firefighter56

I'm new to the hobby and I saw a post concerning AM radio's. My question is are all AM band radio illegal to use? I see some for sale on ebay was thinking of bidding on some.

Also do G type connector work on J type receivers?

strato911

Some AM systems are still legal, as long as they are "gold-stickered". The late model units were manufactured to the gold-sticker standard (narrow band), and some people had their older radios converted. If you have an older system, there should be a sticker on the back certifying it as a narrow band radio like this one (it is gold colored). Wide band transmitters are illegal.

As for your other question - As far as I know, servos with G-style connectors don't work with receivers using J-style connectors.

Tippie

Hitec still makes/sells an AM unit on 72mhz in the Focus 3. I have one that I bought about 2 years ago on channel 25 and just checked their web site which still shows them in production.

TERBObob

My Feedback: (21)

Yes ... you can still use AM ..... and not knowing if oyu are wanting this for planes or cars or boats ( yes ... there is a difference - 72 mhz for planes and 75/29 for cars and boats )
And yes ... they still sell them BRAND NEW ... here is one example on EBAY ( and no ... this is not my auction ... just one I found fast to show here ) :
EBAY auction for FUTABA AM radio gear
A lot of guys will tell you to buy an expensive PCM setup , but AM ones work just as good .... AND a LOT less complicated . If you wanted a setup that costs a little more , but has a little bit more of filtering in it and less interference possibilities ( and they ALL have the same output power , so there is no concern if this type puts out more power than the other - meaning AM verse FM verses PCM ) , then go FM . If running either a car or a boat ... you really don;t need all that extra stuff like the guys with the planes do ...
Just make sure if you are going to buy radiogear from EBAY ... that you first ask to make sure that its NARROW band and not WIDE band which is illegal to use now ( although a LOT of guys still do use them ... )

ec121k

About the G and J connectors on youir sevos. The servos are interchangeable if you can get the G to J "pigtail". Back when Futaba was converting AM to FM around 1991, they supplies them with the conversion because it also included an FM receiver with J plug requirements. I did this and received the converter pigtails and it worked just fine. I don't know if the leads are still available but if you want to, you could make them up or just open up your servos and install J style connectors which you can buy with wires attached. Depends on how into you are with soldering on small ckt boards. (In my case I had some S-48 servos that came with the AM system)

Tippie

I checked an additional radio manufacturer and see they also sell/make a 2 and 3 channel AM systems. You probably won't find any new AM radios with more than 3 channels. From what I have gleaned, the reason for FM and PCM being used for in radios 4+ channels is that the circuitry in those radios is also used for purposes other than for the RC model industry (forget fequencies) so they are actually more cost effective to produce than AM (has no reflection on selling price). So, AM being cheaper to make is not necessarily valid. The reason I have an AM system is from a recommendation of a very close friend (now deceased) that was in the RC manufacturing industry. He said that AM has a slightly greater range. I also understand from info on the web that AM may be more suscepible to interference but I think that relates to early 90's and before. Nothing says they are illegal as long as they comply with current bandwidth restrictions. Back to the beginnng, AM vs FM makes no difference. The reason for more FM on the market is that 4 channel + radios are more economical to manufacture, not that they couldn't make then AM. Now, when you look at purchases on E-bay it is buyer beware when selecting an old AM system.

firefighter56

Thanks guys you were very helpful.
Rick