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Transmitter shopping... I've Got Qs, thoughts? comments?

Spektrum...
I like my Spetrum radios because they just work. Rarely have I had issues that I didn't cause. The radios are fairly easy to set up, and moving around the menus is fairly intuitive.
With that, the jog dials have always been problematic, making menus and item selection/adjustment challenging at times. Normally a shot of two of compressed air takes care of the issue. My biggest grip is with the receivers, they are highway robbery. You can get DSM2 3-ch RXs for cheap, but if you want/need more channels, you'll pay through the nose.

Futaba...
Its been years since I have had a Futaba radio. Of all of the radios I have had, the Futaba are the ones that were the toughest, however their menu system took a bit to get used to.

Swanna...
Nice radios, fairly reliable, but to me, there were better and less expensive options.

Radiomaster MT12...
I REALLY want to love this radio, and for the price, I really should. Of all of the radios I have had it is the most capable, this radio really does it all. I am using the ERLS version, with a 4-in-1 daughter card. ERLS has an insane amount of range, and is almost glitch-proof. The RXs are very inexpensive.
However, the EDGE-TX system has a VERY steep learning curve. And, it is not a radio you can pick up after six months and set up/program another model into it without relearning how to use it. I have a cookbook for programming a lot the common functions. The problem is Radiomaster's GUI is just not intuitive and is difficult to remember. If you are a flier, you are used to EDGE-TX, so the cumbersome GUI isn't that big of a deal.
The radio has a few more quirks, there are times when the RX will not link to the radio when powered up if the radio is right next to the model; you have to power everything down, turn on the radio, move it across the room, then power up the model.
Slowly Radiomaster is fixing these annoyances, but they are slow and updating the firmware is a bit of a pain.

Flysky...
Never had one,
 
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After having my first radio (an Acoms in 27Mhz AM - time flies...) all my subsequent radios were KO Propo (Several iterations of EX-1 and MARS) or Futaba (2P, 3PK, 3PDF... up to actual T10PX).

Aren't cheap but are rugged, reliable and designed to last time and time, maybe others are cheaper but I didn't missed any function that I could need on different models. Unique 'unwritten rule' that I've broken with my crawler. The receiver I'll use with will be a non-original Futaba one.

Never had a Radio issue with original receivers (one radio failure going at full tilt with a 'non original one'), expect continuing with a 'flawless record' breaking the rule.

Unique radio that tempted me was a flysky while I was shopping my actual one.
 
This reminds me of my friends' conversations about favorite beer and what they think of the beers they don't like to drink.
Well... nothing more personal than beer preference, transmitter and some others... but some beer elections deserve some punishment like hanging, drawn and quartered as done in the past on some places. But sometimes I prefeer a 12 year single cask Scotch...
 
This reminds me of my friends' conversations about favorite beer and what they think of the beers they don't like to drink.
When sober or drunk? :ROFLMAO:

Well... nothing more personal than beer preference, transmitter and some others... but some beer elections deserve some punishment like hanging, drawn and quartered as done in the past on some places. But sometimes I prefeer a 12 year single cask Scotch...
A bit psychotic and drastic, don't ya think? Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with that! :ROFLMAO:
 
I'm not a Spektrum fan but 1 local guy always has problems with his Spektrum radios. Shhh! It may just be him in particular.
 
I'm not a Spektrum fan but 1 local guy always has problems with his Spektrum radios. Shhh! It may just be him in particular.
No matter the radio, there is always one of those guys in every club. At one comp this summer I spent almost an hour rewiring and reprogramming is RX and TX. What this guy lacked in radio knowledge he had in driving skill and won the class.
 
I'm still a Futaba dork, the cost of receivers is getting tiring though. (If anyone has third-party S-FHSS or T-FHSS receiver suggestions, I'm open to them.) The 4PM can be overly delicate. But I've yet to run out of features on it. My favorite function on it is the "IDLE" that can be set to a button and then adjusted with the dial ahead of the steering wheel. This is meant more for nitro cars, but on an electric it's a cruise control. Great for long trail walks that have some distance between features. I think this can be done with Spektrum radios by creating a button-activated "mix".

I have a DX5 Rugged for Horizon Hobby models, and it's decent as well, but the overmolding on it is a pain in the ass. The touch-interface is kinda crap too. The futaba menus are DEEP. But the buttons and joystick just work.
 
I swore by Spektrum for years. I never had a problem with my stuff. I even raced with it and the racer DBags are mostly against Spektrum, or at least were back when I raced, because of "InTeRfErEnCe AnD rUnAwAys". I never had a problem.
 
Yea, saw the 2fer... saved in my cart along with the radio and the basic brushed ESC for $27. Yea, liking the prices.
Good to hear another vote easy to get to the needed basics.

