In the May/June edition of Sport Rocketry, they feature an article on building a "Chute Release Adapter" for 29mm rockets that are too small for a "Chute Release device" They put it in a BT-60 tube (38mm). I have a 29mm rocket. So I made the CRA for it. The last time I flew this particular rocket, there was no place to put the RF tracker in it, so I taped it to the side. I did not do a good job, or the tape wasn't "up" for the mission. As I chased my rocket to its resting place, I was listening to the beeper of the reciever, and as I raced west with the rocket, the reciever was telling me the tracker was east of me. Ten paces later it was beside me but i couldn't see the tracker in the 4 foot tall grass. And I looked up and around, and the rocket was nowhere to be seen. I found the tracker, a few hours later with the help of a rake I brought back from home to help out. That was July 2022. I looked for that rocket and it did not turn up until two months ago.
I was chasing a spool I had launched that came down, it appeared to me and everyone else, in a small forest. I was pointed where to go, behind a certain tree on the edge. I walked to the tree and the foliage was dense behind it. And it was also swampy. I paint my rockets in bright colors. Peering as best I could, I became convinced the spool might be on the far side of the dense line of trees. It would be easier, and less messy to walk around it. As I extricated my self from the dense jungle, I saw a red fin can waving at me from eye level, it was caught in a tree. Something about the fin can was familiar. When I saw the braided kevlar shock cord, and the funky fin fillets, I realized it was the lost rocket I launched in July 2022! Only the bottom foot of the rocket could be found.
Now it is rebuilt. And now it has a "Chute Release Adapter." Why not also make a RF tracker adapter? My RF tracker has 12" antenna that dangles outside the rocket. A 1/8" hole thru the tube is ample for the antenna to pass. A basswood disk is all it needs to rest on. 3" or 4" is more than enough to accommodate the tracker and the nose cone shoulder and coupler. I don't think it needs a cushion of foam.
So now I have an RF Carrier. Actually I have 2, one for 29mm rockets, and another for 38mm rockets. I could make them for my 18mm and 24 mm rockets. And I learned something from building the CRA: the launch lug can go down the side of the CRA and be the only launch guide it needs. However, the LL on CRA does line up with the launch lug on the fin of my 29mm rocket, that I call Red Start, after a small warbler I used to see in my back yard.
I found two cheap digital cameras (at Amazon) that are more than an inch cube. They fit into a BT-55 which is slightly bigger than a 29mm mmt, but I am calling the BT-55 a 29mm, when it is not. Close, but not quite the same. Anyway, now I made camera carriers, much like the RF Carrier, for both the BT-55 and the BT-60 (38mm). The couplers are about 3" and the tubes are about 4". The cameras sit atop the coupler on a basswood disk. To keep the camera from moving around, I glued small balsa walls on the sides and back of the camera. I thought I would paint the interior and the "furniture" flat black. T drilled a 1/2" hole for the lens to peek out.The video won't be looking down but out the side. I need to clean up the holes as there are some "flaps" I missed.
