Single Channel Radio Control - RH Warring

[Don Fry]

Did I diet, or succeed.

[Don Fry]

Actually, not saying.

[Simon Chaddock]

I have posted this before. My first RC, a MacGregor Terry Tone set.

Came as a kit that you soldered up yourself.

The transmitter in its home made case had a single valve.

Note the vast battery compartment. 96V? battery above, 4 D cells below for the heater!

The receiver similarly had to be soldered together but it did use 5 transistors so ran on 3V.

.

No idea what its frequency really was but it did work driving an Elmic Conquest rubber escapement.

Installed in a home designed glider which actually flew so badly that the rudder control had little chance of influencing the inevitable crash.

I still have it.

The 27 mHz digital proportional Futaba 2M (2 channel) that followed a few years later seemed so advanced by comparison!

I still have that too!

[Mike Etheridge 1]

I made up the Terrytone receiver in 1962 /3 and had a rubber powered Ripmax Mactuator in the rear of my New Junior 60 to provide control. The rubber was wound up with an Elmic Sidewinder and the transmitter I had was second hand and used a 90 volt HT battery plus an LT battery. I flew the Junior 60 on Epsom Downs for the first time in 1963 with the radio switched on, but not very well and another modeller intervened and carried out a perfect flight and landing. I still have the old equipment and the plane which I refurbished last year.

Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 03/02/2018 22:21:28

Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 03/02/2018 22:24:12

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Peter Christy]

Posted by Percy Verance on 04/02/2018 08:41:06:

"wee MacGregor wasn't always in control......."

Ah Yes! Who else remembers those glorious days of "Radio Control Sometimes" (RCS!) and similar? Even the early proportional sets weren't immune. There was the "Digimite Dance" and "F&M Shuffle" (pilots running down the runway waving their transmitters in the air to cries of "I haven't got it!!!" ).

Happy days!

Actually, most of those early problems were down to poor tuning of the mass-produced equipment. Our local expert, back in the late 60s, was often getting equipment brought to him as "useless", when all it needed was tuning properly. He picked up an almost new Bonner Digimite-4 for peanuts, because the owner said it was "useless". On inspection, he discovered the transmitter hadn't been aligned properly, and the output was minimal. Five minutes with a tuning wand and field strength meter had it working beautifully. He used it for a couple of years, and then passed it on to another club member. Between the two of them, they had years of reliable service from it.

The biggest problem I found with single-channel equipment was the escapements. The radio itself was generally pretty good, it was usually mechanical issues that resulted in unreliability. On Elmic escapements, it was always a good idea to strip them down and carefully remove any "flash" from the plastic mouldings before committing to flight! And the "Compact" also benefited from shorting out the current-saving circuit and soldering up the riveted connection tags, which always gave problems after a few months hard use.

We learned the hard way, back then!

--

Pete

 

Edited By Peter Christy on 04/02/2018 09:51:45

[Dave Cooper 3]

I remember the adverts for the MacGregor sets from my school days and was very tempted. I then went to our local flying site at Llandow, in South Wales, and saw a British Remcon set (nearly) in action. I think the Tx case was red and the owner said it was home-constructed from a kit. I was very impressed. Would this have been a reed set ?

Also around at this time was the RCM&E plan /kit for full proportional (35MHz FM ?). Again I was tempted but lacked the necessary electronics knowledge to 'have-a-go'.

In the war, my uncle was a Radar expert and, around the early fifties, he built a RC set with a powerful ground-based Tx. I know I tried lifting it once ! The model was a high-winger like a Junior 60 or Trenton Terror (I have a plan for that). A possible dream one day would be to fly the Trenton Terror with a home-constructed radio and four-stroke engine. (I have a plan for the "Matador" FS motor). Lots of plans - not much execution !

Need some more electronic test equipment and a small lathe...plus a fair dollop of experience.

Dave

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by Simon Chaddock on 03/02/2018 21:48:22:

I have posted this before. My first RC, a MacGregor Terry Tone set.

Came as a kit that you soldered up yourself.

The transmitter in its home made case had a single valve.

Note the vast battery compartment. 96V? battery above,

They were 90V - I remember buying a GPO Tester 9083 from a surplus stall at our local market for not a lot of money while I was an apprentice which was a multimeter made by AVO but with some extra specialist functions - great quality movement though which could survive the odd fall from a telegraph pole! This used a 67 1/2 V battery which wasn't readily available but I realised this odd looking value was 3/4 of the voltage a 90V radio battery which were still commonly available from electrical shops in the early 70s. I dismantled one and wired up 3 of the 4 cell piles which then fitted perfectly.