I have no place to get my hands on one, but atleast with Prime, it's easy to return.
We almost had a club starting in the area, A new hobby shop opened up about 2ys ago, and they got permission to clear the lot next to the store that was unused but owned by the same landlord. Town got wind, and told them they had to get permits. With good faith they made a couple of nice but small dirt tracks, and crawler trails for 1/10 with levels, and another for smaller. But they couldn't let people use it till town blessed it and permits in place.. anyway after a year of working with the town and an unused track, they gave up battling the town. Would have been great for a quick lunch time runs, and a better chance to see some radios in person.

4th for Radiolink. Got a RC6GS v1 when I got back into rc during RONA.
JR was my old go to radios. But circa 2006, they started getting pricey.
But still decent value.

I got a Spektrum for the HPI Baja 5Bs I bought and built up over a few years. nothing but glitching. Nomatter what, it would glitch out at some point and get ya a run around. Was looking at the high end Futaba of the day, New 2.4 FSSR? systems I think.
Looked at the 500.00 JR radio of the day. Found the Nomadio (shame this company went back to Mil Spec only) but the Senor was 600...but then they dropped the React which was 299 and I jumped like a horny toad. lol

Loved my React. (Still have 2 actually and use them on a few things (Drag Rigs, ovals).

When I got back into rc 5ish yrs ago, I started looking and money was tight (out of work) So I started looking at 'cheaper' options.
I'm a Buy Once Cry Once type of buyer, but I made up my mind I wasn't going to worry about buying a cheap possibly 'throw away' radio.
So I looked around for a few weeks and ran across the RC6GS. it was 75.00 at the time and reviews were pretty good.

About a yr later they dropped V2 so I grabbed one of them and sold the V1. Been running that radio without issue. Only reason I upgraded is V2 did have a different or new feature I wanted though not sure what it was now. lol
But its been a great radio.
My only negative is it 'feels' like the Spektrum radio that gave me the run aways on the gassers, so that was kind of a meh and letft me iffy for a few seconds. But other than the bulky boxy radio style, its a solid Transmitters. A Range of rxs from 16 for the mini 4 with Gyro up to 27ish for a single RC8G rx, or as mentioned, 33-38 for a pair.

But that said, I decided to buy a new radio myself. Been looking at one for a bit that should fit well.
We'll see as I've just got it last week and am starting to set it up on the Origin to start.
Bonus is I can use all the Radiolink RXs I have atm, which is most of my rigs.

Nope, not an MT12, I picked up the RC8X. Nice feeling radio and the UI is pretty nicely laid out and easy to jump to.
Lots of options to tune each of the 8 channels. Came with 2 of the RC8 receivers and 2 of the mini 4s, case, 2s batt, charge cable (USBC). I also picked up the FPV camera setup they have for antother 100. Got the Cam/transmitter, and the receiver with a phone/tab mount for the Radio. I had a thumb wheel so I put that on due to not having long thumbs. heh. Wheel is a bit off the face, but it can be swapped side to side for leftys.

I'm hoping to be able to start doing some onboard casts live to the youboobs channel for shiz n grims.

But for the op, the RC6GS has been a very good radio and the new V3 is still a step up from my v2, as the v3 can be 7 channels.
 
Well I'm going to try this one out:Screenshot_20250929_235204_Amazon Shopping.jpg
I haven't opened the box to the RC6....blah blah and it's sittin in some corner, but I like that "this" one has no antenna, and although it only has 10 model memory, it's 10 channels.......
 
Well I'm going to try this one out:View attachment 512732
I haven't opened the box to the RC6....blah blah and it's sittin in some corner, but I like that "this" one has no antenna, and although it only has 10 model memory, it's 10 channels.......
I have one of these as well as 2 radiolinks (one rc6 and one rc7). I also like the Dumbo ddf350. Probably slightly better ergos on the ddf350..

Dumbo is also a radiolink brand, so I just wished the rx were cross compatible but they are not. Still inexpensive for either brand rx though.
 
I did not know this. Stupid the receivers aren't cross compatible.
Agreed, especially if it's it's own sister company. Then again, I have NO clue how radio tech works, so.

Proprietary...bs, you know like Apple and USB chargers ....
 
I think the older Dumbo radios/rxs will work with the older v1/v2 radiolink Rxs. Does suck the new units are not cross capable.

I looked at the DDS, just a bit small on channels for 1/2 of my use.
Should be a good radio. I had forgot about the Dumbo line, but from what I hear, they are quite decent radios however lax with options. Though the DDS looks like it does much more than their older units.
 
What a child out of wedlock!, I just bought the dumbo a week ago.... I swear they up to something.
 
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