The recommendations in this thread are far from the latest and greatest. We are advising a new flyer who has a freebie radio. He's going to have to spend money either way, so he wants to know what the best route to go is. Nobody has said that the old radios can't work. But several have said that he's better off putting his money into equipment that is new with the benefits of the 2.4 technology. Others have said to buy batteries and everything else he needs and do a good range check. Hopefully if he goes that route he'll find that everything is ok. If not, he'll have spent his money and still won't have a usable system.