Old School!

[QuarterMaster]

Hit if you're old enough to have owned one of these!!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

It was cutting edge back in the day, Ed. Had three of 'em. How did we ever make any of these things work without end-point, servo reverse, stick-switch assignment and all that other happy horse-**** we now enjoy since the introduction of 'computer' r/c transmitters?!....

Hell, the Nautical-Commander is recent stuff. I started in r/c with an old tube type Lafayette receiver and rubber-band powered escapement type rudder actuator. Ni-Cad's were wet and cutting-edge stuff!

M

[Von Hilde]

Looks state of the art. to me. Is there a backpac for the 45amp Diehard?

[greenman407]

My first boat was in 1979. It was a Cox .049 foam airboat. It's radio was one channel to control steering. The motor ran wide open as usual. The antenna on the radio and boat was a thin chency piece of fine hard wire. It went about 5 mph if the wind was with you

[QuarterMaster]

The actual story here folks is that I had this stuffed away in a corner of the workshop. Two months ago in Groton I saw Ray Mason running his 1/72 Scale ALFA (which uses an original, not modified, D&E Miniatures WTC-3.5) with this radio, I remembered I had one somewhere too. FWIW, Ray's SubCommander, WTC-3.5, and ALFA always looks like it just came out of the box despite being some 20+ years old. This boat , like his others, runs smoothly and consistently! That man is a god!

Anyway....
After my recent return to the hobby and decision to focus on returning the SEAVIEW to service, I decided to use this spare radio as the one for the SEAVIEW. So I cleaned it up and shot the photo to share here. I do need a new TX Battery for it, then I can power it up and see what I got. I noticed the 6th channel 3 position rocker on the side was missing too, I remember now I had I had cannibalized it for my Robbe F-16 to use as the Blow Vent switch.

No worries, like Dave said, it was the radio to have at a time radio's were not easily had, much less set up for RC Sub operation. All you need is some basic electronics knowledge and you can customize this in almost any manner you wish. It's nice to have a basic understanding of what's going on and being able to repair it without sending it in. I plan to replace that missing switch with a pushbutton to operate another feature.

Hey, I'm a new technology guy too. I tend to jump on any new gizmo that hits the tech market, often paying the development cost's by doing so as opposed to waiting til a competitors comes out and prices drop. But I also realize the value of not tossing everything out when the next shiny lure passes my eye. There something to be said about bring something back out of retirement. Kinda like a fresh look at an old love! Hence the focus on the SEAVIEW as soon as I wrap up BLUEBACK.

Or maybe I'm just getting old and starting to pray I'm not considered obsolete!

[Von Hilde]

I hang on to all my old toys even if the new stuff is all hi tech gizmos, Fishing tackle, rods and reels still catch the big fish. It aint the gear, its the angler, is just an example. Tools guns carts mororcycles, all that happytime stuff. Generally all that "old reliables", does me better than the new fangled gadgets. Usually works better than the new and easier to maintain and operate.Im in my 70s and aint got time to fiddlefhardt and learn new trix. But on the other hand that ziploc bag and Superman lunch bucket sure beats the hell outa the paper sack, with waxpaper on the sandwitch at the old school lunch room, so not opposed to changes entireley.