Is my radio legal?

Question

A neighbor of mine, before moving away, gave me some of his old RC stuff. Included were a couple of radios/recievers. They're all pretty old - I think pre-1991.

The Tx's are Futaba 4FP-T4NBF. On them is a sliver sticker that gives the channel as either 20 (72.190) or 52 (or maybe 51 - I forget.) There is also a gold sticker which reads

R/CMA RF Check AMA Date: 10

(No actual date is given).

The receivers, I forget the exact Futaba model #, but they're something-127, 7 channel, dual conversion, with a crystal that matches the transmitter freq.

I'm in the US.

Are these radios legal, safe, and operating at an allowed frequency/bandwidth?

Thanks for any info,

Kelly

Bill Fulmer · Accepted Answer

They're legal.... The gold sticker says all you need to know... And if they're on an odd-numbered frequency, that's more proof...

I believe Futaba even said, if it's FM, it's narrow band, and IIRC, the R-127DF has always been narrow-banded, or at least tuned to narrow-banded txs...

Cheers,

Red Scholefield · Answer

You are in good shape. I'm looking at the Futaba Catalog 1992, your transmitter and receiver are listed [20kHz 1991] which means they were and are legal now.

Just change out the batteries and give it a good range check and you have a fine old radio system. I'm still flying a couple of them.

-- Red S. Red's R/C Battery Clinic

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us out for "revolting" information.

Kelly E Jones · Answer

Two transmitters, each with a silver stating the channel/freq, and a gold with NO channel/freq info.

I know nothing about stickers, but I assumed that the silver sticker was simply a channel designator, left to provide info on the Tx's channel/freq.

Thanks for the info,

Kelly

Fred McClellan · Answer

You passed the test for logic. The silver sticker is indeed the OEM channel ID sticker, and the gold sticker is the RCM/A narrow-band certification.

Still be a good idea to have the things checked for accuracy and by all means get some new NiCds. Cheers, Fred McClellan the dash plumber at mindspring dot com

Is my radio legal?

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