Radio Frequencies - be Careful be Safe
After buying your first car, it won't be long before you need more than simply bashing around the back yard, or out on the street. So you will be looking around to find a club that is not too far away where you can do some serious racing.
Three Sets of Crystals
Before you can start racing, you will need at least three different sets of crystal frequencies. The race organisers will note down all your available frequencies when you register at the track and allocate one of those frequencies to you for your heat. To avoid change over problems from one heat to the next, they generally try to give you a frequency that no one in the heat before or after is using, but always check to make sure before you put your car down on the track and switch on.
There is nothing more annoying than to be in the middle of your best qualifying race and some idiot switching on their transmitter in the pits, on your frequency. Not only could it spoil your race, but it could cost you a lot of money if at the time you are travelling at top speed along the straight, loose control and crash head on into the wall. Just imagine how you would feel.
Follow the Protocol
Now, imagine this scenario. You are at your RC meeting and you need to run your car to check out some changes you have made, either after a crash repair, to adjust the steering servo, or just fine tune your car before the next race. What do you do?
Before you switch on anything, the first thing to do is check with race control, to make sure that none of the racers presently on the track or in the next heat are on the same frequency you want to use. The people in charge are always willing to help in these situations and if none of your three available frequencies are safe for you to use, they will often lend you some crystals, sometimes for a small fee.
Top Level Meeting Protocol
Some of the bigger meetings use a board displaying all the possible frequencies, indicating which of those frequencies are in use at that time and which are available for others to use. To claim a particular frequency you simply take a peg or marker off the board so that others wanting to check their car out can not use the same frequency as you. Before the next heat, this board is updated and any missing pegs must be accounted for. So obviously the best time to claim your frequency, is at the start of a heat and you must return it before the start of the next heat.
So, be cautious, use the protocols at your track as they should be used and you won't make any enemies - you know it makes sense.
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