Category: rc hobbies

The Many Types Of Radio Controlled Hobbies

Radio controlled toys and projects have a huge following among hobbyists all across the globe. The concept is certainly a fun one a miniature model of some real-life vehicle, fully functional and ready to get around. There are many different types of radio controlled hobbies that can be enjoyed. All it takes is basic knowledge of the radio equipment and the motors, and you can enjoy all of them in some way or another.

The most basic (and arguably the most fun) type of radio controlled hobby is the remote control car. Small model cars can be rigged in a way that will allow you to accelerate, steer, and brake them at will. There are numerous ways that you can accomplish this. The first is to just buy a remote controlled car and some good batteries. However, if you are interested in the technical aspect of it then this may seem uninteresting. Another option is to build a model or a kit from scratch, putting together all of the components of the car and installing the radio control system. Still another option is to take a pre-existing toy, and mount all of the radio components inside.

Toy cars arent the only radio controlled hobby. Remote controlled boats are also very popular. It is fairly easy to convert a boat toy to be radio controlled. The biggest challenge faced by those trying to make a radio controlled boat is the issue of having a waterproof area for the engine and electrical equipment. Usually this is solved by placing the motor in the hull of the boat, and having the propeller emerge underwater through some sort of rubber, watertight seal. It is a good idea to buy this part of the boat pre-made, since a do-it-yourself, trial and error approach could lead to quite a few ruined engines before you get it right.

Radio planes are probably the most difficult project to undertake. Since a plane requires very detailed calculations and measurements in order to stay afloat, you will have to be attentive every step of the way. Makers of radio controlled airplanes will usually take one of two routes. The first is to buy kits that include cutout pieces of some sort of light wood that can be assembled using glue. After that is done, the radio and motor equipment are purchased and added in. The second method is to skip the kit, and find (or even make your own) plans for a model plane. After you have plans, you buy all of the necessary wood to make the plane from scratch.

Airplanes arent the only radio controlled devices that take to the skies. Remote control helicopters are becoming more and more popular. They require around the same (perhaps a little less) detail as planes, and allow for a more interesting flying experience since they can hover in midair, and go backwards / forwards on command. The novelty of flying a toy helicopter is what attracts many people to building one, while planes usually attract those who enjoy the technical and mathematical aspects of getting the plane to leave the ground. Both are extremely rewarding, especially after hours and hours of labor.

These are some the many different ways that you can apply the intricacies of radio electronics to regular toys. While these make up the main areas that are focused on in this hobby, they certainly dont confine you. If you have an idea for a radio controlled toy that is not a car, a boat, a plane, or a helicopter then by all means pursue it. By starting with the more basic toys, you can learn about the radio systems and the motors that power whatever it is that propels the vehicle forward. All it takes is this basic knowledge, and the hobby of radio controlled toys can span a vast number of possibilities.

PPPPP

The Roots Of Radio Hobbyists

Radio hobbyists can play with their equipment all day without giving a thought to the origins of their hobby. Early radio hobbyists were part of something that was, at the time, new and fairly crazy.

After radio technology was stabilized, there was a steady growth of radio signaling in the fields of navigation of ships and for rescue operations. On the other hand, the amateur radio operators also started to dominate the air. The first documented and famous amateur wireless enthusiast was a then young man named Irving Vermilya born in 1890 when wireless transmission was being born. The young man since age 12 heard Marconi and built his own wireless transmission equipment and was often heard telegraphing with ships during that time. In 1911 he became a member of the Radio Club that had been formed. He got himself certified in 1912 when law mandated all wireless operators to be certified. In his own words,

This was pre-audio era, and communication was purely in Morse code. Irving then organized his own amateur group who had regular meetings monthly and would communicate daily wishing GM (good morning) and GN (good night), some of the first amateur jargon to be used. He also proceeds to describe in his series of articles published in QST magazine in 1917 as to how they managed to lay the telegraph lines and such and how they drew juice for the wireless operation from the electric lines instead of relying on batteries.

Meanwhile, apart from the professionals and amateurs, with audio wireless signal transmission there was a new revolution setting in. A Dutch engineer in Hague was the first to make regular wireless transmission via radio. This could be considered the first regular radio broadcast. After this there was slow development until the commercial radio stations came into being.

The requirement to be certified killed the enthusiasm in many amateurs, and the number of amateurs dwindled. But then after WWI, there was a boom. The first radio clubs were formed in 1909 and this was the beginning of the radio hobbies which included radio as a part of the hobby activity.