Edited By Martin Harris on 19/10/2018 23:26:53

[Martin McIntosh]

You lot must be nearly as old as me. Started at 11 yrs old with a KK Spitfire (naturally) and a DC Bantam which I never did get to start but a mate had a c/l Champ with a Mills for Christmas at the same time so we learned to fly with that.

I distant Scottish relative by the name of Douglas Paton passed away and I got hold of his stuff, including that book by R.H. Warring and loads of others about props., aerofoils and engines. Main model was a rather complex single channel job with a really nice Elfin 2.49. It had a throttle to boot. The interesting bit was a hinged former carrying a mercury switch and weighted by the escapement battery pack which would swing forwards if the nose went down in a spiral dive, i.e. when the relay or escapement `stuck on`, thus disconnecting the drive and neutralising the rudder, or at least that was the theory. Gear was an ED Black prince ground based Tx with an eight and a half foot aerial and an earth spike, plus an ECC Telecommander 951A Rx. Never did get it to work properly.

Some other nice motors too including Mk1 Mills 0.75 and 1.3.

Then along came the RCM&E UK Rx which worked straight after assembling but I had to borrow a tone Tx from whoever was around on the day because my five bob pocket money only stretched as far as batteries and fuel. I replaced the relay with a transistor which meant that the three battery packs could be replaced with miniature ones and squeezed it all into a Cox 010 powered model (three months paper round pay).

The Tinytone all transistor Rx, again from RCM&E was life changing. I then took to designing my own which led to an electronics based career.

[Stephen Jones]

Posted by Simon Chaddock on 03/02/2018 21:48:22:

I have posted this before. My first RC, a MacGregor Terry Tone set.

Came as a kit that you soldered up yourself.

The transmitter in its home made case had a single valve.

Note the vast battery compartment. 96V? battery above, 4 D cells below for the heater!

The receiver similarly had to be soldered together but it did use 5 transistors so ran on 3V.

.

No idea what its frequency really was but it did work driving an Elmic Conquest rubber escapement.

Installed in a home designed glider which actually flew so badly that the rudder control had little chance of influencing the inevitable crash.

I still have it.

The 27 mHz digital proportional Futaba 2M (2 channel) that followed a few years later seemed so advanced by comparison!

I still have that too!

My word silver rated resisters not going for quality there where you.

Shame on you Simon,

Steve

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Back then Steve, most resistors were 20% - using 10% was 'up-market'. In actual fact, using 5% tolerance could actually make stuff fail to work properly - strange but true, especially in oscillator circuits

I remember my first transmitter - home brewed 'Oxo' tin case with a centre loaded whip aerial (the coil was wound on a length of brush handle). I've a strange feeling (but could be wrong) that it was an RCM&E design back in the mid 60s. I had it checked out by the local IBA technicians on the Black Mountain transmitter (well they had all the gear). It just cost me a load of old Wireless World mags from the 1940s that I'd found (and they wanted for their library)

It operated on CW (Continuous Wave) - no fancy AM or FM on 27 MHz back then. There wasn't a 'spot' frequency - most receivers were super regen (no crystals) and not superhet (lighter and more compact)

 

Edited By Daithi O Buitigh on 20/10/2018 01:09:52

[brokenenglish]

Posted by Daithi O Buitigh on 20/10/2018 01:07:37:

It operated on CW (Continuous Wave) -

"Carrier Wave" ?

[Daithi O Buitigh]

Posted by brokenenglish on 20/10/2018 08:11:35:

Posted by Daithi O Buitigh on 20/10/2018 01:07:37:

It operated on CW (Continuous Wave) -

"Carrier Wave" ?

Nope - 'continuous' (see wiki )

[Peter Miller]

Well I remember in 1954 my grandfather had left me some money and I was just getting into modelling.

I bought ECC Telecommander single channel radio, The reciever used two 22 1/2 volt hearing aid batteries, a 1 1/2 volt battery for the grid bias and four pencells for the escapement.

You spent ages tuning the receiver then setting the sensitivity (or it could have been the other way round)

Once you get it all working you started the engine, the relay chattered wildly and all the turns came off the rubber escapement motor and you started all over again.

Never did get a flight with it.

Later tried ED Boomerang, again no success.

At last tried RCSGuidance Sysstem and it worked well and reliably

[Andy Palmer]

My first single channel set was an RCS Guidance System and I later bought a MacGregor set. Here's me with my Ken Willard designed Schoolmaster, one of my later single channel models. I would think it was around 1967.

Edited By Andy Palmer on 20/10/2018 09:02:16

[Martin McIntosh]

Ah yes, an ED Boomerang was my Tx, not a Black Prince.