Radio Technique
NEW! The advent of the new RC frequencies has added more than just a bunch of new frequencies for us to fly on-the FCC regulations also allow us to use a new method of radio transmission: FM. In the past, all of our RC sets have used either CW (carrier wave) signals switched On or Off (this was mainly back in the early days of single-channel, rudder-only, rubberband-powered-escapement systems) or AM (amplitude modulation). AM is familiar to practically everyone in the world-it's what most radio stations used, until fairly recent times. But now, many of our "entertainment" radio stations are using FM (frequency modulation) transmission. It lets us have true high-fidelity sound, and it is resistant to static.
Radio Technique
THIS MONTH, I want to talk about reader letters and useful gadgets. It was just a parenthetical remark in a photo caption (pg. 42, MA December 1983), but it seems to have attracted some interest: I refer to my use of a steel replacement for the plastic clutch in my Circus Hobbies Baron 20 Helicopter. As I write this, that magazine has been in distribution for only a week, yet I have already received two letters and a couple of phone calls on the subject! My steel clutch was made with a lathe, drillpress, and saw. If you don't have them, you need a friend with a machine shop and a desire to be helpful. Perhaps you could make the acquaintance of the shop instructor in the local high school, who would then make the clutch for you, or show you how to do it as a project in Adult Education. I have included a dimensioned sketch.
Radio Technique
THE FUTURE IS COMING . . . The Future is Coming! RC systems which obtain their Radio Frequencies by synthesis, rather than by use of a special, unique crystal, are definitely in our future. Synthesized RF (SRF) will be less expensive and more reliable. (Ask any CBer if he wants to go back to using 80 plug-in crystals.) I once wrote a piece predicting the arrival of SRF systems (August 1982, pg. 28). As I write this, they still haven't arrived. (I think they're late!) But they will! (Editor: And pretty soon. See the illustration.)
Radio Technique
Monitoring the RF environment: Last month I asked, "What will you do when a switchable-RF transmitter (SRF) shows up at your field?" (I know, I've just changed the S from "synthesized" to "switchable," but don't worry about it. What's important is the fact of switching, not how it's done.) This month we're going to look at a couple of defense mechanisms. The first defense mechanism is a "bell for the cat." Figure 1 shows a special flag for SRF transmitters. I have proposed that this flag be used to identify such transmitters. It points out the threat (that transmitter might switch on to your frequency!) in an unmistakable way. I assume that the numbers will be printed on a 10-page "comic book" which would slip into a transparent plastic sleeve. Therefore, whenever the owner switched channels, all he would have to do to notify you would be to turn some pages. Everything stores on the transmitter. Nothing to be forgotten at home on the work bench. No problems with pastel colors, or with color-blind RCers. If my proposal is accepted, you may see it in the 1984-85 AMA rule book.
Myers at the WRAM Show
THERE ALWAYS is too much to see (several times over), too many people to meet, and too much enthusiasm to be shared in too short a time to do a proper job of examining any individual item. When you have the task of "looking and listening" while acting as a representative of a magazine of many diverse readers (which I was), then you suspend your personal critical judgments, because you are "everybody." You try to approach everything with an open mind, willing to be convinced that each model on display for judging is important to you, and that each product offered for sale can fill a need that hasn't been satisfied before.
