Cheap radios for fast jets

[Jakob]

Hi
i just ordered a freewing bae hawk 70mm edf and as a radio and receiver i will be using the detrum gavin 8ch radio and receiver (which is quite a cheap setup). can it be that the jet would be to fast for the radio and end up losing connection ?

Could be a stupid question but i thought it would be better if i took some advice beforehand.

[KLR Pilot]

Radio waves travel at the speed of light--just under 300,000km/sec. So losing connection is going to be a function of antenna orientation/placement/range-signal strength, not speed of the aircraft.

[Hoomi]

Yep. Radio waves travel one nautical mile (6080 feet) in 6.18 microseconds, or, to write that out in actual seconds, that's 0.00000618 seconds. That's 161812 nautical miles per second, or 186000 regular miles per second. (One of those bits of trivia that stuck with me from my USAF Radar/Nav tech school days over 40 years ago)

Our EDFs may be quick, but they're not going to outrun our radio waves.

Now, flying beyond the effective distance range of a cheap transmitter is another story. Our transmitters aren't very high power, and the farther our planes get from the Tx, the weaker the signal becomes. Better quality transmitters may not be putting out much higher power, but the better quality receivers often have better sensitivity to remain locked onto the transmitter signal as it gets weaker with distance. If you're concerned, do a range check of your setup before flying your EDF.

[Hoomi]

(Unless, of course, your control setup has this option....)