A strange antenna question

[KF5FUR]

I have an old locomotive antenna, I think is operates on 159-161 MHz, it looks like with little modification I could use it for a patch feed on my 10ft BUD, or just a skip BUD antenna. Has anyone seen and or worked with these before?
BTW, are there any stationary amateur satellites?

 

[KF5FUR]

hoping this post will bring this old thread up to the top for a bit.

I never found out what this antenna was for or what operating frequencies.
Is that disk on top some sort of capacitance hat? Does it keep the signal dispersion low to earth for greater gain? I assume it is for either locomotive to base or locomotive to walkies or both.

 

[gamegetter]

i am going out on a limb here, but I think it may be an antenna that was to transmit a signal from the last rail road car up to the engineer. the signal would indicate brake problems or issues of some sort.

the antenna does not appear to be very big so it may very well have been used for something like that. I do not know what frequency this was used on but maybe this will jar other folks memories or get this moving along for you.

good luck with it.

 

[RatsoW8]

Just goes to prove there are no strange antenna questions....only strange antennas!

 

[gamegetter]

that's for sure........

but i think it would be uhf.

 

[KingCobra_CDX882]

I agree on the UHF likelihood

 

[HomerBB]

I think it strongly resembles the inside of an SWR/field strength meter. Or some sort of short blocky-looking piece from a sleeve antenna, or some sort of EH antenna gone bad . . .

I'm sure none of this helps, but I certainly don't know.

 

[gamegetter]

Railway Brake History

"Use of distributed power (i.e., remotely controlled locomotive units midtrain and/or at the rear end) mitigates somewhat the time-lag problem with long trains, because a telemetered radio signal from the engineer in the front locomotive commands the distant units to initiate brake pressure reductions that propagate quickly through nearby cars."

"More recent innovations are electronically controlled pneumatic brakes where the brakes of all the wagons (cars) and locomotives are connected by a kind of local area network, which allows individual control of the brakes on each wagon, and the reporting back of performance of each wagon's brakes."



Took this from the following article:
Railway air brake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I really think it is rail road car related as the poster thinks. Just don' know what freq. in uhf i would suspect.

 

[Beetle]

Try sweeping it with an MFJ-269 analyzer or a grid dip meter. Find out where it's resonant.

 

[IMD262]

"Fred & Wilma", usually on 452.9375/457.9375 MHz.

Flashing rear-end device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[unit_399]

Try sweeping it with an MFJ-269 analyzer or a grid dip meter. Find out where it's resonant.

It's probably designed for the 160mhz range. That's where the fcc-allocated AAR (Association of American Railroads) frequencies are located.

- 399

 

[gamegetter]

nice info guys

i'll throw in the possibility its a dual band

 

[KF5FUR]

Try sweeping it with an MFJ-269 analyzer or a grid dip meter. Find out where it's resonant.

I have buddies that have them, but it would be nice if I knew where that antenna was. It had a nice cast in so-239 connector on the base and could've easily been modified for a patch feed or just a "LNB" of sorts for my 10ft mesh dish. But it is either right under my nose here at the house or it is in the city dump (my father might have thrown it away), he likes to rifle through my junk and chunk stuff he thinks is trash. I am 27 and my 62 year old father comes to my house and still tells me how to run my life, fathers gotta love'm. :headbang