Mark,

Yea, that makes sense that there might be some oxidation on the pots. Even if the batts didn't leak, after a certain amount of time, pots can develop a layer of oxidation between the conductive surface and the pickup. It's often seen (or rather, heard) on volume control (or other) knobs on old audio amplifiers. Another possibility might be capacitors that are old and not quite holding steady charge.

Bo, the thing that surprises me is that Tony would have sent it back like that. RS is there to tune and make sure the radios are operating as they should. An older PL encoder shouldn't be difficult to check and replace components that don't measure up. Like Mark says though, at some point, fresh electronic components give one a little more peace of mind.

The reason the 2.4 setup is prone to chatter might be due to the lower signal voltage tolerance of the new Rx's and servos. It's possible that the Tx might be emitting voltages that fluctuate to a degree that the Rx picks up. The 27 kHz Rx and PL servos might be more tolerant. Did you notice whether the chatter differs or goes away when comparing digital and analog servos on 2.4?

David