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Bonner Smog Hog - 60 years later

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Bonner Smog Hog - 60 years later

Old 05-22-2016, 09:47 PM
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HighPlains
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Default Bonner Smog Hog - 60 years later

For some time now I have been planning to build a authentic Smog Hog, as close as possible to the original designed and built for the 1956 Nationals in Dallas by Howard Bonner. To the best I can do, this includes the radio system he used as well as the engine.

It was a very different time than today. Most RC was either on ham frequencies or 27.255 Mc, though there was an early system at 455 Mc. On the electronics, amplifier gain was quite costly in terms of size, heat, weight, and battery life. Which is why early multifunction control systems were either compound escapements or reed receivers that responded to tones generated by the transmitter.

A man named Ed Rockwood is thought to be the first to invent, design and build such a system in the late 1940's sized for hobby use. He shared this technology with magazine articles and helped many in the Bay Area in northern California build radio systems of their own. His system was built with five reeds, which gave left and right rudder, up and down elevator, and could control an escapement for throttle control.

While the early RC was quite expensive and technically challenging, after a period of a few years it started to become more commercial. Certainly the FCC opened up to the pent up demand when in 1952 they allowed the non ham radio operators to use the 27.255 frequency. Just pay a fee, with no Morse code or radio theory test that had limited access. Anyway, suddenly there was a market for commercial RC equipment and companies like Bramco, Citizenship, and CG started producing hardware for the masses.

Meanwhile, Howard Bonner found his market segment in actuators, selling many thousands of escapements, from the simple S/N (self neutralizing), to the compound escapements where one push on the transmitter gave right rudder, and two gave left. You could also add a second or even third escapement to blip the elevator or throttle, but you had to have a good sense of timing and an accurate thumb unless you used a pulser. Eventually he started building servos to work with reed systems. These earliest worked with relays switching the high currents, because a tube amplifier was out of the question, and transistors were of poor quality and very expensive.
Old 05-22-2016, 10:29 PM
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HighPlains
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Here is the C.G. Electronics Corp. transmitter, a model T-5 that sold for $89.95 in 1956. The same make and model that Howard Bonner used. In today's dollars, $792 for just the transmitter or xmitter as they used to say. It's a bit rough around the edges mostly because someone that had it decided to clean it before selling. The paints they used come off with most solvents, but if I had to guess this one lost marking to acetone. It took a long time just to find out what the model number was, as documentation is hard to come by. This one was auctioned off almost 12 or 13 years ago, so yeah this is a long term project.

If you look close, you can see this is a single stick setup. To the left of the glowing tube that sticks through the case ( I guess if it quits glowing your Smog Hog just became a free flight), is the red push button that would move the escapement for throttle. Anyway, just one action at a time, since the stick is gated with a plus pattern.

Speaking of throttle, there were two basic methods used back then. One was a fairly crude throttle, which Bramco made that dropped into you engine intake, while the other approach was the two main needle valve system where the engine ran normally when one needle put fuel in, and very rich when the second needle was allowed to also dump fuel into the engine. This was controlled by the escapement venting the fuel line to the second needle for high speed. Since the big engines of the era were only .35's, it did not take too much reduction of power for the airplane to come down.
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Old 05-23-2016, 01:54 AM
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Will be following this project with interest. The Smog Hog followed by the Astro Hog were landmark models of the era. Will you dare to join the wing panels just by splicing the spars as shown on the plans? I don't recommend it, years ago when there was still a few period Hogs around a club friend had a wing fold made that way. By the way, in the UK Peter Hunt was an early pioneer of R/C and published a book during WW2 in 1942 called Radio Control for Model Aircraft. In the book he describes methods for achieving multi channel including tuned filters and tuned reeds.
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Old 05-23-2016, 04:18 AM
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There's one like it here. http://www.ebay.com/itm/191871771978...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Old 05-23-2016, 06:15 AM
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Here is what the AMA has public on Mr. Rockwood, a very interesting read.

https://www.modelaircraft.org/files/rockwoodedwardl.pdf

There were other early tone systems, at least in theory, but Rockwood's system put steel fingers, each tuned by length over a single audio voice coil reducing the size and amplifiers required. I'm surprised that such a book would have been published in England during the war. I think RC was completely shut down here after 1942 to 1945.

