Radio Technique
THE REDUNDANT RADIO SYSTEM. Back in the July 1985 issue, I wrote a little bit about possible improvement in interference resistance through use of parallel redundant RC systems. I'd like to see redundant RC systems. I'd like to see redundant radio systems in every Scale model, particularly in every Giant Scale model, as a routine matter-just for the added safety it will provide. Every Show Team model should carry one. This isn't a new idea, because the Good brothers used parallel RC channels for control in their earliest RC systems. Simultaneous use of several RC channels dropped out of favor when single-channel RC became quite reliable and the available number of channels was very small.
Radio Technique
NEW TOOL. Jack Albrecht, formerly Sales Manager for Kraft, figured out how to modify the Kraft SRF module (synthesizer) so that it puts out AM instead of FM. Then he got one from Vern Mensimer of Hayes Products, San Marcos, CA (telephone 619/744-8546) and modified it for me. In case you hadn't heard, Hayes is the company which bought Kraft and is liquidating the inventory (no servos). Thank you, Jack! This gives me a first-class tool for testing RC systems (especially since my buddy, Bob Aberle, also has one). My first move was to check its output. On my oscilloscope, it looked like a high-quality, 100% modulation, narrow-band AM. The output is a nominal 400 mW.
Simple Structural Test Techniques for RC Aircraft
NOTHING I HAVE WRITTEN in the past 10 years has excited so many positive responses so rapidly as did my offer in the April 1986 "Radio Technique" column to describe simple structural test techniques for model aircraft. To quote from S3, The Sierra Silent Soarers' newsletter, "Oboyoboy. George. George!! We're interested." There were similar comments in nice letters from Fred E. Bellows, Jr. of Sharon, MA, Ken Gilpin of Petersburg, AK, Ralph S. Anderson of Litchfield Park, AZ, Bobby R. Pilkinton, Columbia, TN, Bob Morris, AMA 107933, Pete Van Dore of Hobby Technics in Elkins Park, PA, John Oldenboom, Plainfield, NJ, Duane A. Nelson of Fair Oaks, CA, and Paul R. Adams of Denver, CO, whose letters all arrived in the first week after publication. My thanks to one and all for their kind words.
WRAM Show '86
EACH YEAR I try to spot a trend for you. This year I'll have to talk about the trend that didn't quite make it to the show! You have all seen transmitters with lots of "bells and whistles." Outwardly, they're a multitude of knobs and switches, and somewhere on the front (or back) of the case is a removable cover. Behind the cover are more switches for things like servo reversing, adjustable end points, and so on. Such transmitters are expensive because it takes a lot of hand labor to mount all those goodies and run the wires to them. When you take the back off a transmitter and see several PC boards and bundles of wires going all over the place, you are looking at high cost. Even putting holes in PC boards is expensive.
Radio Technique
EVERYBODY IS LOOKING for the perfect solution! Ideally, a person should be able to use any RC channel anytime (after checking to see that it isn't already in use). Only two flight stations for all those new channels? I first showed my 4-Station Flight Card in public at the RC symposium in Syracuse, NY, back in February 1983, one month after our new frequencies became effective. It didn't excite much interest, but the audience wasn't hostile, either. They didn't actually boo, walk out of the auditorium, or fall asleep while I was describing how it worked.
