15 foot range is not uncommon for this boat when there is ANYTHING else out there to conflict with the signal. When I run it out in the middle of nowhere I can go alot farther than that. Once though I ran it in a lake surrounded by alot of house and a major road on the other side and I got 6 ft away and I just totally lost the signal. Something else overpowered the weak transmitter and it started going full reverse and in circles. The radio was totally unresponsive and I had to wade out to get it. So in the end, yes the Radio and transmitter are WEAK!