Railfan Technology > Scanning technology question

Recently I was visiting Blue Island (Chicago) and witnessed a teenage railfan grabbing some amazing train lineup data in the field and was curious about the technology. Being an over-50 late-adopting progressive Luddite, I am sometimes behind-the-times but willing to learn.

So somehow, this kid was getting a feed on his celphone of exact train lineups - he knew exactly how far they were from our location, what track they were on, approximately when they would arrive, and the lead locomotive. Another railfan at the location told me that he was using a program on his home PC that was scanning radio freqs, processing the data, then repeating the info to his celphone.

Anyone know what this is? Does everyone know about it but me?

dwatry

ATCS Monitor

Read all about it: http://www.atcsmon.com/

Scott Schifer
Torrance, CA
TinyTrains Website

Thanks!

tinytrains Wrote:
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> ATCS Monitor
>
> Read all about it: http://www.atcsmon.com/

If they know the leader it don't sound like their using ATCS.

Does the official company version combine the lead unit number and the ATCS functions? I've heard about Managers having this available on a field laptop, never seen it though.

Agree that the hobbyists version is often run from a home located PC and Radio receiver, de-mod etc. but I didn't think it included the lead unit number or OS times. The lead unit number sounds more like a company database, not sure what the format or possible data options would be though.

It may also be morphed together as a good sounding rumor, actually being separate displays or sources.

I think the company version does include lead unit numbers. It's been a few years since I've seen it so I could be wrong.

ATCS Monitor does not have that info.

Ryan Wilkerson
Fair Oaks, CA