I was very intrigued by this product, and finally decided to try it out. I ordered the "RC 2 transmitter" model that I will be trying out this weekend up at Bong with Woosh. Preliminary testing inside a FG AV/bay showed that I can get a good 1/4 mile of reception from the transmitter inside the tube. This is well short of the 1-2 mile range that they advertise, but they DO advertise with the antenna out in the open, not stuck inside of a rocket. Certainly not enough to fire a rocket out of sight and know where it is, but if you stay under 3-4k, and generally know where it is going, I think it should work pretty well.
If you aren't familiar with it, it comes with an LCD hand unit with (I believe) and integrated antenna that sends out a signal to a transmitter which then "responds". When it does the receiver has an arrow that points the direction of the TX, along with a signal strength meter to tell you how close it is.
Twice last month at Bong I had rockets drift to where I thought I knew where they were, but in the tall grass they were sucked up. One I found after 15 minutes....the other I was WAY off (100 yards?) of the drift, and if not for someone seeing where it landed I would have been SOL. THAT said, both my initial search areas would have been WELL inside the TX range for me to quickly find the rocket.
My only initial issue is that the circuit boards have no way to really attach to anything, and are wrapped in shrink wrap. I verified the "no attachment point with the manufacturer, so for now, a zip tie to a sled will have to do. I am working on designing a nomex bag with a hook to maybe attach to the NC so it leaves it out more on ejection...time will tell.
Anyway, that is my experiment this weekend...let you know how it goes
If you aren't familiar with it, it comes with an LCD hand unit with (I believe) and integrated antenna that sends out a signal to a transmitter which then "responds". When it does the receiver has an arrow that points the direction of the TX, along with a signal strength meter to tell you how close it is.
Twice last month at Bong I had rockets drift to where I thought I knew where they were, but in the tall grass they were sucked up. One I found after 15 minutes....the other I was WAY off (100 yards?) of the drift, and if not for someone seeing where it landed I would have been SOL. THAT said, both my initial search areas would have been WELL inside the TX range for me to quickly find the rocket.
My only initial issue is that the circuit boards have no way to really attach to anything, and are wrapped in shrink wrap. I verified the "no attachment point with the manufacturer, so for now, a zip tie to a sled will have to do. I am working on designing a nomex bag with a hook to maybe attach to the NC so it leaves it out more on ejection...time will tell.
Anyway, that is my experiment this weekend...let you know how it goes