RE: Radios
Like David said.
JR, Futaba, Hitec, Airtronics, Polk, Multiplex the list goes on. Lots of good systems, and lots of people who prefer one vs another, but you'll generally be happy with any of them.
The biggest advantage for a computer radio is that most (if not all) of them store multiple model configurations. So you can use the same transmitter on multiple different airplanes. Some guys like this, some guys see it as another way of crashing. How many models and what other features are available, varies widely, of course. So it becomes a lot like shopping for a car, do you prefer american or import, etc etc?