This is a two parter --

(1) Is RC DCC included in the NMRA specificatioins?

and,

(2) What are the 10 reasons I should not worry about interference from radio, TV, RC cars (lots of nieghborhood kids like to run their cars on the street)during operations of the layout?

-- Mansfield (gofigure@zianet.com), July 22, 1998

Answers

Mansfield,

As far as specs Standards & RPs for wireless Radio and/or IR. No they are not covered. But were designed so as not to restict this application either. It is more or less left up to the manufacturers to implement it the way they want to. One manufacturer went so far as to limit it's bus frequency so to make it easier and more adapatable to radio frequecies.

As far as 10 reasons. Well off hand I can not think of ten, but can give you a couple of good ones.

So far there has only been one manufacturer to release a wireless system. Digitrax and their system uses 900mHZ. This has proven to be a very good system so far, and at 900mHZ I have not heard of any problems with interference, even at shows where more then one system was running on different channels in the 900mHZ frequencies.

It would seem that so far it has proven to be pretty much interference free. My guess would be as good as 900mHz cordless phones.

Don

-- Don Crano (donc@sssnet.com), July 22, 1998.

Our EasyDCC System now offers a true wireless throttle that uses the ISM band - 902MHz to 928MHz. This band is reserved for unlicensed, low power transmitters. RC cars/airplanes, TV, cell phones, walkie- talkies don't use this band.

In the last two years, we have uncovered some interesting and unexpect interference sources. Old time switching power supplies and modern Triac dimming lamp circuits can create a surprising amount of interference. Analog cordless phones are seldom a problem. However, the newer digital cordless phones can create greater levels of interference thanks to their spread-spectrum modulation technique. Other than these sources which are relatively easy to fix, the ISM band remains relatively uncluttered.

-- Keith Gutierrez (kggcvp@aol.com), September 20, 2000.