On the spar issue, I know the theory is a slightly flexible wing won't fail... And part of that may be that bonding plywood to balsa was not that easy before epoxy glues, or that with a .35 engine you just don't hit the air loads. No doubt the silk covering enters into the equation. I will have to think about that.

Most Smog Hogs ended up as trainers as the '50's became the '60's. They seemed to gain weight with .45's to .60's and repairs. I remember reading of 8 lb. Hogs being not uncommon. Beginners have not learned restraint with glue or paint. I once helped a kid when I was in college fly his Midwest Trisquire with a a K&B "Stallion". It flew good, but then he took it home and repainted it. Afterwards, it barely took off and need 2/3rds throttle just to fly level. I had to burn most of the fuel before it would fly just below half throttle and landing at that speed was a thrill.

Interesting that a T-8 eight channel is for sale. Eight channel reed systems were rather short lived, appearing in 1957. The Smog Hog won it's second Nat's with ailerons with a 8 channel Orbit flown by Bob Dunham, owner of Orbit. The early demise of 8 channel reed sets was due to the lack of elevator trim. Ten channel reed systems became the standard by the end of the '50's, and as transistors improved and cost less, the heavy relays were removed from the receivers for transistor amplifiers in the servos.

I should note that some limited elevator trim change could be done by messing with the centering board that had contacting wipers that controlled the motor for centering. I think this was used to have additional down trim for inverted attempts, but am unsure of this point.

Last edited by HighPlains; 05-23-2016 at 06:20 AM.
Old 05-23-2016, 07:56 AM
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Thanks for that post, HighPlains. It was sorta lonely out here thinking I was the only one left who lived through the reed era.

My first "multi channel" was a CG T-5, with matching receiver. The throttle scheme that I used involved a Hillcrest servo. The Hillcrest was a motorized device that went 'round and 'round continuously through 360° if you held the transmitter button down. The engine throttle was a home made flapper over the intake which caused the engine to run very rich at low throttle. If you held the throttle button down, the flapper slowly cycled from full open to full closed. Thus, the pilot pressed the transmitter button in short pulses and listened to the engine to determine how much power he was putting out.

Regarding the adjustment of servo centering by messing with the centering board. I don't know if that worked on the older square Bonner servos, but the Duramite style swept the board in an arc. There was a screw on the outside of the Duramite/Transamite which loosened the circuit board inside and allowed adjustment for greater or lesser deadband. Among the flyers in my area it was common to set the rudder deadband quite loose for the initial flights on a model. That way if the model was out of trim, the pilot's first reaction was to hit some rudder to level the wings. The servo would remain slightly off center from that first input and help the out of trim situation. After landing, one could note the rudder direction and adjust the pushrod length to better trim the airplane. After a couple of flights and postflight pushrod adjustments (Who got 2 flights in one day ?), the deadband of the rudder servo could be tightened up for accurate centering.

Pretty sure I still have that Hillcrest servo.

Dick
Old 05-23-2016, 08:22 AM
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Could you send pictures of the lettering to Calli Graffics and have them made for your transmitter?
I flew with a Citizenship 8 channel unit, first with relays them modified to relayless.
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Old 05-23-2016, 03:36 PM
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Interesting that the controls are reversed between those two transmitters! This was so typical of early small R/C companies. I know that no two receivers I make are identical because I get quite an assortment of different brands of caps, transistors and components. This is true of all small manufacturers, and in addition, they typically will make changes within a certain model as needed, without changing the model number or revision.
Old 05-23-2016, 05:23 PM
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I'm building a Smog Hog for my Kraft "reed" system.
I thought I'd try a kit cutter to see how they are.
I ordered one from Lizard Laser Cutters and was disappointed.
First, the fuse sides are two pieces, I guess to fit into the box, joined by finger joints, the problem is the fingers didn't match leaving gaps between the two parts. I made one piece fuse sides that eliminated the problem.
The ribs are wrong, the leading edge is not undercut for the leading edge sheeting.
It came with a set of plans that someone redrew, but they're different than the original. I would get a copy of the original that was in MAN from MA plan service.
The wood, at best, was average, the cutting was OK.
I got a bunch of parts from some other model, including some slotted spars and various parts that were not part of the Smog Hog.

