Radio Technique
FIXING OLD RADIOS. Every month brings another letter like this. Sometimes (very rarely) I can lay hands on the necessary schematics. Most often I have to tell the reader what I'm about to tell you: There are too many manufacturers and too many variations of the systems offered for anyone to keep up with them. Changes are continuous and evolutionary. Each batch of servos, every new transmitter series, every change in anything causes minor changes someplace. Integrated circuits make the changes invisible (you can't see what masks are changed, or figure out why).
Radio Technique
THE ELECTRONIC BIRD-DOG (a multipurpose tool that's easy to build). One thing that I'm sure of is that my readers like gadgets that are simple, cheap and effective. Here is a device that finds RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) sources and costs about $25.
Radio Technique
WATER, CORROSION AND YOUR RC SYSTEM. After a few hours of flying, most RC systems get covered with a fine layer of silicone oil from the engine's exhaust. That stuff gets everywhere, and as you may have observed, it is hard to remove. One of my chemist friends looks forward to the day (not far in the future) when the world will be covered by a one-molecule-thick layer of silicones, and wonders what effect that will have on life. It isn't biodegradable, you know!
Radio Technique
THOSE NEW FREQUENCIES. Another milestone on our road to acquisition and practical use of additional RC frequencies has been reached and surmounted. On January 9 and 10, 1982, a meeting of RC manufacturers was convened in Pasadena, CA. The purpose of the meeting was to explore the AMA proposal to the FCC (for 73 new channels), to review the draft of an AMA "Phase-In Plan" for utilization of the new channels, and to establish an industry group which might coordinate manufacturers' responses to the new situation.
Radio Technique
THOSE NEW RADIOS. The whole question of what to do when the narrow-band frequencies come has been receiving a lot of attention. I don't think I'll be violating any confidences when I tell you that the AMA and the manufacturers have been testing the current crop of radios to see what can be done with them. Preliminary test results say that existing designs will work on the interstitial frequencies, if we keep guys flying at the same field separated by 40 KHz. Another fact that has surfaced is that some of the newest radios already are sufficiently narrow-banded to work together on the 20 KHz raster originally proposed.