During the WWI the amateur radio operators were asked to stop their activity and dismantle the equipment. Radio operators in uniform helped in military communications. They got back on the air again by November 1919 again. A similar lull in amateur radio happened during Second World War and got back on air by 1946. After lots of battles over the frequency range that the amateurs can tune into, the amateur radio is here to stay!

At present there are more than 170,000 ham operators which is possibly not the complete picture. It is still increasing. So, with Irving Vermilya was born the amateur radio operation, since he was the first radio hobbyist. After lots of developments, including the discovery of the transistor which greatly decreased the size of the radio equipment, the old ways still remains which included waiting for someone to signal.

The rules to get oneself certified and licensed included a Morse code proficiency until the World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva in 2003 that eliminated the need for Morse code proficiency from the licensure tests. Taking effect from February 23, 2007 the Morse code has been eliminated from the tests for amateur radio license tests.

PPPPP

Choosing How To Run Your Radio Controlled Car

If you are building a radio controlled car, you will be faced with choices every step of the way. You will have to decide how to build the model, how to incorporate the radio transmitter, and how you want to paint it. You will also have to decide how you want to power your car. There are several different choices, and unfortunately there isnt one that stands out as better than the rest. Each powering method has its own benefits and tradeoffs that may affect your decision. You will have to consider these benefits compared with what exactly you want to do with your car. Here are the three main ways that you can power a radio controlled car.

The first and most basic way to power a remote controlled car is to have a battery pack running the motors. This is the kind of system that you will see in beginning cars. If implemented correctly, it can be fairly effective. Its main strong point is that it is very light. Cars using electric power can reach all new levels of lightness. However, like all of the options, there is a tradeoff: electric cars are the slowest of them all. So, you will have to decide whether you want a light car that handles well, or a speed demon that will tear up the competition. And that brings us to the next choice, which is definitely a bit speedier than the electric option.

Gas-powered cars are by far the most common when you are looking at hobby grade cars. The equipment required to handle all of the gas and combustion weighs quite a bit, and tends to make the car less agile. However, it makes up for this deficiency by being one the fastest choices. These types of motor kits are very easy to find. If you want one for your car, your best bet would be to look in some online specialty shops, or your local hobby shop. While it is not necessarily a positive aspect in my book, the fact that the cars are much louder when they run on gasoline seems to attract some people, who enjoy creating the noisy little machines.

RC cars that run on nitro gasoline are quickly becoming the most popular and fastest growing segment of remote control cars. Nitro vehicles can come in many different forms. You can build the popular and durable trucks that will take jumps at high speeds and go on off road driving courses. Alternatively, if you are trying to reach very high speeds, you can build the type of racecar that is meant to speed along pavement, tracks or other prepared surfaces. As with gas, nitro requires the heavy motor equipment that some people find cumbersome. However, they are perfect if you want to swap out your electric motor during a race or other event.

If you build your car the right way and avoid attaching the engine in permanently, you can switch whenever you feel a different one would be more appropriate. The average remote control enthusiast will accumulate quite a few different engines over the years, and will become familiar with which ones are best to use in a given situation. So dont worry too much about buying the wrong engine and being stuck with something that you didnt want. Just consider the pros and cons of each one, and compare them with your goals with your remote control car project. Think about how much speed you want, compared to how much agility or how much turning speed. If you have a local hobby store that stocks all of the different types of engines, then go in and ask to test drive a few of them to get a feel for the type of engine. You will be glad that you put so much thought into it.

PPPPP

Building A Radio Controlled Car Without Breaking Your Wallet

Across the nation, there are thousands of people who are extremely passionate about building and racing remote controlled cars. If you ask one of them how much money they could spend on building a remote controlled car, you will be surprised at the answer. It is possible to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on top notch equipment to create an insanely fast and good looking car. If you want to get into the hobby of building radio controlled projects, then you will definitely have to spend some money along the way. You will be faced with very expensive components. However, you dont need to buy expensive parts for your first car. Read on to find out some of the ways that you can save money.

You should never buy cheap supplies just because they are cheap. If this is your first radio controlled car, you want to get an accurate feel for the hobby without spending too much. This is why you want to buy top quality parts that will make for a great car. At the same time, you may find that the hobby is not for you at all. You may burn out on it after just a few hours of putting together your model. If this is the case, that is another even better incentive to avoid buying expensive parts for your first car. Usually hobbyists will start to invest more money and more time in their 2nd or 3rd car, after they know that they have the expertise to do it right.

