Frequency Boards / Pins
 

How many of you who are AMA clubs still use frequency boards?
- Do you use pins for 2.4 also?

If no board, what have you done and why?
- Have you banned 72 mHz?
- Too few fliers to really matter?

Also, how big is your club?
- Less than 50 members?
- 50 to 100 members?
- More than 100 members?

Thanks for your help.
We are having many discussions about this in our club.

Have a Good Day,
KW_Counter

Two clubs where I fly use them and impounds for sanctioned events . One displays it for day-day flying while the other does not.

Brian,

Though I agree with you and appreciate your comments, the question was what does your AMA sanctioned club do about do regarding a frequency board.

Thanks,
KW_Counter

We still have our board. We do not have 2.4 pins. We are a small club with 15-20 members. Only a few 72mhz radios are still in use. It's rare to see one at our site. When we have an event our visitors come from larger cities. Those clubs all require 2.4 so it's a non issue. The only issue we do have with the 2.4 is limiting the number of pilots in the air at one time. This used to be done with freq control. Now it's on the honor system.

David

My club (around 40 to 50 members) has a board and we have pins for 2.4 as well as 72. The reasoning, I think, was to keep everybody in the habit of getting a pin. In practice, though, a lot of people don't bother, including people on 72. Guess they figure they're the only ones. That's one reason I have changed to 2.4 on all but a couple of my planes.

Double post.

The club that I fly with has well over 100 members, and we have both 72 MHz pins, as well as 2.4 GHz pins, although it is rare for the 2.4 pins to be used. I fly both, and when I fly with my 72 MHz equipment, not only do I get, the pin for my freq, I also walk around and ask other 72 MHz flyers what channel they are using, just in case they are on the same channel as I am on, but forgot to get the ppin

Craig.

In my 80 member club, the frequency board is used only for the 72 mHz stuff.

Our 105 member club has a pin box for 72, no pins for 2.4.

see comments interwoven in quote.

Frequency monitoring was done for safety and guidelines of the AMA. By the way 2.4ghz was introduced by the manufacture to cut cost and sell more products. Seat belts in cars were brought about by the insurance companies to keep their costs down from traffic accidents'. The same thing applies to "air bags".

My club has about 130 members. We have a board for 72mhz flyers, none for 2.4. However, we require members flying 2.4 to wear their membership card (badge) when at the field.
Alan

My Club still has a frequency board and we have added 2.4 pins. We also have pins for those flying so we can control the maximum aircraft flying at any one time (5). Our club flies out of a county forest preserve so we have many "non-members" who fly there as well. Those non-members obviously don't always follow the club rules. Anyway the frequency board & impound are mostly used only on "Club" night or for events or when a bunch of club members are there at the same time. Our club is between 70-100 members. We do still have some members flying 72 mghz. but not too many.

Our club is 180 members strong. 72 Mhz & Hamm frequency pin board right where its always been. A few members still using 72 Mhz. No pins for 2.4 Ghz. Members required to wear clip on identification badges.

Weren't seat belts introduced after the USAAF did a study as to why they were losing so many trainee pilots in the 1950s and found that they were loosing most of them in road accidents and expressed their concern that cars didn't have the sort of safety features that aircraft had. 2.4 came about because a new player brought it in and caught a lot of the old established players off guard, if they didn't move to 2.4 they went to the way of the dodo.

25 members,our frequency board is used by those on 72 only.

We have a small club, about 20 members. We were bigger once though. We use still use a frequency board and require pins for both the 72 and the 2.4. At one point we even had pins for the
27mhz band. The 72mhz is still our most widely used one in our club.

To answer your questions:

Frequency Boards / Pins

Our club is 300 + strong. We still use the board for 72 MHz as there are still some of use that use it, and the 2.4 flyers are asked to wear there club badge while using the flight line.

We just installed a new frequency board a couple of years ago. It has all of the 72 mhz, and the Ham bands. It also has a lot of 2.4 ghz pins as well. It is our clubs policy that all members post their membership card where the pin was that they take to put on their TX while flying. This is so that we know anyone at the field is a member. We do still have some 72 mhz flyers as well.

At my home field (51 members) during a period there was a group who set up camp 7 tenths of a mile away and who refused all forms of frequency sharing. This was four years ago and all in our club decided to go voluntarily to 2.4. We did not ban 72 at the field but made all sure of the danger. While not banned any using 72 must take responsibility for their own frequency control.

It was at that time that we removed the frequency board as well as the impound and not looked back . A frequency board has not proved necessary for membership puposes.

My Second club (54 members) is a water only site within a public facility on a beach and does maintain a frequency board. I have not noticed a long antenna there in several years. This club requires members to wear club badges for identity reasons since it is on a public beach

John

Having your membership card as a badge is a good idea. We have struggled with non-member fliers in the past and have sought a solution. This may be it. Mainly, because with the advent of 2.4, there is no reason to pin up anymore. I may bring this up at a meeting.
No frequency controls is really irresponsible on the part of that other group. Unless they are all 2.4. Do they even sell 72 mhz radios anymore? At this point, I can see no reason to stick with 72mhz. But I was one of those that wanted it as soon as it came out.

We have only a few members, the frequency board is somewhere in the shed. We have a few 72 Mhz radios in use and the few people communicate and make sure they don't get in each other's way. I do not think anybody shares the same channel anyways.
Otherwise we could just assign the channels to the pilots, to make sure that there are no interferences.
With 2.4 - there is no need to use pins, unless there is a large event.

And the point being we are all 2.4 and have been so for the last four years. The irresponsible miscreants are the ones that virtually camped on our doorstep four years ago and refused any form cooperation, we are not the bad guys and chose to take the 'High Road'. Here there is no need for ID badges.


Like I said my second club on the beach, engraved club name badges serve that purpose well since there is always a mix of spectators and flyers.


John

Why is there a need for pins at a large event ?