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AM radio a problem???

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wannarunem

wannarunem

Hardcore RCTalk User
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Location
Houston
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
I'm mainly running my Savage RTR in the yard (fenced in) because I know what its like to have a runaway car. My Storm about 5 months ago. Its a very bad feeling if you have never experienced it. I hope you never do. I will continue to run the savage in a "controlled environment" until i get a fail safe. But for now....the savage has ran away 3 times on me. No big deal cuz it didnt have much speed each time before it met the fence. I'm wondering if its because of the stock AM radio. I read in r/c driver (October issue) that the AM radios pick up the most interference. I do live near some powerlines and thinking thats a problem to. Anyone think thats whats happening?

p.s. all batts are fully charged before i take it out for bashing.
 
I am still using the stock AM radio on my savage for now and have not noticed any difference when it comes to interference between the AM radio and my FM XS3. I to have heard this about the AM radios, which is why I am slowly switching my radios to FM.
 
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Both FM and AM are susceptable to interferance, off or on the vehicle. IME, I've had 2 AM setups and 1 FM. Both have issues with powerlines. What I did notice though is that AM seems to be more finicky about onboard noise than FM. By onboard, I mean metal to metal vibration on the vehicle itself.

Check all your metal to metal screws and anything that metal that may be vibrating while it's running.

Also, what bat's are you using? Alkilines or a NiMH receiver pack? Depending on what servo's your running, alkilines can't handle the current drain that NiMH bat's can. It may be causing an intermittent radio problem when turning or braking if using alkilines since the servo's are draining so much from the bat's to operate. Then after turning or heavy braking, it takes the alkilines a few seconds to peak back up.
 
I'm running a venom NiMH 5 cell pack and 2000 NiMH in the transmitter. Both kinds are about 3 months old...fairly new. I know some screws were lose but i thought i tightened them all. i will give it a thorough check again..maybe I missed some. I hope that clears it up. Kinda scared of taking it the street like this. To much water around here for a "true" runaway.
 
If there are lots of powerlines around, it may be that as well. I know my AM was pretty touchy with those. My FM twitches some, but not as bad.

You also may have a servo going out on you. I've had that happen twice recently in both my maxx and my savage. I think it's from heavy braking with a standard servo. Before I tore them off the truck, they would work fine for about 15 minutes, then they would start getting twitchy as all hell. One actually would just peg out on my. Thankfully it pegged out and engaged the brakes instead of the other way around.
 

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