ATCS feed

[NW Mailing List]

Let me try to explain this to you, Jimmy.
  The servers and program mentioned rely on radio receivers in the area of the ATCS that pick up the data.  Folks can't talk back into a radio receiver and affect stuff on the other end.   (If they could I guess Neal Boortz and some of them would have been killed long ago.)  Likewise, monitoring ATCS feeds should not cause chaos.
    Having said that, I imagine someone could figure out the message syntax and build something that will mock a BCP.  They then could send phony requests to the field.  But requests is what they would be.  Just as with any known code system, the requests would not be honored by the field equipment if it were not safe to do.  The safety-checking (called "vital") circuits out in the secure field housings at control points keep most chaos from happening.   Whatever happens should be safe anyway.  Code systems whether on line wire, underground cable, radio or whatever have always been the "non-vital" link.  Their functioning or lack thereof can inconvenience operations, of course, but should not cause chaos.
    The free program provides information that some of us find entertaining.  But I don't see where it could cause any harm to NS or the other roads.
    John Marbury
    Georgia 
    > "And since, it uses radio instead of wires, the signals are easily intercepted, and can be displayed on a computer...Or streamed over the internet to OTHER peoples computer, to viewed, with a free program."
    > 
    > And how long will it be before someone figures out how to hack into the system and start causing chaos?
    > Jimmy Lisle