Let the pi$$ing match begin.....

There are several good radios on the market. The good news is you almost can't go wrong. The bad news is....everyone will tell you that you can go wrong.

There are basically 2 sides to the radio market. JR/Airtronics and Futaba/Hitec. The two sides, until recently, have not been compatible with one-another. Now they are all pretty much interchangeable as long as you buy shift-selectable receivers.

Get at least 7 channels. Not that you will need 7 channels, but the more advanced mixing features you will need later are often reserved for radios with at least 7 channels.

JR and Futaba are both excellent choices. I have an Airtronics RD6000 (a starter radio with all the mixing I will need for some time). I also have a JR XP9303 (More than enough radio for me for perhaps the rest of my life). I have 4 more that are old Futaba units (I have never flown them), and one Hitec that has a synthesized module so I can fly a lot of different frequencies if needed (it never is).


There is also the Polk Hobbies radio which gets mixed reviews at my field, but seems to be very popular here on RCU.

I really recommend that you get a middle of the road TX to learn on. Then upgrade later to whatever you want. Personally, I'm glad I used my Airtronics RD6000 to learn on because I didn't know where to put it all the time so I spilled fuel on it, knocked it over and generally put it though the 'student' phase. Now I can keep a nice radio, um .... nice.

BTW TX is short for transmitter and RX is short for receiver.

Welcome to the end of 'free time' and 'disposable income' as you now know them.