Transroc II - Found treasure or just a nice addition?

[Peartree]

Last week on a whim, my boys and I stopped at a couple yard sales. At one of them I saw the Estes logo on a box and took a closer look. I walked away with an Estes Transroc II transmitting locator because I figured if I didn't want it, I probably knew someone around here who did.

I've searched for this here, in the archive, and on the other rocket sites without many significant returns. It clearly went OOP before I became active in the hobby but it does seem to have some history. Recent Ebay sales that I could find have been moderately priced.

What I have is an original box (box damaged and some bird poop from the yard sale), the transmitter that goes in the rocket and the handheld receiver but not the headphones or any directions.

So what have I found? Is this something valuable or just a nice addition to my (or someone else's) collection?

 

[H_Rocket]

Keep in mind that the word transmitter is misused here. The Transroc transmitter is a Piezo whistle with a unidirectional microphone that aplifies sound as and aid in finding the rocket. It is Ok on calm days, however on a windy day you will just hear wind noise in the headset.

 

[SCE to AUX]

The Transroc II was a simple piezo beeper setup as described.

The original Transroc was a real (if crude) 27 MHz telemetry transmitter, with various plug-ins to measure temperature, pressure, spin rate, etc.

https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/estes/es1424.pdf

 

[Pat_B]

I saw one of those at an older hobby shop a few years ago. I didn't buy it because I wasn't sure what it was worth. I later did a search on EBay and found that they were selling for about $30.

 

[hcmbanjo]

I had one of these years back. I picked it up at the Estes factory.
I flew it once using the original (included with the full kit) "Rocket Finding Mode".
I then ordered the Microphone add-on. The Microphone was nothing more than a Transistor Radio Ear Piece. It was wired to pick-up sound.
It only flew once. At ignition I heard a "whoosh" then silence and a "pop" of the ejection. Basically the same sounds I heard from the ground except they were transmitted through the Midwest Walkie-Talkie Estes sold.
For me, not worth the effort or the money back then.

Edit: Mine was the first Transroc from the early 1970s.

 

[JoeLaunchman]

I've had mine about 20 years and never used it once. Still in pristine condition.

 

[AKPilot]

Yea, am sitting here on a business trip, and the LHS here has a number of these still.

I did a search a while back and found unfavorable reviews. Maybe someone will pick it up as a collectors item John.