crownvic

Is AM radio a thing of the past in rc or is this an area where more people can fly and why is FM better than AM or is it ?


Lonnie

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

AM is a thing of the past because apparently its cheaper to make a good FM unit than it is to make a good AM unit. Its still legal to use AM if it is narrow band.
Theoretically FM is better because atmospheric noise tends to be AM and would be rejected if you have a good FM discriminator in your receiver.
I would think you should avoid AM with a gas ignition engine. However we had gas engines before FM was legal and they seemed to work fine.

apteryx

With the crowded band conditions and the narrow RC channels, the FM (or really Frequency Shift Keying FSK) we use for RC is much easier to narrowband than AM signals. There is nothing wrong with AM but the chances for interference is greater, especially since the older receivers were not too selective. The receiver portion of the "system equation" is often more difficult to solve than the transmitter portion. The best band to use AM on would be the 53Mhz ham band because of the wider channel spacing. Requires a no code technician ham license (easy to study for and get ...go fo it !).

Many of the "gold stickered" AM units are marginally narrow banded and your club may not even allow them at your field. On the other extreme, there are still plenty of people flying old AM equipment on 27Mhz like Galoping Ghost systems, etc. Fun too.