"you get what you pay for i guess..." - Yup, the other one is buyer beware. Not necessarily the way it should be, but just the way of the world my friend. While I've seen the exact failure you describe, I've also had failures on top of the line radios. I fly Futaba, had a 9ZAP (top of the line at the time) break the aileron pot wire while flying a 2M pattern ship in a contest, granted, the radio had hundreds of hours on it, but it was serviced every year. Managed to get partial contact enough of the time to land without incident. I also have a new 12Z, and it has one pixel column dead on the display. Cosmetic only, but annoying. Only 3 months old. Still under warranty and going back this winter. I don't fly JR (but use their servos), so to be fair, I've also had top of the line JR servos spin the press fit on the gears, seen dead touch screens on 10x's, etc. Bought a $150 proportional air retract valve, DOA. Fixed it my self, bad solder joint. Had a hobbico charger, DOA, cold solder joints all over the place. Fixed it my self. I could go on and on. So I understand your frustration. But I seriously doubt $150 radios will get any better in construction or quality anytime soon or ever considering top of the line radio systems are pushing $1,500 to $2,000+.