About the wing join, the original was covered with Nylon which adds a lot of strength to the wing structure.
I remember when Kraft's Ugly Stick was released as a kit and there was a rash of wing failures. The cause was, some people were covering the wing with Monokote (I think it was the original sticky back) instead of covering it with silk like Kraft did on the original.
Jon
Old 05-23-2016, 08:28 PM
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HighPlains
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Sorry Dick, I was born in 1954, so the reed era predates my first RC flight in 1970. I am glad that somebody here has actually used a CG 5 channel system. I guess that you are now the expert on this radio.

Since I bought this xmitter, I have searched for an RT-5 receiver, without any luck. The closest I came was an RT-5 receiver parts package kit. This has a simple metal chassis plate, printed circuit board, and all the parts to build a receiver. Except the reed and 5 relays, top and bottom of the receiver were not part of this kit. So not quite a receiver, but close and it only took a decade to find it. I will post pictures later.

Paul, I think we had the same idea when I saw the T-8 with good paint. I think that a silkscreen might be the way to approach this. I did the artwork some time ago for a F&M Digital 5, and it takes time flipping bits and finding old fonts. It took about 4 hours to make that artwork, but finding the right software speeds it up. I live on my IPad, so I have to find a desktop with a ton of MS bloatware.

Jay, I think you did not see the entire T-8. It has two gated control sticks with the left one replacing the push button of the T-5.

Jon, I don't mind cutting parts. For ribs for a constant chord wing, I make a template from 6061 aluminum and put some double sided tape on the template to hold it to the balsa as I cut the ribs. on the other hand...
Old 05-23-2016, 08:38 PM
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HighPlains
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On the other hand, I could just build the kit.
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Old 05-23-2016, 08:57 PM
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HighPlains
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A few pictures of the receiver kit and the box it came in. Note the ruler on the T-5. The case is 8" tall, 6" wide, and 3" deep. No wimpy fractions needed. Might have needed the size for the batteries, or surface area for cooling. Dick, did these things get hot? Heavy is assumed.
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Old 05-23-2016, 09:20 PM
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HighPlains
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I have a parts list and a four page assembly guide. I will have to run them on a flat scanner and post when I get time.

While I have the Veco kit, I will actually scratch build it from better wood. As far as I can tell, Howard Bonner covered his with yellow silk and trimmed it with Red dope. On the wings and vertical stabilizer, it appears like a series of letters or Numbers imbedded in the red trim. Does anyone know what was there? I am guessing that either his ham call sign number or perhaps an AMA number? He also had a couple of "LARKS" stickers on the side of the fuselage. It stood for Los Angeles Radio Kontrol Society, which thanks to Jack Albrecht, he was able to provide. Another thing to post, as soon as I remember where I put it. Jack goes back to the Mustangs club of SF, flying Rockwood inspired radios with servos he built from toy parts and motors.
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Last edited by HighPlains; 06-01-2016 at 05:48 AM. Reason: spelling
Old 05-23-2016, 09:52 PM
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I like to point out a little bit of possible misinformation:
I should note that some limited elevator trim change could be done by messing with the centering board that had contacting wipers that controlled the motor for centering. I think this was used to have additional down trim for inverted attempts, but am unsure of this point.
First,in a 10 channel "reed" airplane the elevator had two servos connected to the elevator push rod. The primary elevator servo would neutralize when the leaver switch was released. The "trim" servo had one pair of "followers" lifted off the arc foils in the servo which disabled the neutralizing function. Second, silk, and not nylon was by far the most
common covering material of that era. Finally, the first mylar covering film was Monokote with a sticky adhesive. That only lasted a short while (about a year or so) before the formula was changed to have the adhesive heat activated. The film did not change. Years later Econokote was marketed as a low temperature film for foam airplanes. Phil Kraft did designed the Ugly Stick, and it was published in Grid Leaks, but the first kit was a product of Jim Jensen, so it is known as the Jensen Ugly Stick. At one time it was so popular that Jensen marketed separate wing kits, and fuselage kits too. With the popularity of the heat shrink films, which resulted in a lot of wing failures, Jensen modified the kit to include sheer webs between the spars. Silk is stronger then film. I had several silk covered Ugly Sticks, and I built a Veco Smog Hob for a friend over 50 years ago. As I recall we beefed up the wing, because they were known to fail. The Smog Hog is a very capable airplane even if it looks more like one of today's trainers. If I built one I'd have to cover it with silk. It would be a great trip down memory lane!
Old 05-24-2016, 03:37 AM
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Rather than building the kit or using the old plans, here's a free download of the plan.
http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=6824

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=671
Old 05-24-2016, 06:22 AM
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HighPlains
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Hi Greg, not really misinformation, perhaps misdirection by accident. You are correct that the 10 channel reed systems used a mechanical mixer to sum the motion of of the elevator servo with the motion of the elevator trim servo. But the 10 channel systems were further down the evolutionary trail and did not exist until 1958 or 1959. So at the time before that when the 5 channel and slightly later 8 channel reed banks were used there was no transmitter controlled adjustable trim.

