Envisioning a Smarter Railway-Specific Radio: Breaking Through Traditional Design - By Wang Dawei

China's railway system serves as a critical artery for the nation's economic development. With the rapid advancement of technology and economy, the railway communication system and terminals have significantly improved, ensuring the safety and efficiency of transportation scheduling. Among them, radio transceivers play a crucial role in various aspects of railway operations, such as stations, locomotives, train crews, duty personnel, inspection personnel, station passenger staff, and line bridge power supply. They enable efficient communication and ensure the safety of railway operations.

However, dedicated radio transceivers for the railway industry are relatively rare. Most positions use modified conventional transceivers, which cannot fully meet the diverse communication needs of the railway environment. For example, railway station operation duty officers and passenger duty officers often need to use multiple radios simultaneously to ensure timely communication of train dispatching information and passenger service status. Some common and high-speed railway station operation and receiving duty officers even need to carry three radios to maintain contact with common railway train dispatching, passenger platforms, and high-speed train locomotives. Similar situations are common at railway engineering construction sites, where safety officers and foremen often need two to three radios to simultaneously communicate with personnel in different positions. One radio is used for real-time communication with the on-site safety officer, another for real-time communication with the on-site construction, and a third one may be configured to monitor the train dispatching channel.

Adhering to the principle of safety first, various railway-related positions require information sharing and timely coordination. While the use of multiple devices can solve some communication problems, it also increases the burden on workers and, in emergency situations, frequent switching between devices can lead to untimely information transmission. In this context, the railway industry urgently needs a dedicated radio device that can integrate multiple communication channels and simplify operations to improve work efficiency and safety.

Design of a New Railway-Specific Radio

Based on the above situation, we envision a new railway radio specifically designed for railway engineering, train operations, and other multi-frequency, multi-role personnel. This radio integrates the receiving and transmitting functions of multiple channels, allowing it to simultaneously monitor the communication content of four channels and receive information from all channels through a single speaker or earphone, eliminating the need to use multiple radios.

Key features of this envisioned radio include:

• Multi-channel integration: The radio has four independent receiving units, corresponding to four different communication channels. It can simultaneously receive information from four channels and listen through a single speaker or earphone.
• Simplified operation: The left side of the device is equipped with four transmit buttons (PTT1 to PTT4), allowing users to easily select the channel to transmit on and switch between communications with a simple button press, eliminating the need to carry multiple devices.
• Multi-function display: The LCD display on the right side can display the frequency, transmit power, channel status, volume status, and battery capacity of each channel in real-time, allowing users to clearly understand the current status of the device and ensure efficient and safe communication.
• Volume adjustment: Independent volume adjustment keys are located on the left side, allowing users to adjust the volume of each channel as needed. The speaker and microphone are located in the middle of the panel.
• Station-train call: There is a station-train call button at the bottom of the panel, and a train call button is also located on the left side.
• Power switch and interface: The main power switch and earphone microphone jack are designed on the right side of the machine. The jack also serves as a data port for writing frequencies and programming, facilitating daily use and maintenance.

By integrating multi-channel receiving and transmitting functions, this envisioned railway-specific radio effectively reduces the trouble of switching between multiple devices for railway workers, significantly improving work efficiency. Especially in complex railway working environments, it reduces the risk of information delay and communication failures. At the same time, the liquid crystal display and simplified operation button design further enhance the user experience, ensuring that users can quickly understand and operate the device in any situation. It is hoped that in the future, more dedicated devices will play an important role in railway communications, becoming important tools for railway safety production and efficient dispatching.