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759 Posts
OK, I'm sure this has been brought up before, but here goes anyway...
It seems to me that one of the biggest complaints about R/C (other than cost) is range. It also seems that even the folks using battery power and R/c are still using metal rails. Would it be possible and/or practical to use the rails as a broadcast antenna for a system that otherwise has relatively poor range? Since the rails are horizontal, the antenna in the loco could be mounted hoizontally, running longitudinally. Conveniently, that's where most models have the longest straight run. Also, having the track be the antenna would prevent loss of signal in tunnels, behind buildings, etc.
The rail joints would of course need to be bonded, but there would be no need to keep the rails clean or otherwise conductive. I would think that using a single rail would work as well as, or better than, both rails. I can imagine that if the antenna were not perfectly equidistant to both rails, some sort of interesting parallax would develop.
As an alternative to using the rails, what about using a single wire burried beneath the track? That has the advantage of being simple, free from the problems with rail joints, and allows any type of rail (wood, metal, plastic, none at all...). The big downside I see would be the expense of the extra wire.
And the final question.... Is there an R/C system that is significantly less expensice that others and that works well, except for a lack of range? It seems that if such a system exists (Aristo TC? I don't know much about R/C yet), then it would be a great candidate for this use.
It seems to me that one of the biggest complaints about R/C (other than cost) is range. It also seems that even the folks using battery power and R/c are still using metal rails. Would it be possible and/or practical to use the rails as a broadcast antenna for a system that otherwise has relatively poor range? Since the rails are horizontal, the antenna in the loco could be mounted hoizontally, running longitudinally. Conveniently, that's where most models have the longest straight run. Also, having the track be the antenna would prevent loss of signal in tunnels, behind buildings, etc.
The rail joints would of course need to be bonded, but there would be no need to keep the rails clean or otherwise conductive. I would think that using a single rail would work as well as, or better than, both rails. I can imagine that if the antenna were not perfectly equidistant to both rails, some sort of interesting parallax would develop.
As an alternative to using the rails, what about using a single wire burried beneath the track? That has the advantage of being simple, free from the problems with rail joints, and allows any type of rail (wood, metal, plastic, none at all...). The big downside I see would be the expense of the extra wire.
And the final question.... Is there an R/C system that is significantly less expensice that others and that works well, except for a lack of range? It seems that if such a system exists (Aristo TC? I don't know much about R/C yet), then it would be a great candidate for this use.