Hi Bob. I think this is what you're after. I remember them well. It was considered a bit of a weird arrangement by my aeromodelling mate as he seemed to think it implied a pilot with 3 hands 🤔. The later ones were of course more conventional.

The first Christmas that I enjoyed with my wife was in December 1971 and she bought me a McGregor 3 channel radio set to use with my Susie Q that I was just completing at the time.

This was an unusual set that actually had three joysticks !

The two regular positioned joysticks for throttle and steering were in the usual positions, but a third joystick was positioned below them and would have been perfect for adjusting the trim control flaps fitted to the transom.

I can find no pictures of this radio - can anyone help?

Bob.

Hi again Fogwall. I used to have a Kinematic actuator, they were very interesting. It went missing 30 years ago now.
However, 2 weeks ago a recently met (again) son of a friend said he was clearing his dad's stuff and said would I like this?
It was a Graupner Kinematic all nice and clean with instructions in it's original box. I was very happy!
I will post a picture soon.
Roy

Hi Fogwall, I have a Condor 1 which I built from plans bought in 1957 and still have. They were bought from a little Model shop in AAchen Germany when I was in the RAF.
She is in my harbour to see. I did buy the fittings kit for her but otherwise she is scratch built all balsa and thin ply. Currently my oldest boat at 65 years old.

Roy

Wow that was a trip down memory lane! I have several of the sets in the photos. I always and still do think the M series Futaba sets were the ultimate in design.

I have and use a Futaba 27Mhtz FM 6 ch. set, silver finish and it balances in the hand so well. Fleet copied the design and I have 2 of their sets.
Both were bought as 40Mhtz Plainsman sets one by me and the other a friend. Underneath is a label marked 35Mhtz!

I have a Skyleader and Micron which I built from the kit, it is so versatile inside with mixer, limit switching and a meter that measures signal o/p. It has a temporary fault which I keep meaning to fix!
Roy

Thanks to Phil who I contacted via his site "Phil and Shauns Single Channel and Vintage R/C Page", I have been able to find some pictures of my first new radio control outfit, a 1966/7 Launch Link radio.

It may look like a simple black painted metal box, but when I first saw it in my local model shop window it stood-out against everything else with is shining gloss black enamelled metal case and the bright white Launch Link FLC logo.

The on/off toggle switch next to the top mounted output metre looks pretty basic these days, and the over-sized pointed lever to adjust the steering trim was also quite industrial.

I don't remember the servos being much good, and was the reason why I eventually sold it to buy my next new radio.

The choice was between the new OS Cougar or the new Futaba.....I chose the Futaba set with the 17M servos.

These days my first radio control outfit looks very basic and simple - but I would love to have another one now, working or not........or maybe even find one in good cosmetic condition and ask Phil to convert if for me to 2.4gig?

Bob.

https://www.mccrash-racing.co.uk/sc/propo.htm

Hi Phil,

Regarding peg boards - I really do know all about the problems of getting the pegs back from the previous user.

I started and run the local 1/8 scale rallycross club (for several years) every Sunday on our under-used pitch and putt course (with the full permission of the local council who were only too pleased to see somebody actually using it for something!).

By then, we also had 40 meg frequencies available as well as the 27 meg frequencies, so our peg board was considerably bigger and so we had a lot more pegs to offer.

We always ran 10 heats, and every heat had 10 cars in it, so we had 100 racers competing (plus several reserve drivers hoping that a driver that did have an entry would need to retire, so they could replace them!).

To turn around two qualifying heats and then start the knock-out finals with promotions for the top two drivers up to the next finals group took some slick organisation to finish the race meeting at a decent time!

Imagine the frustration when I could not start a heat because one (or more) drivers that should be in the race heat (that was being held on the start line) could not find the correct peg to clip on their tx ariels !

Finding the last user of the missing peg often caused drivers to "complement" each other quite vigorously as races were not permitted to start without all the drivers present (other than those with notified car or engine failures), and no driver was allowed on the drivers rostrum without the correct peg attached to his tx ariel .

Those were the days...................

What a relief it was when 2.4 gig radios became widely used - it made ornagising and running those busy race meetings so much easier !

Bob.

That would be a MacGregor 27Mhz 1+1 for me in a disheartening and ill-fated model of the Turbinia in about 1973. The design specified 3 Orbit motors which were so electrically noisy they completely swamped the control signals making the equipment unusable. I still have however, my original R/C license.

Next was a Space Commander 27Mhz 4 Channel set installed in a Veron Titan Tug. This was much more successful and I used to share a pegboard at New Brighton with the Wallasey Model Boat Club in the late 70s/early 80s, though as a Liverpudlian I wasn’t a member. ESC was a home built ‘Pompey’ unit from the RCM&E design if anyone recalls it.

My inspiration however was a guy who used to sail scale model liners also at New Brighton in around 1970 with a MacGregor single channel set using a Graupner Kinematic escapement for motor and rudder control.

The 90s saw a Fleet 40 Mhz set in the Titan and many happy hours at Clapham Common and The Round Pond in Kensington Gardens.

And now I’ve regressed: This very afternoon saw me out at Eastbourne with a 27 Mhz MacGregor Digimac IV installed in a Graupner Condor 2. What more could a 70s teenager wish for? 🙄 🤭.

CB radio seems to be a thing of the past and the local sailing guys are all quite sensibly on 2.4 GHz so I remain unmolested, no pegboard needed, though I do still prominently display my frequency pennant as required.

It’s difficult to comprehend now how expensive this stuff was back in the day. 4 channel multi channel proportional gear would be over a thousand in today’s money. We have much to be thankful for.

I'm sure some will disagree, but I sometimes wish modern R/C gear looked a bit less toylike.

Great idea, Roy.

I'd love to see the schematic you used if you've saved it; it's very interesting.

I didn't use transistors.
I connected the motor power supply (therefore, the ESC output) to the 6-volt relay coils.
I made sure the coil was energized only when the throttle lever (forward gear) was at full throttle.
To do this, I introduced voltage drops in the coil power circuit, but I didn't use resistors; I used diodes (I don't remember why I preferred diodes).
Only until the throttle lever was at full throttle did the motor draw power from the ESC.
When the coils energized, the relays opened the power circuit between the 6-volt battery and the ESC and closed the direct power circuit between the 12-volt battery and the motor.
This way (only with the throttle fully open) the ESC was bypassed and the motor drew power directly from the 12-volt battery.

What was the need for you to create a circuit like the one you mentioned, Roy? Why did you create such a circuit, i.e., why did you want to bypass the ESC and power the motor with a different battery?

Hi Alessandro.
The o/p current to the motor also went to an emitter / base junction. There was a resistor there measured so that when the current was maximum the transistor would switch on and the current would call a relay. The relay contacts would short out the i/p to the esc and conect it directly to the motor.
I do not remember the actual circuit diagram as this was nearly 50 years ago.
Roy