Simprop SAM & SAM Gold

[stuart mackay]

Here are a couple more Txs from my small collection of Simprop gear.
These were first introduced 3 years after the SSM Contest in 1980.

The SAM in silver is a basic 4 channel set and is unused, it was sold in UK by Micro-Mold.

The SAM Gold is one I used to fly as a Demo pilot at Harsewinkel for Simprop back in the 90s.
It is fitted with a switched channel, and Dual rate/expo modules. as well as the extended sticks as I used to fly it in one of the Trays that were sold as an accessory. I added the white paint to the trims, so one could make a quick visual pre-flight check.

One of the features of the set was that by adding modules, one could extend the features available on this radio.
The RF module was fitted in the left hand side cheek and contained the 35 MHz crystal and could be changed without opening the Tx case.
Servo reversing was made internally by turning the pot plugs around where they were inserted on the main PCB.
A great radio and I have many happy hours using one during my time in Germany!

SAM Tx internals

SAM Gold

SAM 4 channel

[Mike_K]

Hi Stuart

The Simprop SSM and SAM were fantastic sets and used by world champions Hanno Prettner and Wolfgang Matt. Last time I tried my SSM it still worked, but I haven't tried it for a year or two. And I think the SAM was one of the first transmitters to offer exponential, albeit set by a dial and not on a screen. But do you know what your transmitters have in common with this?

Simprop was founded by Walter Class, one of the Claas combine harvesters family! Apparently a few of the family were R/C enthusiasts, including Fritz Bosch, who was a well known German aerobatic pilot in the '60s. I think Simprop are still going, but just doing R/C kits now, they stopped R/C sets in 1990 and went on to import Sanwa gear.

[stuart mackay]

Hi Mike, yes very familiar with the Claas family, I worked for Claas for 26 years (am glad to say Helmut Claas is still going strong well into his nineties!. I was also based at the Harsewinkel headquarters for six years and my daughter was born in the Sankt Elisabeth Hospital in Guetersloh, the RAF were still there then, flying Harriers, Chinooks and Pumas. I also dis a lot of flying on the old Luftwaffe Flugplatz which was RAF Guetersloh and still keep in touch with model flying friends from that period.

Sadly, The Simprop founder, Walter Class had had a fatal "hunting " accident which the family did not like to talk about.

Fritz Bosch, Benni Schwermann and Werner Kaeseberg of Simprop became great friends of mine as we were fellow member of the famous Ikarus Harsewinkel e.V. flying club!
We used to hava an annual pi55 up, over the whitsun weekend where pilots from all over Europe would pitch up and had a weekend of flying and drinking. The Saturday night, we used to do NightFlying which has to be seen to be believed.

There was a guy called Paul Behm, from Luxembourg, who would arrive in his furniture truck and proceed to unpack and fly half-size models...incredible stuff!
The event still takes place today, and I intend to go back next year after all this Covid stuff is over, but to get a feeling of what we got up to back then, have a look at this:



Fritz, Werner and I were doing a lot of heli flying together back then and I did a lot of helicopter demo flying for Simprop with the Hirobo range back in the mid-late eighties at various model shows in Europe too.

I wrote a lot of the English operating instructions for Simprop including the System 90 computerised radio set and the NC Manager charger.

The Claas family sold their shareholding in Simprop to the Rutte family and they still own/run it, but it has lost its pioneering spirit as it's founding fathers such as Fritz and Werner have passed on, and it has basically become JPerkins Germany!

When the radio development was halted after the System 90 flop, I ended up switching radio brands to Graupner/JR and still have quite a few MC24s which I still use on a regular basis with my large aircraft.

I would dearly love to find an original SIMultaneous PROPortional 7+1, but they are a bit likes hen's teeth!

Oh, and I know combines pretty well and was responsible for the engineering and start-up manufacture of a Claas tracked rice combine to be made by a new factory at Claas India...as well as setting up the factory in India, I met the then, Editor of the Times of India, who was a very keen model flyer and went flying with him on a number of occasions when I was based in Delhi......but that is another story!

[F2B]

Great reading, Stuart!

Would you, by any chance, know if and where the resistor tracks of the stick pots would still be available?

I'd love to restore my SSM 8 Contest.

Bruno

[stuart mackay]

Hi Bruno, have emailed Harsewinkel and asked the question, will let you know when I get a response!
Stuart

[PaulJ]

Yes, absolutly fascinating stuff Stuart. I too have a Simprop SAM with which I flew in the 80s and I started to convert to 2.4 a while back but I got a bit bogged down with suspect pot tracks and the separate trim pots. It is still only half done. I too would be interested if a source of pots or even complete stick units could be found...

Paul

[F2B]

Possibly I have a set of sticks that came from the SAM I had that was beyond repair.
If I find them, you can have them.
I repaired my SSM several times by replacing the pot strips.
The charging receptacle went belly up somewhere in the nineties. I put a modern charging port in it and the thing lived happily after.
The SSM was my only RCset that never ever was plagued by interference.
Just for old times' sake I'd love to restore it to 100 percent state.

[F2B]

Hi Bruno, have emailed Harsewinkel and asked the question, will let you know when I get a response!
Stuart

Thank you!

[stuart mackay]

Thanks Bruno!

The SSM was my only RCset that never ever was plagued by interference.
Just for old times' sake I'd love to restore it to 100 percent state.

You should try and get it airborne again, as you say, they are amazing radios in terms of engineering, no expense spared in their design, manufacture or testing..truly built with love by enthusiasts.

I am entirely happy flying mine again on 35 MHz.

[Mike_K]

Hi Stuart

Thanks for your really interesting post, I now know who to ask when I need some information on Simprop sets!

I'm quite lucky as I have 8 Simprop sets in my collection, a couple of which I think were built under licence by Mainstream in the UK. At great expense, I bought a Digi 4 on eBay.de because I just loved the look of the handles at the sides, but found that as I'm a "finger and thumb" flyer, I'd have never been able to use it. I also have a Super 4, Alpha 2007 and 2x Alpha 3, SSM and 2x SAM FM. Unfortunately, I've only got flight packs for the 2007, SSM and SAM, but you do see them come up on ebay.de from time to time, so maybe I should place a bid or two.

Any idea why Simprop were prone to pot problems?
Between us we've done hundreds of conversions with 50-year-old-pots...

Phil, I don't think they are any more prone to pot problems than any other set, it's normally because they've been used more than most of the sets of the same age and is just “fair wear and tear”.

As an example, many Futaba M6 from 1977 were pensioned off when we went to 35MHz FM. Some were converted to 35MHz, but generally, they were still pensioned off by the late '80s as they lacked features like rates and servo reversing and their servo's were usually worn out and it wasn't so easy to use modern Futaba/JR servo's (1.3mS centres on the old M series).

Contrast that with a similarly aged Simprop SSM. It had many modern features, they did 35MHz modules and were very reliable, so all would have continued being used. The original servo's were bulletproof so would have soldiered on and even if they did need replacing, they used the modern 1mS to 2mS pulse, so could easily be replaced. Therefore many continued right up to the 2.4GHz era and beyond. So you are comparing sets that had been used for 5 years against ones that had been used for 30 odd years. I've seen the same problem with other sets that have had a long working life, like the original Futaba "J" series (a direct competitor to the Simprop), Futaba Gold, early JR and Sanwa etc. Even some Fleets need their joystick pots replacing when I come to convert them to 2.4GHz.

I've powered up my Simprop SAM this afternoon and it worked fine (once I could find a suitable battery), but is a "low hours" set as it went into my collection in the late '80s. My other SAM is well " beaten up" and was bought for spares.

Mike