rmh

Odd - your apparant choices are seldom seen here .
Likely older equipment which has been kept in use .
I have a hard time deciding what is a serious bird .
Is it one where you spent more money on it ?
Is it one which you designed , developed - sold in quantity?
Is it one which won many contests ?
is it one your favorite flier flies .
Or one which simply is enjoyable to fly and works well.
Why do you think the most popular products achieved their status?
Poo Pooing them changes nothing

Tobtech

My Feedback: (3)

Good point, I use a DX8 and have been flying RC for 32 years. To me my small electrics are just as serious as my larger planes. Maybe they are not serious to a jet guy or someone that fly's a 40% plane but it's all relative.

Luchnia

My Feedback: (21)

For the most part I see a mixed bag of radios at different fields. The most predominate in the hands of the flyers seems to be Spek and Jr and not to many Futabas. That doesn't mean Futaba is no good, that is just an observation. One of the fields I frequent has a very mixed environment and I don't recognize all the types of radios there.

Not sure how it is everywhere, but the later Spektrums 8 channels are sure making some headway here.

OliverJacob

My Feedback: (12)

The question has not been answered yet. No one came up with the data the op is looking for. And I doubt this will happen.
Is this only for the US and in what time frame?

Now you need to get the manufacturers together and have them reveal their sales numbers.
Our LHS mostly sells little electrics and in their world only Spektrum exists.

When I look around in the local clubs, I see more Futaba radios.

Also the European market is different in many ways. Back 25 years ago, most radios we used were Robbe and Graupner (JR), then Multiplex and a few Becker UHF radios, which were very good but very expensive. Futaba just came on the market and found little acceptance in the first few years.
I am not sure what they mostly use now, but they sure like the console design better. I still have my Graupner MC 16, looks better then most new radios.

Well, I guess I don't have an answer to the question either...

BuschBarber

My Feedback: (2)

I had Futaba 72Mhz radios for 30 years. Most everyone in my area did. No issues. It seemed like the competitio pilots used JR. When the XP9303 came out it was much better than my 9CAP. I switched to JR. The Spektrum module got me into 2.4.. Most of our club is JR/Spektrum.

Futaba, Hitec, Airtronics, etc., all have equivalent products to JR/Spektrum. I use what my friends use and I have never been disappointed.

ira d

I was out at the field today and I did notice about three older Hitec's one prisim and a couple of Eclipes's also I notice when someone new to the hobby shows up at the
field they usually have a Spektrum.

ira d

I was out at the field today and I did notice about three older Hitec's one prisim and a couple of Eclipes's also I notice when someone new to the hobby shows up at the
field they usually have a Spektrum.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

I am 100% a futaba guy. Many year of no problems!

RCP57

My Feedback: (25)

The club I currently belong to is about 55% Futaba, 35% JR, and the rest everything else. I see Spektrum, HiTec and one or two others. When I first started flying I used Futaba equipment. Myself and several other flyers had issues with our Futaba equipment. Was it poor products, hell no. Most likely it was some interference from other things in the area. When I left that club and joined another everyone there used JR, period. You could not find another brand of equipment. So I purchased a JR 10x and never had an equipment issue ever again. Coincidence, maybe. Does JR make a better product, maybe, maybe not. All I know is that I am very comfortable with my equipment. But that does not mean I will never switch again. Currently I am looking very hard at the Spektrum DX18. Will I pull the trigger, the jury is still out on that one.

RiverLarry

How does this sound !!!!!!

OK HI noon Tolido OHR C show Sat we will grab a Fut , Jr and Spek sailes person and have them punch it out !!!

I have had FUT. in 1970and with some time off in between because of LIFE work EX.

went to aDX 6to a D X7 and now A DX6 I for fome and a J R9503fo every thing else !!!

having at least 20 RX I think I will stay where I am at

I have had1 radio problim and a crash (BUT) it was my fault not set upwrite

I new this would get way out of hand

AMA145198

rmh

The "experts " who feel the newer / lower cost tx are obviously inferior to the heavier older more expensive designs - are only kidding themselves
Same thing happended with TV sets
The new stuf has tiny components and just sip power -which leads to lighter less expensive designs -which work better than the older expensive stuff.
It's called progress
Remember - you can't make computer chips in the backyard -
the stuf inside your jillion dollar tx and a Toys are Us setup are very very similiar .
obviously there are differences but if you follow the tasks which can be accomplished with present tx, you will see that good cheap chip availability is what makes it all run.
Everybody now has access to scads of these highly developed chips which include chips that act as gyros -
The days of a tx which is 5 years old but "'up to date "- are gone .
Tx, just like the current autos, are designed for far more than basic use .
If all one wants is a basic tx with no really modern features- just get a good used one which accepts a modern 2.4 module .
Spend what makes you comfortable and happy but spending the most insures nothing -except that you spend more .
.
I love driving cars which are expensive but found my Honda does the same job for a helluva lot less dough.

