ATCS mobile radio installation

No, this isn't the Wild Hogs!

Every fall for the past 15 or so years I've traveled to the Quad Cities and northern Illinois area to railfan for a couple of days. Most often my wife has accompanied me as far as the hotel. She takes the car during the day and shops at the mall in Moline, IL. Meanwhile, my friend Steve Fye (Quad Cities) and I head off to one of our favorite railfan locations. This year was a bit different. My wife didn't feel she could take the long drive in the car, so I asked Matt Peterson if he would be interested in joining me. Matt didn't hesitate to say yes! So, on September 25th we were off for 4 days of little sleep and lots of trains. Matt has promised to Blog about our adventures in the coming months. I'll focus here on the ATCS aspect of the trip.

My primary interest this time had mostly to do with the ATCS Monitor and using it mobile. If you'll recall from Nat's first Blog, "You’re Sitting Trackside Wondering When the Next Train Will Arrive," we never had to wonder! We just looked at the laptop screen and there was the answer. "You've got four eastbounders and two west coming, the 1st west is in the approach, get your camera ready."

This was for the most part my first attempt to use ATCS mobile, except for a couple of short trips to Interstate to test the radios and laptop. Three days prior to our departure I had a VHF antenna but no VHF radio. A 900mhz radio and no 900mhz antenna. Needless to say it was scramble in the 11th hour to get it all together. But the effort was worth it and the results were outstanding.

Our four day adventure started by driving to Dubuque, IA and East Dubuque. This was the first location we were able to try the mobile ATCS Monitor. It sure worked great as we were able to "see" the trains well before they arrived at our location. Then we were off to Savanna, IL., Clinton, IA., and into the Quad Cities for the night. The next morning we headed to Galesburg, IL and points west. ATCS Monitor was in use all day. Saturday we started off on the westside of Galesburg until the traffic dropped off (we knew that because we had the ATCS display). We then worked our way east towards Chillicothe using the ATCS Monitor all along the way on the BNSF Transcon. We found CP Monica (Moe-nee-ka) in the corn fields just west of Edelstein. After the westbounder passed, I told Matt there was another west at the east approach to Chilli. Those famous photos we all see from Edelstein Hi6ll are westbounders. We made a railfan (you can probably picture this) mad dash to Edelstein Hill arriving just as the train was in the east approach. Matt flew out of the car and got set for that special shot. There were already three other railfans holding the upper ground at this location. Once I parked the car and made it to the "spot" after the train passed. I told everyone that was it for westbounders, we're headin' into Chilli. All thre chimed in "How do you know that?" Well, come over to the car and we'll show you. 3 more railfans were introduced to ATCS Monitor.

By 4:00PM at Chilli we noticed the traffic dropped off. It was a perfect time to grab dinner at the Track Café, just 200’ from the main line. After dinner we could see there were still no westbounders lined up which was too bad, since there was still some useable sunlight. There were a few more eastbounders and the local showed up to switch the yard at Chilli. This ended our day on the BNSF Transcon, and we headed towards our hotel in Rochelle.

The railroads use numerous acronyms such as CTC, DPU, ATCS, PTC, FRED, EOT, etc. After this trip we've "coined" few of our own. VNOL (Vital Number of Laptops); this is the number of laptops you must have to keep ATCS running all day long. That would be a minimum of 2 - 1 in use and the other charging. And, YES we had 2! Then there's VNOR; you guessed it, Vital Number of Radios. That also would be 2, 1 for VHF ARES data and 1 for ATCS 900mhz data. A voice radio is optional, but not nearly as useful as the data display. Here's another one I learned from Matt, SAWMMADFC; (Speed At Which Mag Mount Antennas Detach From the Car!) I think he has some past experience with this?

Needless to say the trip was an overall success. I don't know the number of trains we saw, but it seemed like an endless parade. The best part was we never had to wonder when the next train was coming and from which direction.

Don Schoenberger

The attached photo is the mobile ATCS radio installation. The top radio is a Motorola Maxtrac 900mhz. The lower radio is a Motorola Spectra used for both VHF ARES data and voice. Rather than permanently mounting the radios. I made the the installation portable so that it can be moved from vehicle to vehicle or use as a base station.