Radio Technique
"It had been raining fairly steadily, and I was getting pretty wet, as was my transmitter. Suddenly, my model rolled over and spun down into the (salt) water, where the tide was going out at full flow. The opposing wind kept the model essentially stationary, and only about 30 ft. out. "The temptation was too much, so I waded out towards my model. Suddenly, I was really in over my head. While it was an easy swim out to the model, I discovered that I was going out to sea very rapidly, because the wind wasn't helping me at all. The channel widens as it approaches open water, which made it imperative that I get back to shore, pronto! Remember, I started only 30 ft. from shore, but my strongest rescue stroke was inadequate to get me back while pushing the plane.
Radio Technique
I SAID in my February 1989 column that I would take a Lanier Seabird with me on my trip to Alaska. But it turned out to be too bulky, so I made a last-minute decision to take a Lanier Laser instead. The Laser stored neatly out of the way on the ceiling of the van, on bungees. (Bungees are long, cloth-covered rubberbands, about 5/16 in. in diameter and fitted with hooks on the ends.) I'm back in New York again, after a wonderful summer in Alaska. One of the smarter things I did in preparing for this trip was to remove the screws holding the interior moldings on the van's windows, one at a time, and slip on a swivel hanger meant for hanging pictures before putting each screw back.
Radio Technique
SAFER RC FLYING may result from the use of T&D Flight Systems' Failsafe Flight System (FFS), a product that you may find interesting. The unit connects to your receiver in place of-or in parallel with-a servo and has several functions: 1) Emergency in-flight battery charger (!) 2) Backup flight battery 3) Sensitive voltmeter and low-voltage alarm 4) Interference monitor 5) Lost airplane locator 6) Switch-position indicator I admit to being skeptical about entrusting my airplane to a nine-volt transistor radio battery. When Alex asked me about this two years ago, I told him that I doubted that his idea would work. So he ran some tests, and it did work. Then he got some other people to fly the unit. It worked for them, too.
Radio Technique
YOUR TURN! We need membership discussion of the most important subject to affect the hobby for years: i.e., "How best to use the 50 channels assigned exclusively for RC aircraft?" I have received some thoughtful reader letters which should be shared with you. Let's begin. Here's the first one from Thomas Wilk, Treasurer, Duluth Radio Control Club, 212 W. Austin St., Duluth, MN 55803: "Re: your August 1988 column: Who is using OWBAMs? (OWBAM: old wideband AM radios-Ed.) We are, a club of 60 members. There are about 125 radios. I doubt if 25 are narrow band. I have not yet seen one on the lower frequencies, nor have I seen a PCM or heard anything good about them.
Radio Technique
THE AUTHOR of a recent column in another modeling publication took me to task about certain things I had said in my June 1988 "Radio Technique" column. The specific criticisms were that I had called RC crystal swapping "illegal," and that I had claimed that the ICOM IC-R7000 receiver was not good enough to use in measuring transmitter power levels in the tests necessary to certify that a transmitter meets the AMA/RCHA "Gold Sticker" or "Silver Sticker" performance tolerances-and that I was not technically qualified to make the latter statement.
