AeroMex

My first radio was a Kraft Gold Series 5 channel flying a Falcon 56. I still have it! I then switched to Futaba with various 4-6-channels then got a 9VAP which I still have, then switched to JR with a 388 which I loved and just last year upgraded to a 8103. The Futaba's are collecting dust so I plan on having it factory tuned up and then sell.

DP Ultimate
Kaos 60
PT 20
Stick 40
Raptor Wing
Concept 30 Heli
F86 Ducted fan
and more to be built

Hircflyer

My first radio was a Kraft Series 68 with 4 KPS 11 servos with the linear and rotating racks. Thats it, four channels, no servo reverse had a servo with a dot on the case that operated in reverse.

Basic set.............$810.00 in 1968 dollars.

mike gruenwald

futaba gold series 5 channel am

goldy9955

Cox 4 channel on 72.240 red/white. Cost $75.00 back in 1976. Mr. Gidrey at his hobby shop in Kingsville, TX let me have it cheap to hook me
into RC after CL flying kept me dizzy. We did steady business till I left town 12 years later.

It was a great radio for its time. He had EK's and Orbit sets for sale also.
My solo was on a Sig Kadet Jr. and an Ace Alpha 15 after the Kadet died. Enya 19 on both.

Bob Laine

My Feedback: (91)

Thanks for the correction Harley. You are right, It was Albuququerque, NM. Guess it wouldn't seem right if we didn,t have memory loss if we've been flying for as long as we have.

Bob Laine

My Feedback: (91)

After reading through all the post's, I'm supprised that I havn't heard the name "Royal", by Royal Electronic's, in Denver Co. They were really a good radio system with a very "thin" and wide transmitter. Sid Gates, was the disigner of them. They were built from "Kraft", parts, and came with "KPS 14 Kraft servo's.

Bob Laine

My Feedback: (91)

Remembert when "Circus" radio? It;s now called "JR". I still have an JR 8 ch "Unlimited", series that has never been flown. It's new in the box. this was the top of the line and sold for over $1000.00, when it was new.

Ed_Moorman

My Feedback: (1)

Bob, the JR Unlimited 8 was my first JR radio. Kraft Southeast was the first importer, then Circus Hobbies. I paid $569 for mine, converted to left-handed mode with 4 coreless servos. It was suplanted by the PCM 9, then the bevy of computer radios, the Galaxy and the whole series of PCM 10s.

Bob Laine

My Feedback: (91)

I just can't remember "Kraft , selling the "Unlimited" radio. The only ones I remember were sold by Circus. But...........I don't know everything. I do remember when Kraft sold
the "PCS" line of Radio's. Only then they were the Kraft "Sport Series. If I remember, Cliff Werrick"? was it merged with Kraft. Help me out if I'm wrong.

Ben Lanterman

I remember the PCS and the cute girl that was in the ad but I don't remember them being sold by Kraft. That was Cliff Werick's production.

Bob Laine

My Feedback: (91)

Hi Ben, You are so right about the "cute" girl. The "PCS+ radio line was never sold by that name. In the 70's, Clif Werick, and Phil Kraft merged their companeys together and the "PCS" became the "SPORT SERIES LINE OF radios distributed by "KRAFT". If you recall, the servo's were White in colour, And the PCS line of receivers, were not compitable with the gold case Kraft radios. Thanks for you input.

Bob Laine

My Feedback: (91)

Hi Ed, I do recall that the "Galaxie" name radio. was the name of the radio that Ted White produced when he was in Albuquerque, NM. It was white in color, and later became the bedrock for the "PROLINE series of radios. Which inturn, was sold to "ACE", and perfeced in the "silver seven", line. I still think that the PROLINE gimbles, were the best Gimbles, ever made. Thanks for the iinput.

Ben Lanterman

A lot of folks liked the Pro-line gimbals (I couldn't afford one). I do like the zero centering of the modern stick assembly though. I wonder if they sold as many radios after it became the Silver Seven.

SGibson

My Feedback: (2)

What a great thread !! My first radio was a used Citizenship five channel proportional set with a thick, metal tranmitter case. The servos had a plastic case with push pull and rotary outputs. The receiver also had a metal case with huge, seven pin connectors. I paid $275.00 for the radio in in 1968 or 1969, with paper route money, at Les Pruitt's hobby shop in Indianapolis, Indiana. I built a Goldberg Falcon 56 with an Enya 29. We added ailerons to the Falcon 56 because it did not come with ailerons in the kit. The Falcon kit cost $16.50 I crashed the plane into a tennis court. I took the Citizenship radio back the hobby shop the next winter. Les Pruitt gave me $265.00 for the radio and I purchased a new six channel, Kraft Series Seventy with the smal KPS 12 servos held together with clear tape. I paid $449.95 for the Kraft. There weren't any discounts in those days. I always considered myself a Kraft brand loyalist. After college I bought a Kraft Sport Series and flew it a while. Phil Kraft sold his company and the new owners changed Kraft to a crappy looking plastic radio. It was them that I switched radio brands. My next radio was a JR Unlimited eight. Next radio was a JR 347, then a JR 8103 and and I expecting a JR9303 to arrive on my doorstep this Friday.
I had a ball flying fast pattern type plnes when I was a kid. I fly gliders now.

I wish somebody would write a really good history of the radio pioneers, their companies, and what they are doing now.
S Gibson
Houston, TX

Ben Lanterman

I do remember that Don Lowe once flew with the Citizenship transmitter because he liked the sticks they used at the time. It was strange to see the one red transmitter in the sea of gold and white boxes at a contest.

