Hello, I began pestering Jim for a new WRC unit roughly five years ago because I like and still use his original WRC unit. After many heckling emails, Jim started things moving and we went back and forth with what I wanted in a product. I had hoped to utilize it at LDRS 30, but it arrived just prior and I had no time to mount or do any ground testing. Let me be very clear, I paid for my system. I sent Jim emails of my testing and flight experiences and am publishing them here for your reading.
OCTOBER 2ND, 2011
Just got done wringing out the unit and had what I think is good success. I set it up on top of a trash polycart away from all metal, fences and power lines by one hundred yards with one fresh 9v battery and one ematch in each output. The ground was flat and using my gps I moved away to 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 mile distances and successfully fired one match at each distance using the same battery in the receiver and handheld. At one mile it didn't fire. Upon returning the receiver still indicated 9v out of the single battery so all in all for a ground test, I'm quite satisfied.
I feel more than confident at altitudes the range will be excellent.
I also had my Big Red Bee gps transmitter on and leaning up against your receiver and antenna wire/antenna touching through-out everything and nothing was triggered. Good to know since they both work on 900mhz.
NOVEMBER 13TH, 2011
Just got home and put two flights on your RC unit. One in my Talon4 with a K700 ( duck antenna) and the second was a Doppler Shift with Hypertek motor ( blade antenna). Both worked exactly right and fired just ahead of the Adept Altimeters.
So it worked and ignored the Big Red Bee 900 MHz, Walston tracking transmitter in both and the high voltage ignition of the Hypertek. I did a good job setting everything up but didn't try to avoid putting the different items in proximity to each other. I only used one 9v battery with the receiver in both flights to fire the deployment charge.
NOVEMBER 14TH, 2011
I had 6900 feet out of the T4 and didn't get a reading out of the Doppler. The reason the altitude wasn't higher on the T4 was our rails were still dirty from LDRS and it came out at a 10 degree off vertical (I think my rail buttons had paint on them also) and there was just a little haze in the air so I couldn't honestly see the apogee, but I had a good guess. So I fired it and when I got it back, the RC was the only one to fire and pull apart all the other slip connections; supposed to work that way.
The Doppler flew into clouds at 3-4K and from then on out I could only guess at apogee. When I got it back, I had one hell of a zipper and no readings. Again, only the RC charge fired.
If it wasn't for checking the RC unit, I wouldn't have fired it (or even used it) in the Doppler Shift because it is a smaller rocket and hybrids leave no trail to follow plus flying into clouds I should have let the altimeter do the work. But again, I was trying to test your product and throw the kitchen sink at it trying to make it fail.
Being this was my first attempts, I only did the transmit only mode because I had enough on my hands as it was. I was pleased how the blade antenna worked on the second flight (Doppler).
You've got a really good product there, well wrung out. I'll get it pulled out of the Doppler later this week and ship everything to you so you can check it out and see if there are any problems. Switching the receiver around is a bitch, especially in smaller rockets. That's why you need to be able to sell optional/additional receivers.
Congratulations on a job well done, Kent
AND FINALLY, I RECEIVED THIS REPLY FROM JIM ON NOVEMBER 13TH, 2011
Fantastic NEWS!!!! You did the first 2 flights.... ever!
You had a great mix of RF Everything in there too. Awesome. Everyone played together nicely, and nobody was bothered by the Hypertek HV.
In conclusion, this is a wonderful piece of equipment and worth every penny. But don't think you can go to the launch site, cram it in a body tube, dig an old battery rattling around in the back of your pickup with wind a-blowing without testing. You are only going to screw yourself. You must develop a mind set similar to RC aircraft flyers (good set-up and ground testing first your application). The system won't fail you, but I assure you, that you will fail the system. I've used RC units all the way back to 1994 with Pratt Hobbies ESC-2 systems that worked great and I still have. I've had and also still use Jim's original WRC unit since 2001. And now his latest product is here and it is piece of true art in electronics. Jim has confided he will be producing additional rocket transceivers which will mate with your hand-held so that fixes my only complaint. I have a selection of all his antennas enabling me to mount the best product for that application. If you have any questions, I will be happy to share my experiences and my upcoming applications.
Kent Burnett
Giant Leap Rocketry
#3065, L3, TAPdancer
620-727-0045
