Radio choice is a hard one for all of us. Go on line or even go to your LHS and take the time to read the instructions and look at the features of each radio so you can spot there pros and cons. Some have better mixing and features. When I'm helping a student pick out there first radio I say to buy the best you can afford because unlike planes the radio will be with you for a very long time, you don't want to out grow it fast and have to go buy another one right away. 7ch or more though if you plan on sticking with RC. You can work around the problems in a radio but why should you have to. I'm still using my Futaba 9-C and it has everything I have ever needed and the features I like. It's the little things like the high/low/kill switch or expo on the throttle that makes thing easier. Most sport pilots don't require all the features I enjoy but as your planes change you want a radio that will keep up. Money is a key problem so when I was looking for a new radio the sticker shock about floored me, I was looking at the JR 9303 and Futaba 10, made my old 9-C look better and better, it's only lacking feature is it isn't 2.4. How will I ever go through life without that feature????