Quikturn

My Feedback: (12)

My take is that all the brands work just fine. Major differences would be in cost, features and feel of the Tx. I had a Futaba Conquest and a Airtronics Module series in the past and liked them both. I currently use a Hitec Eclipse 7 and a JR 9303 and like them both as well although the JR has a more deluxe feel and better programming capabilities. Yes, these are all 72's and work just fine for me. I did buy a 2.4 module and 2 7ch Rx's for the Hitec but have yet to use them. I suppose I'll get a 2.4 unit for the JR in the future as well.

I beleive a lot of the problems with 2.4 revolves around poor battery packs and/or high current draw from servos (especially digital). The 2.4 Rx's are tiny digital computers that will just quit if the battery voltage gets too low. Spectrum had problems with a long reboot time to get the Rx to work again and therefore resulted in many crashes. A few years ago after getting hit a couple of times while flying my MidStar 40 I landed and found my Rx battery pack was almost dead. Good thing I was using thee ole Hitec 72 technology.

Dick T.

My Feedback: (243)

Not Poo Pooing anything as I have owned all major brands since 1967 with few, if any, problems.

Simply stating preferences in the local clubs and serious birds are determined so by their owners.

In answer to the OP's question, more transmitters are probably sold via WalMart, KMart, Toys R Us, etc., toy departments than our hobby specific gear ever hopes to achieve.

rmh

Well depends on how you catagorize tx-
The Toys are Us variety (Radio Shack etc.), typically are part of a RTF RTR model -
The division occurs when the product is intended for multiple model use -and these are hobby shop items
Some Hobby groups have tried to introduce very low end stuff as "hobby' items
It is very easy to see what a flop some of these items have been.
Attempts to try to imitate the sucess of Bind NFly is notable in this respect .
But, Buy N Fly whatever fits your desires .
They all work very well - assembled setup and operated correctly
I won't fly anything which is chancy- - it is easy enough to test the stuff .

Fs one

Mike from Mississauga Canada you are absolutely right.I used to be Futaba but now am a big DX8 fan.Ask any of the local hobby shops in Canada that Spektrum outsells Futaba or any other brand big time. 

carrellh

You will not get an actual answer because the distributors will not provide the numbers.
All you will get here is guesses and opinions.
At our small club the 2.4 stuff is probably 2/3 Spektrum and 1/3 Futaba. Prior to 2.4 it was nearly all Futaba.

domanrc

Spectrum is made in China,but with much higher price,many China radio is good,you could try some.

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

I use specktrum indoors and thats it. Everything outdoors is Futaba. With no brown outs ever! Would not change what is not broken. Futaba does everything that I want without any worry!

rmh

Strange - all my Spektrums were originally used outdoors - never a brownout ( which isn't a radio problem)
I also use em indoors

OldRookie

My Feedback: (13)

Spektrum?....Wouldn't own one.

Greg

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

Our club moves indoors during the winter, the little planes and helis use spectrum bind and fly. I will only use it indoors. No choice right now if I'm flying indoors. But outdoors where it really matters with my big planes. Not a chance!

rmh

Most of the guys here use Spektrum outdoors/indoors - no problems - been using em since they came out in Jan 07.
I simply see no advantage to incompatible equipment .

hairy46

My Feedback: (1)

I know what ya mean.

earlwb

Spektrum likely outsells Futaba because of their hugely popular Bind N Fly planes. People tend to really like the BNF and RTF and RxR stuff like that.
So I agree with the others that mentioned this already too.

But then at present, all of my more serious planes, that I don't really want to crash, have Futaba FAAST gear in them. But my small planes are mostly all using Spektrum stuff though.

But costwise, the Spektrum receivers are not really much lower in cost over the Futaba receivers, so as to cost the systems tend to be about equal. Now granted one could get clone receivers, but I am not particularly comfortable with them yet. But you have to watch out closely for the fake counterfeit Spektrum receivers out there, as they are hard to tell apart from the real ones. So only buy from a known good reliable source. I have suspected some people of putting fake RX's in official Spektrum boxes or packages to sell as new too.

rmh

All my planes are serious for me - Large or small and I see no issues with the setups for any of em .
Do you really think people would put up with a system which crashed the small models ?
My own experience is in using Spektrum only in my outdoor (50cc etc..) initially and when the Bind n Fly really kicked into gear -I bought them - the new AS3X models are nothing short of amazing -
On F3A pattern models the ONLY glitches I have seen up close and first hand were not on Spektrum .
These were soon fixed but facts is facts - the real issues I have seen could be laid directly to the improper rx/ antenna placement .
The satellite plus use of the flight log have convinced me that 99.9 % of problems -all brands -are user caused.