Radio Reception

[CT]

I am looking for feedback regarding radio reception issues I am having. I have had terrible luck at one of my flying locations, losing or damaging several planes due to possible radio interference. Each occurrence was caused by radio brownouts which lasted until impact.
One of those incidents I was using a HK "orange" Rx, of which I will never use again. All other times were with Spectrum Rx and Tx. I spoke with the local RC store who said it may be caused by microwave interference, which is highly possible because the site is a large business park. It also seems that the general location of these brownouts were in the general vicinity of airspace, contributing to this theory.

I now fly with the Tx8, but was using a Tx6 at the time. I also learned to position the antennae on the 6 so it reflects radio waves at a 90* angle, instead of straight out. This actually helped eliminate the brownouts which were microseconds in length, but still suffered the complete reception loss.

I would appreciate any replys from fellow pilots with this problem I am having.

Awaiting my pride and joy----- YAK130 Yaaaaaaaaaa
Wings over California, Chris

[Loneflier]

Re: Radio Reception

Hello CT-I can certainly commiserate with you on losing a plane from signal loss. Like you, I am using a combination of Spektrum and Orange receivers, but I have not had an Orange receiver to fail yet. The one time I did have a complete loss of signal was using a complete Spektrum system, DX4 and the Delta Ray with AS3X. I had flown the plane at least 30 times previously with absolutely no issues, and never even a scratch. However, I was flying a new location at my worksite on a lunch break. I was using a football field which happened to be pretty close to our communications building, and had flown twice already with no issues. The third flight, I was coming along straight and level, when the plane suddenly banked right and dove straight into the ground. Up to that point, I thought these 2.4GHZ systems were pretty interference free, but learned that a powerful signal can interrupt and cause havoc. Oh, the communications building, well, occasionally they do talk to the International Space Station, so I have learned never to fly near that building again! That is the only time in all my flying that I can say signal interference was to blame. The rest of my crashes were on me!
I did repair the DeltaRay and it is flying fine again, with no glitches, so I am sure it was interference that one time. All this to say that if you are continually having issues, you might want to consider a new place to fly away from that business park. It just isn't worth it lose an airplane taking that chance. It is too easy to lose one from "dumb thumbs", so why add to the risk? Hope this helps.

[doctormike]

RE: Radio Reception

Are you flying near high power transmission lines? This can cause a problem. The Doctor

[WintrSol]

RE: Radio Reception

Technically, a brown-out is a drop in receiver voltage, usually caused by the servos drawing more current than the source (battery or BEC) can provide. Many receivers take several seconds to recover from that kind of partial reset. Loss of signal occurs when the antenna orientation, receiver and transmitter, reduces the signal, or ambient noise interferes. Does your problem occur at only one of a few flying sites? Only on windy days? Lots of factors to consider to separate brown-outs from signal loss.