Now and Then,,,(4)

This is a video from 1939 and the modeling techniques and fittings are still in use today. The clothes and cars not so much!

 My first exposure to radio control wasn't through airplanes or cars but model boats on a city pond in Seattle WA. By the 1960's commercially made radio control equipment had been available for some time but not seen too much as it was very expensive and not very reliable. One day down at the local park (which had a nice cement pond) there was a gathering of gentlemen with an assortment of model boats. Most of these were sailboats but there were a few powered boats with small engines (gas or maybe glow fueled, I have no idea). They were what I know now to be called "free sailing". They would set the rudder or masts in a fixed position to allow for some direction of the course to be taken but there was no control after launching.  One man had a rather large speed boat with a very loud engine and was holding a box with an antenna sticking out the top. I remember watching him fiddle around with the engine and that box for a long time. This was the very first time I had ever seen someone using R/C gear. I didn't even know it existed! He could rev up the engine and wiggle the rudder as if by magic! He had drawn quite a crowd around him and his boat. He told the other boaters that he was going to launch soon and they hurried to get their boats off the water. To do that they enlisted a bunch of us kids to wade into the pond and bring in their boats. I think they gave us a dime for each boat we brought to shore! Finally all the boats were in and it was time to launch the R/C speedboat. Someone held it by the transom while he rev'd it up and then it was let go. It took off and when he tried a turn, it sputtered and died. A grown went out from the crowd but that didn't stop a group of us kids from rushing into that pond. A big kid got there first and had it back to the owner fast. The owner quickly adjusted something on the engine (carb?) and restarted it. Again someone held it while he rev'd it up until he told them to let go. This time he ran it all over that pond. Left turns, right turns, straight across that pond for what seemed like forever. He made a turn right in front of everyone watching and we got sprayed with water. All of the kids thought that was so cool but the adults were not amused. Remember this was the early 60's and men still wore suits even when they were at the park with their model boats! Getting wet was not something they wanted to have happen. He drove that boat around some more but he didn't spray us again. Eventually he did bring it in close, shut down the engine and coasted up to the edge of the pond. I believe we clapped and cheered! The equipment he was using was probably a very early 2 channel proportional control unit as I do remember he was using a stick to move around the rudder. Those early transmitters only had a few channels to use on the 27 MHz band and interference happened often as the band was shared with many other users of radio equipment. In about 1967 six channels on the 72 MHz band and one at 75.640 MHz band were allotted for the use of R/C. Over the years changes took place and more channels were made available which required updating or buying new equipment. Interference still was a problem until the advent of the 2.4 GHz spread spectrum systems now in wide use. These radio systems are virtually immune to most sources of electrical interference.
 My first radio, circa 1980, was a Hobby Shack AeroSport 6 channel on 72.080 and you had to clip on a brown and white streamer to your antenna. It was not immune to interference! That though is a story for another day.