girth67

Whilst flying my twin jet and alfa f86 recently at the club field, I have suffered several massive glitches whilst flying. ie sudden dive, roll etc, and then normal flight, Ive noticed that the glitches happen in certain spots and certain heights( which vary from day to day). One recent large glitch nearly caused me to go nose in from a perfect level flight. I'm pretty much happy that my set up's are ok in that i use capacitors on the motors, and i get the correct reception, with the aerial down etc.

Is it possible that i'm getting some sort of radio/microwave interference as the glitches seem localized, how would i determine what is causing this problem?

I'm using a sanwa rd 6000, and gws mini receiver on channel 73.

redfox435cat

have you noticed if it happens when you point the Tx antenna direcly at the model. Otherwise our old feild had a few know interfeance spots. we traced it back to a wireless broadband utility our city is putting in

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

Yes its possible that you are getting interferance.

Let me tell you about a funny source of interference that most people don't know. We had the same problem here in Texas. There was a spot. The spot was just off the end of the runway, so you were typically low and slow on approach when you encountered the glitch. Some months, the glitch was fairly severe and other times it seems to be gone.

It turns out that the oil comapnys actually find oil by looking for magnetic anomolies like this. Apparently the salt dome and oil are located in a large pocket that is essentially a dent in the earth. A thin spot in the mantle or crust. The earth is a big magnet. You can locate oil reserves by detecting these magnetic fields over oil domes.

So, besides man made interference from microwave towers and such, there are actually natural sources. The effect is much worse if you are flying AM radios, but I have experienced it with the newer FM radios as well. Its generally close the the ground. If you were quite high at the time, then this probably wasn't the cause.

KW_Counter

Are other fliers on different channels experiencing the same problem or just you?
KW_Counter

girth67

Thanks to all for replies, I am not the only person having these problems, but on the f86 it was quite dramatic due to the speed and weight of the model.

In response I will monitor the direction in which i point my ariel, Ie keep it side on at all times.

I was not aware that wireless broadband could effect models but we live and learn, as for the oil, who knows what lies beneath.
I'm in contact with oftel to see if they have any ideas which are specific. ie transmitter based.I know there are two masts in the locality but they cannot be seen from the site.

I must admit its only in the last two years I have had any interference at all, and if this carries on I think we will be forced to dramatically review the whole RC thing in the UK. Ive lost two models in two years now to unexplained massive glitches, and believe me i am strong enough to admit it if it were my fault. I now fly at over a hundred feet to allow for these glitches, and on my approaches I cross everything, and pray to the god of radio signals for a glitch free approach

I suppose if nothing were sent to test us, we would remain untested!!!

jaka

Hi!
You don't happen to fly a Hitech radio do you...many problems with those (smaller recievers) over here in Sweden.

Regards!
Jan K

TLH101

My Feedback: (90)

Your problem is GWS recievers, if they are the single conversion types. They will not reject much of any thing. They are also very short range receivers.

50+AirYears

For one summer, we had a period of interferrence at one spot on our field. Turns out that on the other side of a line of trees from our area, there is an active landfill. A crane had a breakdown close to the common side, and was parked there inoperative for almost two months. There were several crashes on only a certain narrow band of frequencies, apparently caused by reflections from the boom.