Patent ID: 7167510

Claim:
A transmitter for remotely controlling a locomotive in which is mounted a slave controller, said transmitter comprising: an interface for receiving an identifier of the slave controller via a first communication link; a data storage in communication with said interface for storing the identifier of the slave controller received via the first communication link, said data storage being operative to store an identifier of said transmitter; a message builder in communication with said data storage, said message builder being operative to construct a message having a tag portion and a command portion, the tag portion conveying data derived from the identifier of the slave controller and data derived from the identifier of said transmitter, the command portion conveying at least one command; a message encoder in communication with said message builder to encode the message constructed by said message builder; a signal transmitting unit in communication with said message encoder for transmitting a signal containing the encoded message over a second communication link, the second communication link being a wireless RF communication link, the signal being indicative of at least one command for causing an action to be performed by the locomotive.