The best way to build your first radio controlled car is to buy a kit that includes just the radio components and the motors. The radio control kits only cost 20 or 30 dollars at your local craft store. Buy it before you start to put the car together, so that you can know what dimensions you need to allow for. You can build the car itself from cheap wood and glue (And time. Lots of time.) Go to your local hobby store or lumber store and look for some sort of light wood that you can use to make the car. You will use some sort of epoxy or superglue to hold it all together.

If you would like to take an even less do-it-yourself approach, you could buy a remote control car kit that includes the model for the car. Unless you are a master craftsman, this finished product will probably look better than anything that you could have made from scratch. These kits are very cheap as well. You wont get much control over how the car looks, which is a huge advantage of building it on your own from scratch. If you want to make it look a certain way, all you have to do is cut the wood a little bigger or a little smaller. Ultimately it is up to you both will give you good experience in building remote control cars, so it just depends on how much time you want to spend.

If you tried to race against some of the more advanced cars with your kit assembled car, you would be left in the dust almost instantaneously. Your car definitely wont have much power and it probably wont have much in the looks department. However, neither of these is important compared to the valuable thing that the new car has given you: experience. By sticking with the easy car when you first start getting into the hobby, you will be ahead of the game when you go to build a nice custom car. In addition to this, it will have allowed you to decide whether it is a hobby that you would like to stick with. So even if you are the type that likes to jump headfirst into things, just hold yourself back and stick with the inexpensive car kits.

PPPPP

Radio Sports For Die-Hard Hobbyists

Radiosport as a term is sometimes used as two separate words, or as a single word. It refers to the use of amateur radio equipment or the ham, in short, as a part of playing some sort of game. It might be group event or a single person event. It can involve other competitors in real time like a race or like a performance or achievement over a given time frame.

The contests are usually sponsored events, and can last anywhere between a few hours and 2 days, the world wide contests being two days usually. It can be local in a specific region, or may involve traveling a long distance. It can be a cumulative contest taking place over many weekends, or a sprint contest which lasts only a few hours. The rules are specific for the event and they include which stations (which regions) may participate and the like.

This is usually called radiosports. This can be any of the following.

Dx-Contest:
This is when stations are to make two way contact with as many stations as possible over the longest distance possible. This is called the International DX-Contest today. Awards may be given for the following accomplishments. The Worked All States Award if the entrants make contact with someone from every state in the USA. The Worked All continents Award is given for making contact with someone from every continent. Worked All Zones Award is the same concept with time zones. Other awards include the DX Century Club award, and the UHF/VHF Century Club award.

Another event is an Amateur Radio Direction finding using radios. A specific number of transmitters needs to be found from a specific region in a map before reaching the end line. This relies on the athletic ability of the ham operator as well as some direction finding skill with radios.

Fox Oaring or Bunny hunting: This is similar to the previous contest but involves more short range equipment of the hams, and so it relies more on the direction finding skills of the contestant rather than the athletic ability. Its more technical in nature than the previous contest, and the radio can detect signals only 100 meters or so away, so the contestant must locate the transmitter hidden in an area of 200 meter radius.

A more severely restricted game than the Fox Oaring is the Radio orienting contest in compact areas. This requires very high technical skills.

There is another form of the amateur radio direction finding, or bunny hunting, that utilizes transportation with vehicles over long distances. The hams have to travel in their vehicles to the specific region and find the transmitter. Whoever finds the transmitter first and reaches the finish line is the winner. A variation is that the one to find a specific number of transmitters hidden in different places first is the winner. This relies on the traveling skill, orientation skill and the equipment efficiency too.

These events are called ARDF contests, which is short for Amateur Radio Direction Finding Contests. Contests or radiosports are just a part of the hobby activity. Entering contests is not a requirement, but there are many who pursue this almost obsessively, and collect winning certificates by the dozen in fact. On the other extreme are those that are equally passionate about being a ham, but do so purely for communication and satisfaction.

The significant thing about hams that needs to be mentioned here is that the hams can and do make regular contact with space stations. Many astronauts are licensed amateur radio operators and use their radios for educational purpose as well as an emergency backup.

So what was once spanning a small region locally in the beginning now has penetrated into space! What was once only Morse code based has now evolved into greater variations involving voice, digital transmission and so on. It is exciting to see how much radio transmission has changed in recent years.

PPPPP