I seem to remember when we only had seven frequencies in the 72 band not too
long ago. Of course when I started flying R/C you had one option and that was
27. Well guess what? A few inconsiderate CB'ers would have some fun by holding
down their mic keys and buzzing into the microphone to see if they could shoot
down our planes from a near by hill. I guess the ham bands were around but
the average RC'er did not give them much thought.
Now all of a sudden we have fifty frequencies on 72, eight on 6 meters, 7 on
27 and that still ain't enough for everyone to have their own frequency?
The 72 band was a god send because it got away from the CB mentality. I think
those guys hung around with the guys that thought it was cool to act like you
were going to step on a newly finished airplane.
As the sport/hobby progressed we became organized and actually tried having
competitions with our radio controlled models. Hmmm! now lets see if we try
to fly together we will shoot each other down. Ok, lets have some sort of frequency
control. As it turns out in the power world anyway most flying fields are far
away from houses because of the racket made my powered model airplanes. (They
sound very much like dirt bikes, according to the non informed.) On the other
hand most sailplane fields are fairly close to residential areas, parks etc.etc.
Back in the old days there weren't that many fliers around. As our numbers
grow the interference will only get worse because of the increased non regulated
use of radios . (non contest environment)
I thought that PCM solved all that shoot down BS. Not being a rocket scientist
I thought because you had a PCM radio you could not be shot down. Wrong O,
I have been shot down several times while flying PCM's. I'm hoping someone
with a lot more experience than I will pipe in here on this one.
I guess my point is that, if you expect to have interference free air , you
are going to have to drive for it. I know I live in a small town and we put
the power guys on one side of town and the sailplane guys on the other side.
In the case of the car guys vs. the boat guys, the car track is in the same
park as the boat pond. We simply time share the park.
If you are going to fly at your local flying site and you are within five miles
of houses you run the risk of being shot down. Of course the chance of one
in fifty are pretty slim given all the variables but there is a chance. Unless
the industry can come up with a way to lock out unwanted radio frequencies I
guess we will have to fly in the middle of no where to have interference free
air.
I suppose you could use the mentality that, I have the pin and I’m going to
fly but I’ll turn on and wait for 10 minutes to clear the air of all other flyers
within a five mile radius before I launch.
I wonder if I could hook my garage door opener up to my transmitter and set
my own private code to a frequency and truly make it my frequency?? Industry,
how about it?
Regards, Perry
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