John C

You may be stuck with your $200 limit. If by full house you mean to include the crow or butterfly capable radios, and if you've got enough servos (4 in the wing in this case), I'd suggest the fairly new Hitec Eclipse 7 channel.

While I bought the whole outfit with Spectra module, at $350 street price this is out of your range. I know you can buy just the Spectra transmitter in the low $200 range, but you'd need a 7+ channel receiver and the remaining gear. You might check other alternatives for the Eclipse 7 without Spectra, but I think you will be hard pressed to stay under $200 if you need everything.

Alternative is to wait a while and save your pennies!

MTT

My Feedback: (8)

Heteractis, this is a question thet appears frequently on any RC-Forum.
My own experience is, that buying a radio that will fullfill your needs right now, is not a good idea.
Right now you are talking about sailplane with 4 servo wings and V-tail, but may be in the future, you want to get into scale ships, and then it is a 6-servo wing, plus a retract, tow-release, etc.
My advice to you is : Wait a little more, save more money, and buy a radio with more capabilities than you need right now !

Michael

kestrel53065

Seth, two years ago I was in the same situation as you are. A Wanderer and an illegal MRC radio. Fortunately the radio died! I replaced it with a Hitec 3 chanel. Nice little radio. Then I built another model and bought another Hitec 3 chanel for it. I really got hooked on this hobby and decided that I was going to need a different radio and a computer radio was the way to go. One radio to handle all of the planes. Easier to keep the batteries straight too. I chose the Hitec Eclipse 7. It had all that I was looking for and the price fit my budget. ($275). There are a few things that it won't do that some of the more expensive radios will, but most of those issues can be worked around. Check the Hitec site for the specs. I am not a radio expert, but looking in Horizon Hobbies catalog, the JR 652 does not list sailplane software. The 8103 is a fine radio for sailplanes but adds about $200 to the price of the Hitec. To some that is small change but for myself it was more than I could put into a radio at the time. So far it has been fun. Adjustable end points, 7 model memory, digital trims. Sure makes it a lot easier to set up a new model!

Al Stein

G-day Rob, and welcome aboard.

MTT

My Feedback: (8)

Heteractis, you also might want to look at the Multiplex Cockpit MM, at http://www.multiplexrc.com/tx_cockpit.htm
The TX sells fully expanded for $229.-
Another interesting thing about this radio is that the Multiplex Service center can install a selector switch for pos/neg frequency shift, which allows you to use receivers of all manufacturers.

I had this radio in the past, and was very happy with it, it has very easy programming.
The only reason I upgraded to a Multiplex profi mc3030 was because I needed more channels for my big scale gliders.

Michael

singnplayguy

One relatively cheap way of going is to buy the hitec 3 channel for now, if you can get one used it'll probably run less than 40 bucks. I have found that there are a lot of less sophisticated 3 and 4 channels available on the used discussion forums for that price. As for the 652, it is a nice radio, great for helis, but not set up for sailplanes at all. The old futaba 8ua series, especially the super series, is good for sailplanes, the uas was designed for sailplanes. You can find them at ezone ,ebay,etc for 200 sometimes. Don edberg has a programming guide out for 20 bucks that explains the way to use this radio. Personally, I like the hitec eclipse, I bought one with spectra, as I have a number of receivers on different frequencies, and got it for around 200 bucks, but with no flight pack. If you go with a fixed frequency you may be able to swing it, and I think you will find it would suit your needs in the long run. If your unsure, buy the cheap 3 or 4 channel, and keep saving and comparing!!