valleyk

Just in the past year flyers have been losing control due to radio interference. I personally saw six planes go down. Happens in the same location of the field and all victims use 2.4 Ghz radios Futaba and Spektrum radios. Maybe the best advice is to fly somewhere else or maybe upgrade to DSMX technology?

Dick T.

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DSMX won't help you either if there is something interfering with the 2.4 spectrum in your particular region. 2.4 is not bullet proof as many are led to believe.

warbird72

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Where are you flying??

JIMF14D

Try Hitec and let me know how it goes.....
If you walk your planes to that location and do a ground check do you see any odd things happening?

warbird72

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That's freaky!! I was About to say the same thing.. I use hitech and futaba. And I'm still on 72 mHZ.. Wonder if there close to an airport or some big industrial plant? It could be anything. Cell towers or anything that cans send or receive signals.. Wondering minds want to know here..

luv2flyrc

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get a 2.4 scanner and check the band or find someone that flys high end stuff with Weatronic ( built in scanner). BTW, can you be sure that it is radio interference that caused the crashes? I witnessed a lockout/ fly away at our local club on the weekend. Turned out his transmitter battery was dead Just saying, things aren't always as they appear to be.

Mike

warbird72

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The only lock out I ever had was with my DX6I. And it was due to a dead battery!! I use 2.4 futaba and hitec. But also still use 72 meg. I use 2.4 in all my gassers and 72 in my glow models. Except my concept 30 heli. I use the futaba 2.4 in that.. I use my converted ellipse 7 in all of my electrics.

BarracudaHockey

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+1
This is the only reliable way to find out what is going on.

Gizmo-RCU

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It's been my observation it's usually NOT radio interferrance but other mechanical factors that later can't be explained due to the condition of the remains[&o]. I am not saying this is the case here,
due to the condition of the deceased plane its sometimes difficult to say, although it would be interesting to know exactly what was going on before the interferrance?
Many times I have seen a crash where the flier loudly proclaimed "I got hit, etc." He got hit with "Dumb thumbs", been there and done that!

valleyk

Some more info:

The field is at Chatfield Park Litteton Co. They host the Warbirds over Denver. I know this is bad advertisement but I've seen too many planes go down in the same general location. The interference seems to be random and the only plane I saw escape it was a ducted jet that went into safe mode (engine when to idle) and traveled fast enough the escape the danger zone and he got control back. I hear from some members about a cell tower that was just put up and then you have Lockheed Martin just a mile away so who knows but yes they have a problem.

BubbasanJohn

Does your AMA district folks have any support or resources for this problem?

raptureboy

6 different planes, same location. Unless all the pilots are incompetent at the same spot it sounds like you have a frequency issue. Every 2.4 manual warns of possible cell phone interference. We have a spot like this at our field that effects 72 mhz and we call itthe devils trianglewhich is why I went to 2.4. We installed a freq monitor and even had the AMA come out and test for stray signals. They picked up an occasional hit on certain channels. Good luck finding the cause.

AndyKunz

I just checked with guys who fly there. They said, "That's BS."

Andy

warbird72

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I don't know what to believe anymore. I'm still adapting to the 2.4 and I keep feeling me something is wrong. Just something about not having to pull up that antenna.. But other than that . I had one problem and it was do to my fault!! At first I blames the radio but soon after realized that is was a bad cell in my rx pack!!

Aerocal

In my experience the radio is the first to be blamed and the last to actually be the culprit.

warbird72

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Rodger that!!!

Dick T.

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Really? Entire membership or just a few close friends?

sidgates

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ValleyK - I have been flying on 2.4GIG (XPS & Weatronic) at Chatfield for the past 3 years and have not had one radio hit in that time. I only had one flight at Chatfield last year so my experience is not recent. I have close friends who fly at Chatfield regularly and I have not heard reports of any of them having trouble.

I know of two very active flyers at Chatfield who lost 5 airplanes between them during 2011. I know one switched radio brands and not sure about the other. Maybe one of them will comment here.

If I can help call me. My phone #is on the club roster.

