Frequencies
 

I've had the old interest sturred again after many years away and I've been surfing and buying magazines to try and catch up. It was comical that someone asked if balsa could be painted, whatever happened to sanding sealer, and model airplane dope, fuel proof and non-fuelproof? Where's Amberoid and Testors glue gone, have the druggies eliminated them? I guess silkspan isn't available either, eh?
Anyway, the subject of this post is frequencies. There seem to be some that are not used, 15, 19 and 49, as well as others that some clubs don't use. I can see that there would be advantages to spreading the use of frequencies around so that members would be able to fly at the same time, but why are some not used at all? How does one find equipment of a given frequency or can frequencies be changed by re-programming or crystal swapping? Or is it just the luck of the draw?
Just getting the ducks in line.

RE: Frequencies
 

Shamas
You can order what ever frequency you prefer or buy what the LHS has on the shelf. To get the frequency you want usually just add the number on the end of the radio part number when you order a radio.

I am not sure about the blocked frequencies you listed but at our field channel 20 is banned because of harmonics caused by TV channel 4 audio carrier. We also have a frequency agreement with a fellow that flies close by but dosen't want to join the club. We ban channels 41 thru 49 at our field for him to fly at his house.

Hope this sheds a little light on your questions
DEG

RE: Frequencies
 

Poll the local club you belong to first. Its nice to have a frequency no one else has. None is really better than the other. If you use futaba the frequency you choose will be partly determined by your transmitter as it is tuned to handle "hi or low" bands better. I don't recall the cut off point.

RE: Frequencies
 

What they said. Couple other things though; it is illegal to change transmitter crystals in the US, Receiver crystals are fine. There are some transmitters (and receivers) that are set up to allow switching frequencies, either automatically in the case of some high end receivers, or through a "module" in some transmitters. (Futaba 9CAP, Hitec Prism 7 with "Spectra" module, and the Polk equipment.)

The stuff around today is truly amazing, and I believe 'silkspan' IS still available, but rarely used any more. ;)

Good luck and have fun!
Dennis-

RE: Frequencies
 

Shamas,
You're giving away your age!:D
Welcome back and welcome to RCU. Usually, a flying field will block some frequencies from being used because something in the local area interferes with those frequencies often enough
to cause problems. Back in the day, there wasn't anywhere near as much technology polluting the airwaves that would cause problems. Now with cell phones, cordless phones, walkie-talkies,
ham radios and such, it's become a real congestion problem. Heck, I bet that even a slightly out-of-whack garage door opener might just cause some interference.
Anywho, it shouldn't take you long to get back into the swing of things and tell us what you think of all the new gear out there for this hobby, (sport?).

Jesse

RE: Frequencies
 

My club prints a membership roster each year, including the frequencies the member uses. I took an hour or so to put it in a spread sheet, and found out that nobody used channel 20. So I sent all my transmitter off, and $35 and two weeks later it came back on channel 20 (including receiver crystals). At the very next club meeting, it was announced that channel 20 was banned due to interference from a TV transmitter. I asked why it wasn't posted at the field, or in the newsletter, and they said, "Because it's been that way forever, so everybody already knew it." [:o]

So, I went back to the spread sheet, found the next least used frequency, and sent all my equipment off to be changed to channel 17. After it came back, how long before I got to the field and there was already somebody on 17? Answer: about two weeks.

The moral of the story is that you can't win. I now take identical setups on different channels, and I've yet to find guys on both!

RE: Frequencies
 

When I buy radio's I just pick an odd frequncy. Up until narrow banding everything was evens. So I choose odds to stay away from established modelers. And I'm kinda odd myself (OK real odd).

Mark Shuman

RE: Frequencies
 

my club keeps a frequency list of all the members, i picked a frequency no one else used

RE: Frequencies
 

Wecome back !
I just got back into RC myself.

Now that your back and ready to stay, kick in the bucks and purchase a synthesized transmitter and receiver. Then you can fly on any channel you want anytime you want.

Hitec makes a moderate cost transmitter but not the receiver.
Polk Hobbies makes the receiver.

Futaba will be coming out with a module for their 9C transmitter but no receiver ( unless you buy their top of the line at $300 ... ug ... too much).

Multiplex will be coming out shortly with their synthesized system ( I've been holding my breath ... but turned blue ... so I quit).

The remaing systems are out of my price range.

Again ... welcome back ... and good hunting .... I fly channel 50 and wait my turn .... but it's never very long.

RE: Frequencies
 

Btw, the Polk system is probibly the least expensive ways to get frequency agility.

I fly on channels 19 and 27. There's one guy on my field on 19, and another on 27 (well, actually, there are a couple, but those two are just about the only ones I run in to). We have 3 pair of banned channels at our field due to high power commerical transmitters operating between the RC channels.