Now you're Talking
From time to time this section will present thought-provoking ideas on modeling/AMA issues. Timeliness and available space are factors which may affect publication. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and should not be construed as being those of AMA Headquarters staff or the AMA officers.
I've been asked several times why the message "Thanks, Bob" appears at the head of the fifty 72 MHz RC channels listed on our Membership Renewal form.
Well, you do realize that 50 exclusive, separated, license-free RC channels were not conferred on you by the FCC because you have a pretty face. It took hard work by AMA member volunteers, over a period of 10 years, to get them. This included face-to-face meetings with the FCC Commissioners in their own offices in Washington (at a time when AMA had Washington offices, too). It has taken another 15-year effort, by more AMA people (volunteers and employees), to keep those channels.
Exclusive? Yeah! Nobody else (pagers, taxicabs, EPA, police, portable phones, dog trainers, inflight sound systems for airplanes, etc.) can use them, though they've all tried to grab some of them for their own purposes.
Separated? Right! Fifty "Airplanes Only" 72 MHz channels, 30 "Non-Aircraft" 75 MHz channels. Making that one work took convincing a lot of people, including U.S. and Japanese manufacturers.
Some History
Right after World War II, Amateur Radio people (hams) got one nonexclusive 27 MHz channel. The whole AMA used to crash every time the traffic lights were reset by then-legal Nassau County traffic control radio. We were then using super-regenerative receivers. Super-regens were light, simple, sensitive, and wide-open to interference. You could recognize them by their blue, triangular transmitter flag. Seen any of those lately?
Shortly afterward, AMA hams got us five licensed channels (at $20 per year, when that was half a week's pay) on the 27 MHz Citizens Band, to be shared by all users. We had to keep transmitter output power below 3/4 watt into a 1/4-wave, handheld antenna.
Heavier, more complex (i.e., expensive), single-conversion superheterodyne receivers came into use. Crashes happened less often, but who do you think lost when you tried to fly an airplane on an RC channel shared with a mobile transmitter in or for a boat or car? Illegal kilowatt Citizens Band transmitters soon made RC flight impossible. The government couldn't control the situation.
AMA (hams) members created a Frequency Committee (led by John Strong, guided by John Worth and Jeremiah Courtney), who got us five license-free shared channels on 72 MHz, plus one channel on 75 MHz. You may remember the old "pair of colored ribbons." We lived with that situation until a large St. Louis pager business, putting 300 watts into a high-gain antenna 300 feet above the ground, appropriated one of our channels.
Another AMA Frequency Committee (all volunteers) worked eight long years (1975–1983) to improve the situation. W2QPP chaired the Frequency Committee from 1979 through 1983, during which time he cajoled, persuaded, and (yes) coerced people to keep working together to get us a better deal.
Committee members included:
- Jack Albrecht (then employed by Kraft, later Airtronics), who did the mathematics resulting in frequency interference data printouts three feet thick
- Walter Good, RC pioneer
- Bill Hershberger, radio engineer and pioneer in 72 MHz systems
- Fred Marks, designer of the first FCC-certified narrowband receiver for RC models, the Silver Seven (sold by ACE R/C as a kit in 1979)
Fortunately, AMA had the knowledge and Washington contacts of Jeremiah Courtney, AMA counsel, and those of a brilliant young lawyer in his office, Jack Smith. Jack also held a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and knew enough radio theory to be a radio engineer.
W2QPP kept his committee's noses to the grindstone, working to secure the separated, exclusive, narrowband channels you enjoy now—meanwhile persuading the manufacturers to provide the narrowband systems that make it all usable. Then there was the problem of convincing all the AMA modelers to give up their old wideband stuff for their own good (my job).
Considering the immense effect that those 50 "Aircraft Only" RC channels have had on the growth of AMA (since they went into effect in 1982), you might think that AMA would want W2QPP and all those people named above in their Hall of Fame. Last year, a committee met to consider Hall of Fame candidates and they couldn't even remember who he is! You should tell AMA HQ what you think of that.
How do I know all this stuff? In 1941, my AMA number was AMA 1931 R. I built my first RC radio and flew it in 1950 (before W2QPP and some members of the HOT committee flew any RC). I was the only volunteer publicist the Frequency Committee had, for eight years. I talked to people and kept records. For all you that heard (or saw) them from AMA HQ, the Executive Council or the model magazines, AMA's Frequency Committee might not even have existed.
Which is not to say we had no help. John Worth (AMA Executive Director from 1965), Carl Wheeler (Model Aviation publisher for about 20 years) and Bill Winter (Model Aviation editor, same time) were very supportive. They ran my column "Radio Technician" for 20 years, in which I discussed significant changes in the hobby and on the hobby horizon.
W2QPP and I spent years together, out in the field; flying, doing tests and analyzing results, then passing them out where they'd do the most good.
W2QPP is the call sign for Bob Albrecht (AMA 215).
George M. Myers AMA #1370
A response from Bob Underwood
As current chairman of the Frequency
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
