Technical Update - 2007/07
Author
Steve Kaluf Technical Director [email protected]
Committee Mission
The mission of the Electronic Technology Committee (ETC) is to support the Academy by monitoring, maintaining and developing electronic technology areas of modeling through liaison with government, industry and membership groups.
Lithium Battery Safety (with AMA Safety Committee)
We discussed lithium-technology battery safety education and decided the best way to educate the AMA membership is via a video. The video will be produced and made available on DVD and via web distribution through agreements with various groups. Younger, recognized people will be used as the cast. The intent is to keep it entertaining while delivering the necessary safety messages.
Topics to be included (but not limited to):
- Charging
- Use of balance/node connectors
- Soldering techniques
- Failure damage mitigation
- Safe handling of failed packs
- Degrees of failure
- Storage
A group was established to work on this project.
Incident Reporting Form
A new form will be developed to collect specific battery/charger incident information. The data will be tabulated by the AMA Technical Department. We will request that the form be placed on various websites and that the information be shared among the USA, Canada, Australia, and any other participating countries.
Spread Spectrum Radios (Futaba and Spektrum)
Futaba and Spektrum presented mini-seminars on the development status of their spread spectrum radio products. Both seminars were well done and informative. I reviewed testing performed at AMA headquarters on spread spectrum systems and referenced the systems we tested in my last column.
We decided to list the usable 900 MHz band in the AMA Membership Manual since equipment is available for that band.
900 MHz and UHF Opportunities
Seven UHF channels are being phased out of discrete TV channels. Opportunities may exist for DSS RC in this band. AMA’s attorney will be asked to look into possibilities within this spectrum.
Broadband over Power Lines (BPL)
Dan Williams updated the ETC on BPL. Currently, BPL operators only have to reduce emissions to 10 dB below Federal Communications Commission permissible limits above 30 MHz, which may not be sufficient to resolve interference complaints. The American Radio Relay League has filed lawsuits over this issue. The Emergency Amateur Radio Interference Protection Act of 2007 calls for a comprehensive BPL service study to lead to improved rules to prevent this form of interference to mobile communications.
Testing will be conducted using a 35 MHz RC system in New York as soon as the local BPL system goes active.
Other Items and Closing
We addressed a few other issues that I will probably bring up next month.
’Til next time... MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