As stated before I have a Weatronic system which has a Spectrum monitoring function and had intended to monitor the 2.4GIG band at Chatfield the next time I am there.

ace_drummond

My Feedback: (21)

This problem at Chatfield had been experienced by several people. During the 2011 summer it seemed confined to Spektrum DSM2 equipment in one certain area.

I've acquired a specktrum analyzer to use with my laptop and never could see anything definitive. The one thing we did notice was that often the two channels picked by the TX seemed to be close by.

I personally went to Futaba 2.4 FASST and never had a problem after that. I then updated all my Spektrum to DSMx and again no issues after the upgrade.

DSM2 not a hopper mode and FASST + DSMx are hoppers and I suspect less vulnerable to the two frequency issue possible with DSM2.

I've personally been flying over 50 years, never expereinced anyting like this before and quite positive that equipment and batteriies not a source of problems. In fact, I've had Spektrum from day one without problem until summer of 2011.

I am AMA CO AVP and got little help from AMA technical support; however, Dave Mathewson sent me an article about FAA testing conducted about intereference possibilities that seemed to shed some light on the situation, but again not definitive. RC MODELREVIEWS seehttp://www.rcmodelreviews.com/dsm2flaw.shtmlwhich makes sens in light of what I personally experienced. Then see DSMx reviewhttp://www.rcmodelreviews.com/dsmx.shtmlwhich defines my experience.

The folks at Horizon pooh pooh all this, but must know there is a problem in some situations otherwise why is there a DSMSS now?

In recent days I've heard just about nothing on this issue. Many of our club members upgraded to DSMx or FASST with similar results to what I've experienced.

We all kind of suspect it is something out of Lockheed Martin (nearby) that happens on occasion, but we don't know that for sure and so far the problem had been very intermittent.

There are hundreds of flights at Chatfield each and every week and the issues are an insignifcant number of later as far as i can tell.

I would recommend that anyoneo n 2.4 at this location make sure your equipment is in good working order, batteries up to snuff AND frequency hopping equipment too!

JIMF14D

And Ithink when that guy tested Hitec 2.4Ghz with that video TX he found the HItec system to be awesome.....

Jim D.

valleyk

Thank you Ace. I know this is a sensitive issue but I also know that when people put years of work into a plane the should be warned not only by word of mouth but by this forum otherwise nothing is done. I think members of chattfield should post a warning to who ever flys at the warbirds show.

BarracudaHockey

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Addressing only this line....

DSMX was designed with large (large meaning...Nall & IRCHA size) events in mind where DSM2 does indeed bog down and have issues. The vast majority of people, even at what many of us consider "busy" flying fields should see little difference.

That said, nothing says you don't have a hostile RF enviroment out there, I'd be curious to what was seen with an SA

sidgates

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Valleyk
I was very active flying at Chatfield in 2011 with my XPS and Weatronic and also CH55 on 72MHZ and had not one glitch that year. My XPS and Weatronic are hopping systems. I chose not to use the XPS until it was upgraded to a hopper. I also have friends flying with FrSky and Hitec at Chatfield and no problems.

As ACE said there are hundreds of flights each day at Chatfield without problems on 2.4GIG. It is my opinion that most of the problems are with the non hopping systems or with batteries or poor installations. All but one of my 2.4G models has a separate battery for the receiver and a second battery for the servos. I see no need to take a chance servo loads will reboot my receiver.

DadsToysBG

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Not to say that the problem is hopping vs. non hopping, but DSM2 does hop in a way. The radio and receiver are linked with 2 bands of 2.4. the receiver picks the stronger of the two to listen too. Now if the two bands are very close this could be a problem. This will happen if the 2.4 is crowded. If that was the case the scanner would show it. At the Nall one year before DSMX came out they flew over 100 planes on DSM2. It did show that the response was much slower then normal but the planes still worked.
Some times your never understand the problem. You just keep trying fixes until it stops.

aquaskiman

My Feedback: (46)

I have been flying at Chatfield for many years, I fly a lot ( 2 days a week 3 to 6 flights a day) I have used spectrum and now use Futaba 12Z I have never had a glitch. Most crashes I see are set up or pilot error. I fly high end jets. I am not buying into 2.4 radio interference causing any crash’s at Chatfield.