Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Air Models / May 2008

You mean like HD radio and digital TV?  (I'll assume you're in the US.
If not, replace 72 MHz with your country's band, and FCC with whatever
your country's equivalent is.)

If so, then no, not at all.  Apples and oranges.

If you mean spread spectrum R/C, usually on 2.4 GHz, that certainly
affects R/C but it's not really a conversion but instead a
band/modulation that's supplementing the existing 72 MHz band.  It's
not really a government/FCC thing, but just new equipment becoming
available in the last few years.

In the next few years, I'd expect to see sales of new 72 MHz gear drop
to almost nothing (and it's already well on it's way) and people to
instead buy spread spectrum gear.  As for used gear, people will keep
flying their 72 MHz gear but over time it'll be used less and less as
well.  And perhaps somewhere down the road, the FCC might want to
reallocate that part of the 72 MHz band, but I wouldn't expect this
for at least ten years and probably not even then, as I'd expect the
band to be used a lot more for the `toy' park fliers like you find at
Toys-R-Us (which will also help drive the `serious' modellers to
spread spectrum.)

On 5/18/08 3:44 PM, in article Aj2Yj.1766$aJ1.86@trndny03, "Tom"
<yahoo@earthlink.com> wrote:

Did the change from escapements to reed radios affect RC modeling?  How
about from reed to galloping ghost and then to proportional?  The change
from 27 MHz to 72 MHz along with additional modulation methods and receiver
designs?

Everything has some affect, most of it good.