Toledo 1992
IMPROVEMENT: The 38th Annual R/C Expo was held Friday April 3 through Sunday April 5, 1992 at the Seagate Center, 401 Jefferson Avenue, Toledo, Ohio. People staying in the Raddison Hotel could walk to the Expo without going outdoors. The interior arrangements were much better than the Sports Center used in previous years. You could walk down any aisle almost any time of day. A far cry from previous years when most aisles were almost impassable because of the crowds. Some 360 booths were available for exhibitors. There were plenty of nearby parking lots, which charged $2 to $3 per day.
Radio Technique
AMA'S GOLD STAR PROGRAM was announced in the reports of the November 1985 Frequency Committee meeting and first put into operation by George P. Steiner at the IMF show in San Francisco. Fred Marks continued the effort at the WRAM show in NY. The Gold Star program is a voluntary program of transmitter inspections. You, the AMA member, bring your transmitters to a trade show and check them in at the AMA booth. Volunteers examine each transmitter's emission characteristics and report back to you. The object is twofold: 1) You find out how well (or badly) the rig is performing. 2) We build up a data base on transmitters actually in service.
Radio Technique
PROPER TUNING is important! 1986 has already been a strange year. I took a long Christmas vacation for the first time in my life and since returning have been literally buried in work at Grumman. Meanwhile, at the same time, reader letters have come in a flood. Reader letters are usually broadly divided into three categories: 1) "Which RC radio shall I buy?"; 2) "What's the new RC channel setup?"; 3) "(Where can I get information on) (Who fixes) a particular old radio?" Since publication of the January '86 issue, I have also received: 4) A large number of letters on 3IM (third-order intermodulation interference).
Radio Technique
MORE ABOUT the safety question . . . A while back, I commented on the way that our models are getting bigger and faster, without visible evidence of any stress analysis having been done or pre-flight static strength-testing. I asked whether you, my readers, agreed that Model Aviation should present articles on those subjects. So far, I have received four well-written letters emphatically in favor of the idea, and none opposed. Now, let me tell you a true story: Some time ago, I undertook to build a Sailplane as a review for a magazine (not MA). The wing had plug-in tip panels, each supported by a 1/4-in.-dia. dowel at the dihedral joint. I looked at the plan and said, "Too weak." On the assumption that no competent designer would put money into creating a kit while leaving in such an obvious weakness, I decided to perform some elementary stress analysis.
Radio Technique
WHAT'S HAPPENING with those RC frequencies? This month, I have received several letters asking about AMA changes in the RC channel assignments for 1986. There aren't any! All of the channels you have been using, you will continue to use in 1986 and 1987; and all forms of modulation (AM, FM, PCM, etc.) are, and will continue to be, legal and proper. They will continue to be legal and proper through 1991 and beyond, so far as anyone knows today. In 1988 (that's two years away), we will be obliged, by the FCC, to abandon the old even-frequency channels (72.08, 72.16, 72.24, 72.32, 72.40, 72.96 and 75.64 MHz). Therefore, you should have converted your old transmitters and receivers off those old RC channels and onto one of the new ones before January 1, 1988. We've been urging you to do that since January of 1983.
