Radio Technique
ANOTHER EXCITING MONTH, and it all started with a phone call from John Lange, who wanted to know how I was making out with the converter that he had sent to me. As I showed you last month, the proper way to deal with just about every potential RC interference situation is to monitor the RC band. There simply isn't any substitute for knowing what's out there! "Who is John Lange?" you ask. John Lange, K9ARA, 1700 N. 37th Ave., Stone Park, IL 60165, is the AMA's DFC At Large (District Frequency Coordinator), and there is really no way I can properly thank him for the reams of data he has been sending to me for the past two years, on the subject of monitoring and on the results he has obtained in the Chicago area.
Radio Technique
NEW FREQUENCIES-NO PROBLEMS? RC50 (72.790 MHz) might be the least desirable new RC channel in the New York City area, because we have Empire Paging (EP) transmitting 70 Watts on 72.80 MHz from the top of the World Trade Center (WTC). That is 10 kHz off the center of RC50 and 28 miles from where we do most of our flying. We can see the WTC from the second floor of my house, on a clear day! Now, when a manufacturer offers us a new system for test, can you guess which channel we ask for? The way I figure it, a system that can put up with EP can put up with anything. One of the photos shows three recent test setups. We have any 1980 Ace RC Silver Seven system with a new RF board and a new crystal for the receiver. Tim's 1980 Airtronics XL (with a new FM transmitter module and matching FM receiver borrowed from Bob Aberle), and "our" 1983 Tower Gold 500 system which has new RC50 crystals, compliments of Tower Hobbies. Not to keep you in suspense, each of these systems has worked perfectly on RC50, in our area.
Make Your Own RC Channel Flags
I FIND IT hard to believe that modelers could be serious when they tell me that they don't want to use the new RC channels until they can get flags for them, but that's what I hear from time to time. This article tells how I make mine. I've made quite a few of them over the past few months, and some of them were failures. The technique I'm about to describe has produced the best results from the least amount of effort. You begin by buying Mystic Plastic Tape #191 at the local supermarket-in black, white, and whatever other colors you need. Also buy one roll of Mystic Cloth Tape #M-169 and one roll of double-sided adhesive tape (adhesive on both sides), which is usually found in a bubble-card under the name of carpet tape. The Mystic tapes are 1 1/2 in. wide and come in red, white, blue, green, brown, black, yellow, gold, gray, and turquoise, at least in the tin trays found in stores in my area. The carpet tape is usually 1 1/4 in. wide, very thin, and either tan or white.
AMA Nats 1983: Radio Technique
RC EQUIPMENT AT THE 1983 NATS NEW RC CHANNELS at the 1983 Nats: no interference! All brands of equipment were represented, from Ace to World Engines, including such discontinued labels as E. K. Logictrol, Heathkit, and Orbit. While processing their transmitters, we saw that about 100 people were using Amateur radio channels (valid Ham licenses required and checked). All Hams except the two guys on 10 meters were on 53 MHz; nobody on 50 MHz yet. Everybody else (about 600 transmitters) used the unlicensed 72 MHz channels, and about half of those folks were on the new RC channels. That impressed me as a pretty good showing for the new RC channels, considering how new they really are. Most significantly, all types of transmitters, from a 1970 Orbit to a 1983 prototype PCM Futaba satisfied current FCC type-acceptance criteria!
Radio Technique
GCA FOR MODELERS? I have a suggestion for Contest Directors: let's agree to use CB Channel 20 as a tool for locating contest sites. All that's required is to find a volunteer who will arrive at the contest site about two hours early with a CB base station and a map of the area. He can then monitor the channel and give information when necessary. It may be that you can't use CB20 for some reason. In that case, list an alternative channel (or channels) in your contest announcement. But use CB20 wherever possible, for consistency. Most people who still use CB will keep it tuned to CB19 for traffic reports, so the assignment is logical and easy to find.