I used to memorize the magazine ads of the radios, unfortunately some of the data has gone away with the years that have gone by.

I always wanted one of the Don Brown made DB-21 rigs. They used pulse and a tube front end receiver and were used to set several records for altitude at one time. They were very reliable in the real early days of "crash smoother with proportional". The transmitters were big boxes and you knew you had a arm full with one. They used the smallest little german sissor spring neutralized servos converted to a more linear torque spring centering system. But were smooth and nice flying in airplanes that didn't need a lot of servo power.

mr.rc-cam

I recall they used Bellamatics.

Ben Lanterman

That is it!!. Brown removed the sissors return spring and added something that looked like a big paperclip end with the curved end standing up and the two legs down, one in the case edge opposite the narrow end of the triangle and the other in the rotatry output near the end or the triangle. As the output rotated the U would torque and compress and made a good proportional return spring. The only bad side was the little coreless motor was really fragile. Some big airplanes were flown with the little servo though and won contests in Europe. Don Brown came in very high at one of our Nats in the old days with the rig.

I managed to get two of the servos and modified them myself and used them with a galloping ghost transmitter and a home made pulse rate decoder to get rudder and elevator. It worked - kinda - some of the time. The little servos were jewels at the time. A lot better than the double geared Mighty Midget motors I had been using.

I don't miss those days at all, I love the little HS-50's and monster steel beam bending digital fire breathing 1/2 scale servos. We have come a long way.

CHiatt

My Feedback: (1)

My first radio back in 1970 was comprised of a scratch built "RCM Classic" Single Stick TX (plans were in RCM magazine in the late 60's), an ACE Commander RX (plans were in AAM I think?) and 4 World Engines S-4 servos (kits from Hobby Lobby I think?). It was on 27 mHz with a really tall center loaded antenna. This radio was followed by a World Engines Blue Max MKII on 72 mHz built from a "semi-kit" from Hobby Lobby for $166! Then came three different Kraft TX's with a mix of RX's and servos. I used Gietzendanner wipers in my Kraft servos in 1978 and had some Futaba FPS-15 BB servos in 1979. I then built an ACE Silver 7, first with the plastic D&R sticks then converted to the metal ones. This was the poor man's Kraft Signature Series (from a "programmable" point of view anyway!). My first, true, complete radion in a "box" was one of the very first JR Unlimited 8's in the country in early '81. That radio was a real $ stretch for a college student!

Since then I've had other Krafts, Airtronics and JRs and have been flying nothing but Futaba since 1984. It would really be cool to go back in time with one of our new rigs, from a reliability standpoint anyway.

Cliff

mr.rc-cam

That would be about $800 in year 2005 dollars. All for a basic 4-Ch system that we had to solder ourselves. Assembled systems were even more expensive. Building from mag plans and kits was very popular because of that.

I tend to roll my eyes when R/C newbies complain about the costs of our modern R/C gear. If they only knew!

Ben Lanterman

Plus the fact that the new stuff works all of the time it seems and we don't have to tune them or anything!

Square Nozzle

My Feedback: (1)

Citizenship single channel with an antenna that looked like a TV antenna on a house. Tube receiver with rubberband escapement. A and B batteries. One push on the button was right, two quick pushes on the button was left. I don't think I ever got it to work consistantly enough to fly the plane. The plane was a Debolt Live Wire Trainer. Ahhhhhh the good ole days.

Bob Laine

My Feedback: (91)

That "Live Wire", trainer is still a good trainer today if "DeBolt" were still in business. I can't recall how many time I used to run out of "Wind's" in my rubberband Escapement.
I just seen an ad in The new AMA mag for a "Goldberg" senior Falcon ARF. O well, what goe's around, come's around.

PlaneKrazee

My Feedback: (14)

First radio was a used Kraft 71 series four channel with mini receiver on brown/white frequency and four linear servos. Purchased in 1974. Still have it, but it is long retired. Paid $250.00 for it. It was in a H-Ray (can't remember kit price) with a OS Max .30, $53.00. Good thing I had a large paper route.

Ben Lanterman

Speaking of old memories, you just triggered one. I bought a Live Wire Trainer in college in 1964. I had a single channel relay receiver (homemade) and a self neturalizing escapment that went from left to right to left, etc.

I wound up the rubber band and started the motor, a Cox 15, which had no throttle control. As soon as I launched it the vibration from the motor got to the receiver relay and triggered the relay in an erratic and totally random fashion. The escapment faithfully followed the commands and randomly input left and right as the urge sturck it. Since in my youthful enthusiasm I had over powered the airplane it proceeded to do an amazing display of rudder only aerobatics. Loops and rolls and daring pullouts were only a part of the presentation to the crowd.

I stood with transmitter button in hand (the transmitter was a big ground based home built unit) wondering what to do, looking with morbib fascination and wondering how it would all end, praying that the motor would quit. Of course the little demon ran better than it had ever in it's whole life. Eventually there was a roll and pullout somewhat lower than the grass level and it was over.

The crowd watching was universal in their praise of how wonderful the flight was and how it was too bad I messed up the landing but whow was it such a fine thing to see. I smiled and picked up a whole lot of pieces.

Oh I am so glad those days are over!

kojak41

[8D]


Citizianship 465MH single channel with Bonner escapement. Hi Johnson Buzz'rd 72" wingspan with Fox .19. Radio only worked occasionly. Many searches and retrieves usually from trees.