RE: what was your first radio system?
My dad and uncle showed me how to use their single channel escapents, galloping ghosts (wig-wag system), pulse proportional, etc.
Vacuum tube receivers! with large lantern batteries on board large body planes!
Boy, they went nuts when I built the Heathkit system in the late sixties and a full ptoportional 4 channel "Ham band" system.
Then we went into Krafts and Airtronics and Futaba's in the seventies.
I'm still using all the Kraft systems.