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Last month in this series I gave you a basic introduction—from an informational and identification standpoint—that would enable you to purchase your first Radio Control (RC) system. This month I will take you from the shipping box to the model aircraft. The discussion will cover the installation aspects of a typical RC system. Dual Conversion and Narrow Band: There are two terms I didn’t discuss last month which have been brought to my attention by several reader letters (remember, the ones I asked for?). With regard to RC receivers, “dual conversion” is a technique in which the receiver operates at two lesser frequencies besides the operating frequency. The basic dual-conversion receiver employs two crystals rather than one. Because of the “extra” level of conversion, these receivers can be made more selective and more immune to certain interference situations. The basic dual-conversion receiver will, by nature, be slightly larger in size, weigh a little more, and be slightly more expensive than a single-conversion receiver. There is nothing wrong with single conversion, and several lines of RC receivers have used that type of circuitry successfully for many years. However, most receiver labels these days will identify the product as “dual conversion.” Along these same lines you will see the expression “narrow-band” performance. When we obtained our 50 RC channels in 1982, we were committed to operate in a much “tighter” channel environment. Older RC channel separation was 80 kilohertz (kHz), and our new channels were placed at a narrow spacing of 20 kHz. To meet the new demand (at the time) required considerable improvements in the RC electronic circuitry. That is past us now and anything you can purchase today will almost exclusively be “narrow band,” meaning that it will operate safely with an adjacent channel operating next to you on the flightline.
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