ORIGINAL: HarryC
Darryl,
Don't get fooled by Futaba's marketing dept hyperbole.
JR, in association with Graupner, has been making 12 channel radios since 1997. JR/Graupner now make two different 12 channel radios.
The 14 MZ is not a true 14 channel radio. It is 12 proportional channels plus 2 of Futaba's 1-bit, 2 position "channels". Since a rubber band driven escapement in the 1960s was able to give 3 positions, not just 2, it is hardly something to be proud of.
If you are willing to use the word "channels" for those +2 things, then the Multiplex radios are 17 channels, so I hardly think Futaba has anything to boast about.
The marketing hype gives data frame times for the 14MZ in comparison to the 9Z and boasts that this shows the 14MZ is a wonderful new thing, the "real time response" radio. Err, no, what it shows is that the 9Z is not a real time response radio. The 14MZ is now as fast as a 9 channel PPM radio, that's what Futaba calls "real time response". It's good they have squeezed 12 + 2 channels into that same time, but don't go thinking you are going to get a radio that feels any faster than an old PPM set.
The Multiplex 4000 has been able to talk to its pilot since 1995, so the 14MZ hardly breaks new ground there.
Where is the channel checker? The frequency scanner? The safe in-flight programming capability?
So it can show a picture of your model. That's really useful isn't it?
It will be a very very good radio, but ignore the hype and the chrome and the flashing lights, and read the real numbers. It's is nowhere near being the ground breaking radio that the hype suggests.
You talk about "hype", but your post above sounds like pure hype, only instead of the professional hype of Futaba's marketing department, it's pure amateur hype. Actually makes Multiplex sound like a sore loser, makes Futaba look good.
Say, you don't have any sort of professional association with Multiplex, do you? None? Cause it sure SOUNDS like you want to sell something here.
Riddle me THIS, batman...if Multiplex is so freakin' great, why do you NEVER see any at the field here in America?
I'd bet that JR has a really nice radio in the works to compete with the 14 Futaba.
I also think it's probably not a big rush...my guess is that these radios represent such a tiny, tiny portion of their customers and their profits, they are probably just a prestige thing.