NCE Radio

NCE offers a two-way (Duplex) radio system for it throttles. Two-way simply means the throttles/cabs work exactly the same way in radio mode as they do when they are plugged in. Other than learning how to turn the radio cab on and off, there is not much for you to learn. You can get going with it very quickly.

NCE radio system is NCE system independent. In other words, it can be added to any NCE DCC system.

COVERED IN THIS SECTION

1) WAYS TO GET NCE RADIO

2) WHAT ARE THE PARTS OF A RADIO SYSTEM?

3) RADIO CAB ADDRESS ASSIGNMENTS

4) USABLE RADIO CAB ADDRESSES VS NCE DCC SYSTEM

5) RADIO SOFTWARE VERSIONS FOR BASE STATION AND CABS

6) GOT RADIO PROBLEMS? GO HERE: Radio Problems?

1) WAYS TO GET NCE RADIO

Current NCE sells its radio system 4 ways:

1) Ordering a radio version of a complete NCE DCC system from the start.

2) Ordering a radio base and buying radio cabs/throttles to add radio to an existing NCE DCC system..

3) Ordering a radio base station and upgrading your existing cabs/throttles to radio versions to add radio to an existing NCE DCC system.

4) Combination of 2 & 3.

Note: Upgrading existing cabs/throttle to radio involves contacting NCE and sending your cabs/throttles into NCE or an authorized NCE radio upgrade dealer. There will be a fee for upgrading each cab to radio.

2) WHAT ARE THE PARTS OF A RADIO SYSTEM?

1) Radio Cab/Throttle. Picture on the left shows you what the cab radio board looks like when installed in a cab. Not shown is the battery area which is part of the back cover. It connects to the black 2 terminal screw connector near the bottom right corner. This is an older cab radio with an external antenna. Today the antenna is inside. The Red LED out the top tells you when the radio is communicating with the radio base station. If the LED does not turn on when operating in radio mode, the cab is not talking to a valid/working radio base station.2) Radio Base Station. This is a black box the same size of an engineeer cab with tall antenna sticking out the top from the center. It connects to the command station using the NCE cab bus on the end with a single Rj12 jack. For a very large layout, expansion of radio coverage is possible using "repeaters" which plug into the opposite side with 2 RJ-12 jacks.

3) RADIO CAB ADDRESS ASSIGNMENTS

NCE DCC require the user to assign a "cab address" to each cab/throttle. These addresses have nothing to do with engine addresses or any other type of addresses used on the DCC system.

Each NCE cab address must be unique regardless of the type of NCE throttle/cab you are using.

The command station associates a given train address with the cab address that selected it. In other words it assigns a train to a cab. This allows the command station to communicate to many cabs at the same time regardless if the cab/throttle is radio or not.

Cab address are the same regardless if they are use plugged in or with radio. When you change a given cabs address, it equally effects both radio and non radio operation.

Unfortunately at the time of this writing, NCE has not introduced a radio system where all the possible cab addresses that you can use when the Cab is plugged into the layout are available for use when the cab is operating in radio mode. There are two restrictions. The first restriction is there is a maximum of 48 Radio cabs that can be used. Within that 48, the valid radio address are further broken down into two ranges that depend if you are using a ProCab throttle or not.