Radio Technique
WORLD ENGINES Expert FM radio: The similarities of the Polk's Challenger and the World Engines Expert RC systems are inescapable. You see, they are in fact made by the same company, Hi Tec, in Korea. But they are not identical. Both came on the market in 1986 as very low priced systems which had feature-loaded, narrow-band transmitters, low-priced servos, and inferior receivers. Both have come back a year later with truly excellent receivers and a program to trade good receivers for bad. I described the Polk's exchange program on page 35 of the March 1988 issue. Here's the World Engines exchange policy: 1) Send back ANY old World Engines system (even one on 27 MHz) and receive a complete new Gold-stickered, seven-channel World Engines Expert FM system for $135.
Now you're Talking
I'VE BEEN ASKED several times why the message "Thanks, Bob" appears at the head of the fifty 72 MHz RC channels listed on our Membership Renewal Form. Well, you do realize that 50 exclusive, separated, license-free RC channels were not conferred on you by the FCC because you have a pretty face. It took hard work by AMA member volunteers, over a period of 10 years, to get them. This included face-to-face meetings with the FCC Commissioners in their own offices in Washington (at a time when AMA had Washington offices, too). It has taken another 15 years-long effort, by more AMA people (volunteers and employees), to keep those channels.
Radio Technique
I CAUGHT a lot of flak for mis-describing the RCHA Gold and Silver stickers as being "required" in my March 1988 column. Perhaps you will accept my apology for one major gaffe in 145 columns. In my attempt to present the news as soon as possible (considering the built-in three-month publishing cycle delay), I jumped ahead of the AMA Executive Council on a decision which they haven't made yet. Bad reporting. The furor over the stickers was nothing compared to the one generated by noting that OWBAM (old wideband AM) systems should be abandoned. Now, let's look at the real world:
Radio Technique
IT AIN'T CHEAP, but it is cheaper. It used to be that all a Contest Director for an RC meet wanted was a scanner, in order to be able to verify that the flag on a contestant's transmitter matched the transmitter's operating frequency. Now he/she may want to verify transmitter power levels as well. The AMA rule book authorizes the Contest Director to make whatever measurements are necessary to insure that he/she is able to conduct a contest that doesn't create any unnecessary risks for the contestants. What tool makes these measurements possible? Section 3.4 of the "AMA Guidelines for Narrow-Band Operation of 72-75 MHz Radio Control Frequencies" (hereafter called the "AMA Guidelines"-which were published in the September and October 1987 editions of AMA News) calls for a transmitter frequency tolerance of ±1,500 cycles in the 72 MHz band.
Radio Technique
THE AUTHOR of a recent column in another modeling publication took me to task about certain things I had said in my June 1988 "Radio Technique" column. The specific criticisms were that I had called RC crystal swapping "illegal," and that I had claimed that the ICOM IC-R7000 receiver was not good enough to use in measuring transmitter power levels in the tests necessary to certify that a transmitter meets the AMA/RCHA "Gold Sticker" or "Silver Sticker" performance tolerances-and that I was not technically qualified to make the latter statement.
