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I have been thinking about getting a Walston Tracker for the last four years. As my models are gradually getting better I am looking around for alternatives as Walston seems to me to be very expensive. I recently discovered L.L. Electronics products (http://www.radiotracking.com)that seems viable and has marketed their product ( designed for Falconry) to some free flighters. Has anyone had any experience with these products/ A full system is approximately $150 less than the Walston equivalent.
I have seen one up close, and the owner explained it use. You will still need a line of sight to get you within a close procimity of the model, say around a couple hundred yards. it is mainly a line of sight type device with a shorter range then the Walston.
Sorry, George but I have to disagree. I’ve used a L.L.Electronics tracker for years, it is definitely NOT line of sight .. it has taken me many miles across country on one occasion to retrieve a model from a treetop in a forest, and to airplanes in corn, woods, bush and beans on numerous occasions.
Well worth the price and has the advantage of a signal strength meter in addition to the tone signal . L.L have great service, too – even sending me a tracking bug before they received my payment. Would not be without it – highly recommended.
Although effective, the Walston tracker, by design, does have its limitations in use and is expensive. So far, this has put me off buying one also.
A tracker based on the GP System would seem to offer a significantly higher level of performance.
A fellow flier with electronics knowledge has looked into making one and says that it can be done.
Does anyone know if such a thing exists or is planned?Thanks, Dean.
I read Oliver’s posting over again and perhaps understood a little more of it this time around. Like everyone else, I am impressed by such electronic wizardry, but the reality is that it is being developed for a very specific use and would be way too sophisticated, and expensive, for ordinary FF balsa bashers, of which I am one. The designer also thinks that it may never be commercially viable.
Perhaps ‘tracker’ is not the right word. The folks I know who use Walstons don’t switch them on until the model is almost OOS. So what I am talking about is a ‘lost model locator’, which would need to do no more than that but would provide the better accuracy and certainty available from the GP system.
My ‘cache’ hunting acquaintance tells me his fraternity commonly use hand held GPS units purchased from pawnshops for about $30, and that their biggest expense is gasoline. They unerringly locate miniscule messages deliberately concealed miles away in bug holes.
So my question really is, is it is possible to extend that idea to finding a lost FF model that has the appropriate micro transmitter on board?
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