If you are looking at buying a new RC helicopter and wondering what all the fuss surrounding ones that have a feature called 2.4GHz spread spectrum is, then you might want to read on.
In the early days of RC controlled helicopters you had to ask all your friends what frequency they were going to fly on so there was no interference between copters that might be flying at the same time. Your old copters used to work on either PPM or PCM which meant interference just when you didn’t want it. The new 2.4GHz bandwidth has done away with this though meaning crystals and peg boards can be consigned to things of the past.
A new type of technology called spread spectrum modulation has now been developed meaning RC helicopters can now operate over a range of channels within the 2.4GHz frequency simultaneously. Each transmitter is assigned its own unique ‘set’ to operate at a frequency on the 2.4GHz bandwidth and with so many frequencies available the chances of someone else also operating at this frequency is remote.
This means if you have a copter that runs on the 2.4GHz bandwidth you can fly with your buddies with no problems of interference, and because the commands from your transmitter are processed more quickly on this bandwidth your copter will respond more quickly to your actions.