Silk and nylon were used in larger heavier applications, just as silkspan and tissue in lighter models. Often early designs called for one thing for the wings and something stronger for the fuselages. Monocote and Super monocote were game changers, but the original was around for years in the form of trim sheets. The main loss when using films instead of silk or other doped on coverings is torsional rigidity. I watch a class C free flight's wing go into flutter during the climb at one Nat's and also seen the horizontal stabilizer on a Sr. Falcon flutter in a slight dive. The free fright recovered when the engine quit, the Falcon locked into a terminal dive.

Paul, I will look at those plans. I have the original plans as published in MAN and copies of the plans from the kit. There are a few minor changes in the design like a joggle in the parts that make up the vertical stab and holes in the ribs for lighten the weight. The plans in many old kits are brittle and the acids can darken them slightly. This one was no exception. My biggest problem is that I don't live near a Kinko's. The nearest is over several hundred miles away.
Old 05-24-2016, 07:13 AM
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Good clarifications. Sometimes we don't get the explanation from our mind (memory) to the printed word. Good comparison on the C free flight model, and the Goldberg Sr. Falcon. The Sr. Falcon is another design from before Monokote. Also, between the two of us we described the evolution of Monokote, but just to clarify let me add that the first sticky film was Monokote, and the revised product was Super Monokote. There was a lot of the "sticky" stuff left over after the change, and it was marketed as "Trim Monokote". Later, I've got PT in 45 minutes.
Old 05-24-2016, 07:35 AM
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HighPlains,

In your Post #12 you asked, "Did these things get hot ?"

I presume that you are asking about the transmitter. I don't recall noticing the transmitter case itself becoming hot, but I'm sure the tubes inside were quite warm. To tell the truth, the radio wasn't turned on for very long. The dry batteries, both for transmitter and receiver, were very expensive and non-rechargeable. So one didn't turn the radio on until just before launch and then quickly turned it off after the crash. And I was always so nervous during a flight that the transmitter could have been smoking in my hands and I wouldn't have noticed.

Regarding the case size of the transmitter, it never seemed excessive in size at the time. As I recall, the case was just wide enough and deep enough to house the three batteries. Two of the batteries were Burgess XX45 (67.5V) and the third battery was a Burgess 4F (1.5V for filaments).

One last comment: I don't recall if my CG receiver was an RT-5 or not. The box in your photo says, "Transistor Receiver". My recollection is that my receiver used a single gas tube (probably a 1AG4) and then transistors for the other stages. I suppose in that day this could have been a Transistor Receiver.

Dick
Old 05-24-2016, 08:43 AM
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Originally Posted by GREG DOE
Good clarifications. Sometimes we don't get the explanation from our mind (memory) to the printed word. Good comparison on the C free flight model, and the Goldberg Sr. Falcon. The Sr. Falcon is another design from before Monokote. Also, between the two of us we described the evolution of Monokote, but just to clarify let me add that the first sticky film was Monokote, and the revised product was Super Monokote. There was a lot of the "sticky" stuff left over after the change, and it was marketed as "Trim Monokote". Later, I've got PT in 45 minutes.
Another name for "trim monokote" was creepy crawler. At least that's what we called it.

In the northeast ,most of the RC planes I saw were covered with silk, nylon was considered too heavy, and took a lot of dope to fill the weave.
Us kids used nylon on our control line planes mostly because we couldn't afford silk.
It was also a handy bag to carry the crashed planes home.

