Is this layout possible with MTH DCS.

This is the walk from where I’d be with my controller to the 10x10 room with the TIU.

or from where I would have been with my TMCC REMOTE to the room with my base.

how would the dcs remote contact the tiu without a huge antenna?

That is not a big layout and DCS will work fine.  Bigger doesn’t mean better when it comes to antenna.  The DCS remote and tiu have antennas.  

You should have no problem at all.  My layout uses both DCS and Legacy.  With DCS, I can even run trains from above through a stressed-concrete floor of the kind you would see in a multi-level parking garage. (I haven't yet tried that with Legacy, but it would be fun, providing there is someone downstairs to watch where I am running).

If you have a smart phone or tablet, you can observe the MTHDCS connection on your wifi settings. So long as your device "sees" the MTH/DCS Network, then you have a signal and it should work fine.

I never owned or used any of the Lionel command systems so don't beat me up on this post, OK?

Doesn't TMCC talk directly to the engine?  DCS doesn't - the signal gets to the engine thru the rails.  If that's correct, that's a huge difference in why DCS will work.  The remote's distance from the TIU is the decider.

walt

Either TMCC/Legacy or DCS shouldn't be a big issue on that arrangement, go for it.

@walt rapp posted:

Doesn't TMCC talk directly to the engine?  DCS doesn't - the signal gets to the engine thru the rails.

Walt,

You're close.

For both command control is a two-step process, not just one, and the steps are different between TMCC/Legacy and DCS.

1. TMCC/Legacy -- One radio link from Cab-x to Base-x, then a second, different, radio link between the Base-x and the train with the outside rail of the layout, and the earth ground around and under the floor below your layout making up the two elements of the transmitting antenna for this second link.  The receiving antenna for the second link with nearly all steam consists of the handrails on the locomotive; for diesels and electrics it's a metal plate glued to the side or top of the housing and on the inside of it.
2. DCS -- As with TMCC/Legacy DCS uses a radio link (non-compatible with TMCC/Legacy), in this case from handheld to TIU.  But its second link goes from the TIU to the train electrically through the rails and not via a radio signal.  Instead it uses a communication method called power line carrier modulation (PLCM).  This adds a high-frequency command signal mixed together with the low frequency (60 cycle) AC power feeding the train through the track.

So the OP's comments about the size of the antenna on the handheld are generally focused in the correct direction for the first link in each case, but as @bluelinec4 has pointed out size doesn't always correlate with transmission distance (because the transmission frequency has to be taken into consideration).

The additional comments from the OP, and others, on expected operating distance are also generally focused in the correct direction, as long as we realize that each of these approaches employs two communication links.  Communication must be successful over both links, that is link from Cab-x or handheld to Base-x (Lionel) or TIU (MTH), and the link from Base-x (Lionel) or TIU (MTH) to the train, in order for the train to be controlled correctly, no matter what the distance.

Thanks to the OP for bringing up the first link in that original post, and including questions about how to optimize it.   But, to get maximum distance the quality of the second link must also be considered and optimized, and because the method for transmitting over the second link is so different between TMCC/Legacy and DCS the means for optimizing it will be very different as well.

Mike

this'll teach for butting in where i'm not well knowledgable about

As I said up front, I don't have any experience with Lionel stuff and was going by what I thought was memory of reading something here.

@Mellow Hudson Mike thanks for making sure that my mis-information was stopped in it's tracks.  Honestly, I appreciate that you did so.

walt