WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Today I dealt with an incident on the Train with the help of the Transit Guards.

Question to raise is, whilst going about duties a transit officer stood outside of the train facing the forward section of the train and held his arms out / bent with fists clenched, motioning a stop icon.

Question is, how does the train driver realize this? Obviously [though I cannot see] there are no rear view mirrors on the front of the train so how does he / she able to see the transit officer hand movements?

Are the drivers upon approaching / at the train station have access to the CCTV cameras?

Hi WF,

The train drivers use a system known as DAVS (Driver Assist Video System).

This system allows them to monitor CCTV cameras wirelessly from the Cab of the train whilst in close proximity to the station. There is a set of DAVS cameras on each platform. From these they can safely close the doors of the train and spot hand signals from staff on the platform. Occasionally on the Train Control frequencies you will also hear the drivers report to Control that they didn't have DAVS at a certain platform with set ##.

If you take a look at the following site you will be able to see the Controls of a B Series train, including a couple of photos of DAVS in action.


In relation to the hand signals, below are two I have observed the PTA staff using:

• - All clear: Arm closest to the train up at a 45 degree angle from horizontal, towards the train.
  - Stop / Halt: Both hands with fists clenched, raised above head height.

Hope this helps,
Geoff

Wow that's pretty cool. I didn't know about the DAVS system.

Thanks Geoff

I wonder if anybody located near a train station can monitor the system without specialised hardware.

Considering that we could sit in the Armadale station crib room and get the DAVS camera on the crib room TV I would assume you could but as the signal is very weak (i.e As the drivers cab of the train moves approximately 30m out from the station and the picture disappears) you would need to be on the station to tune in.

It uses standard analogue TV singals? Wow. Pointing a standard TV antenna right at them would improve the image. Would be pretty boring though I think.

My friend can get DAVS through the TV at her grans place about 300m from West Leederville Station

Very interesting!

I live about 100m from the West Leederville train station... I will do an analogue scan on my TV tonight and see what pops up

Does anyone happen to have a rough frequency where I might find these DAVS signals?

I have some kind of feeling that it's not far out of the 2M amateur band, as from memory driving up and down the Mitchell Fwy passing train stations I get a bit of analogue carrier noise when going past train stations where trains are stopped... wondering if this is something to do with it?

I get noise on my scanner sometimes passing them as well, more so Stirling station.

It appears the DAVS system is designed and built locally by a business in Morley http://www.controldynamics.com.au/pages ... ects.asp#4
I am quite close to a train station too so it would be interesting to see what frequency these things transmit on. I have a small portable analogue tv here and next time I get a chance I'll take it down and see what I can turn up.

sounds great, thanks. I tried a couple of scans last night but not much luck since the trains don't stop for that long.

Might have more luck next time there's a footy game on... the trains sit on the platform for ages

I had imagined that the cameras would broadcast all the time..but you raise a good point, they may only be triggered as required. I'll keep that in mind.

Yeah - I'd of thought that they would only activate when the doors open, and then stay on for 20 secs or so after the doors close perhaps... just a guess though, not sure to be honest

Always RX wrote:I had imagined that the cameras would broadcast all the time..but you raise a good point, they may only be triggered as required. I'll keep that in mind.

If they were on all the time, how would they pick up the camera's??? It's not like they have cameras all along the track... or do they?