Railfan Technology > NXDN scanners. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I’m about a week late on this but here it is anyway. Every year I attend the Dayton Hamvention, the largest gathering of ham radio operators in America. (I was in the hospital last year and couldn’t attend.) The convention draws quite a few manufacturers of radio equipment, both for the amateur (ham) and some for the professional. Each year I visit several of those manufacturers and inquire about NXDN. Several years ago, some of them would respond with, “NXDN? What’s that? Never heard of it.” Two years ago, most of them knew what I was talking about but that was about it. Since then, AOR has introduced their receiver capable of NXDN, the AR-DV-1, available for about $1250. That was about a year ago, maybe longer. AOR has a handheld, the AR-DV-10 that was recently introduced, approximately $1100. AOR make the high-end state of the art receivers and as such, they are rather pricey. Others have also introduced receivers or scanners capable of NXDN reception. Recently, Uniden offered an NXDN software upgrade for several of their high-end scanners for about $75.00. These scanners are in the $300 and up range. Whistler was rumored to have an NXDN scanner in the mill two years ago but their reps were tight-lipped about it. They knew what NXDN was but wouldn’t talk about it. They introduced an NXDN software upgrade for two of their top-end scanners in December of 2016. They now have a desktop and handheld scanners that are NXDN capable out of the box. Both are over $350 street prices. They are waiting final approval to introduce another updated model, probably by mid-summer. Price will be in the $350-450 range. Icom has introduced their IC-R30 handheld. MSRP is $725 but discounters have it in the $600 range. Somehow I missed the Alinco booth. I checked their website and it seems that nothing has changed significantly in two years. They have some UHF radios but nothing for VHF where most railroad communications take place.

That’s kind of a summary of what I found out. There are other products on the market. You can often buy a commercial 2-way radio for less than the cost of a scanner. The big trade-off is the inability to field program the commercial radios. If your only interest is railroading, they offer a great choice. If you ever want to listen to anything else, the consumer grade receivers or scanners would be your choice. As WW here on Trainorders often advises, the Icom and Kenwood commercial radios are often the better choice and are less expensive. I have found new radios on e-bay that are already pre-programmed for all of the AAR channels. They were in the $300-400 range if I recall.

So, the Good, the bad, and the ugly? The good is that there are new products being introduced. I expect more in the next several months. Also, the railroads are not expected to go “whole hog” NXDN for several years. The bad news is they are still somewhat rare and only in the high-end products. The ugly is the price of some of the products. When the cheap Chinese analog radios can be bought for under $30 it’s pretty ugly to see price tags over $500 for a lot of the products.

I hope this is of some value to many of you. I occasionally look for news of new products. If I hear of anything new, I'll post what I know.

John

Thanks for the update. Interesting to see how NXDN 'roll-out' actually happens.

Thank you, John, for the very interesting report on what is available in NXDN radios, and the prices, and all. But nowadays it seems that far less info is being transmitted by voice than in the past, as more and more railroads are using computers to send and receive info, including, for instance. MOW crews, and those old standbys, the talking detectors, which are being changed to talking on entrance only, and are silent on exit if it found no defects. This change is being driven by the large number of radio transmissions needed thee days by modern railroads. There may be detectors that really do talk on defect only, but I am not sure about that.

Just my 2 cents to add to this interesting post.

Glad the railroads aren't switching over too soon I am still thinking of what I am going to get for future comms. I hope they still talk by the time they do switch over though. I know right now I still get some talk with the DS and the hotbox detectors in my area and I also get some crew talk as well. It's not quite as good though as it use to be though over the years.

From,

Kurt

I don't believe NXDN is ever going to happen industry wide on the railroads. Only in a few instances like some short lines will ever go to it. And the AAR doesn't mandate it any more.
DMC

Based on what I have heard from some insiders working with railroad communication people, NXDN deployment (and most other radio communication improvements) have taken a back seat to PTC implementation. In addition, it is apparent that other forms of wireless communication and data transfer technologies (including PTC) are reducing and will continue to reduce the amount of voice communications that occur over the railroad radio system--NXDN or not. Simply put, the halcyon days of getting all kinds of information on train movements, etc. by monitoring the railroad radio system using a cheap scanner are already drawing to a close.

On a side note, I've seen prices starting to drop on used NXDN radios out in the market. The NXDN radio manufacturers (Icom and Kenwood) are now into their second and third generation iteration of NXDN models, so some of the first generation models (which are still in use by the railroads) are now starting to flow into the used radio marketplace.

Having worked in the two-way radio communications field since I was 18, now 69, I think that the switch over will be done quite easily if the radios are properly programmed.

I worked on the 800 MHz public-safety rebanding project in Texas and New Mexico and based on the channel capacity for the Kenwood and Icom radios, at least 500 channels, all that needs t be done is select the NXDN channel bank.

Also, some if not all of the radios probably have over the air programming so the radio management folks can probably do the switch over using a computer and correct software.

So, it will be quite simple compared to PTC, which I agree needs to be addressed first and foremost.

During a recent trip from Texas to Virginia, I think some railroads are operating NXDN on a very limited basis because I heard digital signals in the railroad band, especially in large metro areas.

Uniden also has a new scanner, $650+, limited quantity, SDS 100 that is NXDN capable, specs:


APCO P25 Phase I and II
Motorola, EDACS, and LTR Trunking
MotoTRBO Capacity + and Connect +*
NXDN 4800 and 9600*
EDACS ProVoice

Customizable Color Display
Trunktracker X
APCO P25 Phase I and II
Motorola, EDACS, and LTR Trunking
MotoTRBO Capacity + and Connect +**
DMR Tier III**
Hytera XPT**
Single-Channel DMR**
NXDN 4800 and 9600**
EDACS ProVoice**
Location-Based Scanning
USA/Canada Radio Database
ZIP Code Selection for Easy Setup
Close Call™ RF Capture with Do Not Disturb
8 GB microSD
Soft Keys for Intellegent UI
Recording, Playback, and Replay
Temporary Avoid
Fire Tone-Out Alert
System Analysis and Discovery
CTCSS/DCS/NAC/RAN/Color Code Decoding
S.A.M.E. Weather Alert
Enhanced Dynamic Memory
Preemptive Trunking Priority
Fully Customizable Scanning with your own Favorites Lists
Backlit Keypad
Channel Volume Offset
PC Programming and Control
USB Connectivity and Charging
Weekly Database Updates
Free Sentinel Software keeps the SDS100 database and memory up to date
Up to 8 Hours Operation on included LiIon Battery

Pat
WA5VRO
South Austin, TX