAK 2), etc. This radio is currently discontinued by Motorola and was replaced by the Astro Spectra railroad (which was discontinued last December). As recently as a week ago, Railcom (http://www.railcom.net) had some Astro Spectra railroad radios available. I was quoted $3200.00 each and that was for a basic unit without the Astro capability. The Astro Spectra railroad radios come with the 97 AAR channels in wide band, the 97 AAR channels in narrow band and some weather channels thrown in between. I have not had the opportinity to play with one of the Astro Spectra railroad units. The Railroad Spectra has excellent audio quality and if you use the auxiliary connector and external speaker, the audio most likely will blow you out of the room. There was just one of these up on Ebay and it went for something like $450.00. They do show up from time to time on the used market but usually are pretty beat up (unless you can find one that was in a private car or locomotive). They do clean up nicely and some parts are still available from Motorola. Check the Batlabs listing here http://batlabs.com/rrspectra.html for all the details on the unit and here http://batlabs.com/mgallery.html for some photos of the unit and its connectors. Yes I have one of these too.

Hope this helps you out.

[Glen W Christen]

More history: The predecessor to the MCX100 was the good old MICOR. It was limited to the same channel configurations as the standard Micor, but had a chassis extension which allowed it to be used on 12 Vdc, 72 V dc, and 110 V ac, or all three, depending on which power supply modules were installed. The radio had a control head which was similar to the METROCOM, and used a cast-aluminum housing which was 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, mounted on a 1-inch pipe. I replaced several that had been deliberately broken, which was no mean feat.
The MOTRAC (HHT all tube TX) preceded the Micor and was also 12 or 72 volt (Switchable), limited to 2 frequency. I had many come in that were litterly held together only with the wiring harness - there must have been some resonant frequency that had every screw back itself out.
The T43G series preceded the MICOR - all tube, 72 volt only, remote mounted control head. It used a transistor switching power supply on the rear of the chassis, single channel, at least in the configuration that I saw.