ORIGINAL: fearlessJOE
You need PCm if you want to fly gas planes.
No, you don't.
Futaba is trash, I have used them in ths past, never again.
Yeah, sure
Do the same with the any Futaba, and you'll swear your holding a cheap cigar box full of gravel!!!!
I disagree. If anything, Hitec radios look and feel the cheapest.
I will say that you should buy the best you can afford. Although it is slightly over the budget that you stated, I am going to suggest Futaba's 9C. You can get it fairly inexpensive(I paid 379 for my system with 4 servos, an 8 channel Rx and a Rx battery pack from the LHS) and the transmitter is PPM(FM) or PCM selectable. If you ever decide you will need to use a PCM Rx, your transmitter will work with it. It is a very flexible radio, and extremely easy to program. Even the "allmighty" JR copied Futaba's "rotating dial" on the Tx for programming(see their new 9303). All the switches are assignable, which means you can take any function and move it to any switch or dial on the transmitter to where you like it. When you move into models with dual elevator and aileron servos, you will find it much easier to set the plane up and adjust control throws etc. Plus you will find that a 7 channel radio may have a couple less channels than you need with some of the bigger/more advanced aircraft.
If you really can't or won't spend the $, the 7C is programmed similarly, you can still assign switches(can't do this on JR's in your price range, don't know about Hitec), and it should be able to handle quite a few types of models.