Paul
Old 05-24-2016, 09:26 AM
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I have the original MAN that featured the Smog Hog and scanned the article in my computer years ago, but somehow a page is missing.
I'll post what I have and when I find the mag I'll fill in the missing page.
Don't want to stir anything up, but if you read the original article the entire plane, including the stab was covered with nylon.
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Old 05-24-2016, 11:41 AM
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HighPlains
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Dick, I think from your description of the CG receiver and this receiver kit that they are the same design. While the box says transistor, there is in deed a small 1AG4 tube in the design. I think that just having a transistor in the circuit in 1956 was a novelty, and this receiver has two. Fortunately these tubes are still available. This receiver is what is called a "regenerative" or possibly a "super regenerative" receiver. As such, they are not particularly selective, and depends on positive feedback to amplify the RF signal. CG did not supply a schematic with the kit, just a wiring diagram and printed circuit card, so I will have to draw that out. These type of receiver might broadcast a stronger signal than they detect.

The FCC gave additional frequencies for hobby use in 1957 or 1958 in addition to 27.255 Mc then used. This required the development of the superhet receivers. Hetrodyne receivers employ a crystal controlled oscillator that mixes with the incoming RF signal that is filtered in an I.F. stage that employs tuned filters with gain stages before detection to the baseband signal of interest. All of this would have been very difficult with tubes (bulky, heavy, battery drain), but by then transistors were driving tubes out of the market. I mentioned this in passing in the first post, gain blocks or amplifiers were very limited in the early tube designs, but transistors changed every aspect of design. The advent of selective receivers and more frequencies plus rechargeable batteries along with battery replacement switching power supplies were hot trends in the late '50's. Tubes held on for a while because they were better at high frequencies than affordable transistors.

Perhaps some of you noticed I have been using the defunct Mc which stood for Mega-cycles. I think is was around 1960 or so that the SI term Hertz came into use. Many think the Metric system is better or easier, especially with regard to distance measurements of something related to the length three seed of barley laid end to end being an inch. But the meter is 1/1000 of a Kilometer, and it so happens that the original definition of the Kilometer was that the distance between the north axis of the Earth rotation and the equator was exactly 10,000 Kilometers. It seems easier to find three kernels of barley and work up from there....over a cold beer which is a byproduct of malted barley. Which is another term for germinated barley. Which meant it got wet and was going to rot through a fermentation process.
Old 05-24-2016, 11:46 AM
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HighPlains
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Here is a product from Mr. Bonner that I picked up from a junk box at a model show in KC a couple year back. I have never seen them advertised or mentioned in any old magazines.
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Old 05-24-2016, 02:13 PM
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Great memories. Dad built a Smog Hog back in the day. Still have some of his old engines and radios. Bonner Transmite servos were the thing to have back then. I think there's an old Min-X single channel x-mitter/receiver & Bonner escapement as well as a Min-x 6 channel reed x.mitter and receiver stored away with his stuff. Also have several Bonner and Anco servos as well as a Cardinal 10 channel x-mitter and at least one matching receiver. Things were much more complex back then. Lots more tinkering and experimentation. The new digital stuff makes it so easy.

The smell of burning glow fuel always triggers memories of flying with dad back in the day. I guess thats why I still fly glow and am unlikely to give it up

Good luck with your project!.
Old 05-24-2016, 03:47 PM
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F106A, Thank you for pointing that out. I would rather be corrected than to be wrong next time.

Paul
Old 05-24-2016, 05:12 PM
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Krumple, I'm glad you mention your dad's old Min-X radio. It jogged my mind to a forgotten purchase from that auction site. I had picked up a Min-X six channel conversion kit that was intended to be added to a single channel Min-X receiver to make a six channel. Since their single channel receiver already had a relay, the kit came with 5 relays and a 6 channel reed bank. Just what I need to build a 5 channel receiver. These pictures show the relay bank with a hole for the 6th relay, plus the reed bank.

While very simple in concept, a reed bank is a pretty amazing work of art. The red and black wires drive the voice coil, and when the right audio frequency magnetically excites the desired finger of the steel reed, it starts to vibrate. Of course, your engine could also do that too, so placing the receiver so the reed had the right orientation with regards to the engine also helped. The contacts to the reeds only touched briefly as the reed moved, so a capacitor was also used to hold the voltage transferred by the reed. This very small current and voltage then drove a relay that in turn gave the much higher current to drive the servo motor.

So 5 different tones from the transmitter, one at a time, sent as an audio tone that modulated the transmitter's carrier. Received by a very rudimentary receiver that recovered the audio tone and drives the voice coil. The magnetic field from that voice coil resonates with one finger and that causes a capacitor to charge up, thus causing a very small sensitive relay to close with the motor driving current to get to a motor in the servo.
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