RE: 37 University Club
I'm sorry it's been so long since I checked in here! I'm sure you were waiting for an answer.
The story's pretty much the same wether you're building a plane, boat or car. When you buy a radio, you typically get a transmitter, a receiver, servo's, batteries, and accessories. What you get depends on which radio you choose.
It pays to buy name brands, and nowadays, 2.4Ghz spread spectrum radios are the only way to go, if not nearly the only thing available anymore. This eliminates you having to worry about what channel or frequency you or anyone around you are using. Your receiver locks onto your transmitter, and no other radio interference can occur.
The radio you choose also depends on your intended use. You wouldn't want to buy a steering wheel radio for your boat or airplane, but it'd be great for a car. You also want to try to choose a radio with servos that are suited to your intended use. A small airplane would want micro servos, whereas a car or boat use would dictate heavier duty servos. You wouldn't need 8 channels and servos for a boat or car- but generally a dual stick radio is desireable for a boat, so many people go with a 6 channel radio with 2 servos, or none- and buy the servo's seperately that will suit their intended useage.
Sailboats also typically use winches for sail control, which is a seperate specialized servo for operating the sails.
I hope this helps some-
Wes