drego

Does transmitter for R/C model attract lightning?

blade_killer

I suppose it might if you were in an open field flying in a storm......

credence

My Feedback: (2)

Of course, one might wonder, what reasons you might cite for operating your model during a storm..

bigdad390

I dont think a transmitter would attract lightning, but electricity always follows the path of least resistance. So if you are in a field holding a transmitter, the distance from the thunder cloud and you or your anntenna is less distance than from that cloud and the ground, therefore you could become part of that path of least resistance.

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

If you want to stand in a field holding a mini lightning rod while there is visible lightning you may be eligable for a Darwin award

blade_killer

if you do fly in a storm, video it so we can watch...

02nelsc

but what about if it hits your model in the air first will the signal attaching you to your model act as a guide for the lightning frying both you and your model?

BarracudaHockey

My Feedback: (11)

There's no signal attaching you to your model. Your transmitter blindly radiates in all directions, if your lucky your reciever flys through the signal and it hears it because its tuned to listen on that frequency. Much like your car radio drives through the signal created by a radio station, all radio stations, infact any RF signal are picked up by the antenna, all but the one you tuned for are filtered out before the rf signal is decoded into music.

w.pasman

The radio waves your radio is transmitting is not ionizing the air (assuming you are not using a megawatt booster for your Tx ;-) ), so the signal itself makes no inviting path for the lighting.
Your antenna is inviting, and so is the heli. BTW lighting usually is accompanied by rain which is bad for heli and Tx.
Anyway I don't see a good reason to fly with lighting.

drego

I'm just curious and I don't think it's a good idea to stand in the field with storm above me, not to mention holding tx in your hands and turn it on. Thanks to all! Sorry no video, I can't imaging testing it.