I'm in a quandary.. maybe someone can shed some light on this..
I bought an R127DF receiver along with a crystal (ch #53) both new from a reputable dealer. After I got the units,, I asked him about the two futaba types that I see offered in catalogs,,etc high band,,low band..
he said they are all the same.. he sent me a new R127df along with a Hitec ch53 crystal... .. I already have a r127df ch 53 in my first plane.. and this rx is for my second plane. Is their really a difference in the rx.. and will I get the same fine/tune reception from my new rx with the hitec crystal.. as I do with my rx/futaba crystal I got with my Futaba tx/rx DA unit?
I asked him how I could tell what he sent me: he said in his email to me "Crystals are by Hitec, work fine in Futaba. Original label on receiver was removed because it is not the frequency you ordered, so you can't tell if it is high or low band, but it really doesn't matter." "I have been changing Futaba receiver crystals for 15 years, from 11 to 60 and back again and have never had a problem." Any comments on this would be appreciated...
Of course I'll field check the units.. but is there really a "fine tune" that rx and crystals go thru...?

joegib,

First of all, the Hitec crystal will work fine. I have the exact setup you mention (r127df and hitec crystal on ch. 19) and it works perfectly.

Second, Futaba does split it receivers into low band and high band. Low band is channel 11 thru 35 and high band is 36 thru 60. You may have trouble putting a ch. 53 crystal in a low band receiver. FYI, ch. 18 and ch. 53 are the "tuning centers" for their respective bands even though they are not numerically the center.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Futaba receivers have always been low band and high band. They now advertise them this way.

the reason they do this is because every time you change the frequency of a RX it needs to be retuned to get "perfect" reception.

since nobody is going to send there RXs in everytime they swap a crystal futaba tunes the RXs for the "center" of the block of channels so that if you take a high band RX and put a channel 60 crystal in it it is only marginaly out of tune, not enough to effect your flying. but putting a channel 11 in would knock it out farther (and it may effect flight)

What gets folks attention is that both Futaba and Hitec explicitly state that you cannot put Hitec crystals into Futaba rx and visa versa.

Great Hobbies up in Canada actually has on their website that though both manufacturers recommend against it, their customers have been doing it for years with no detriment.

For me? Well maybe superstitious but I try to match brands as much as I can and I pre-order Futaba RX w/crystal vs changing it due to the high/low band thing.

I do have a couple of mixed ones (Hitec/Futaba) though and no issues to date.

Really up to you on the decision.

Bob aka Nuker

I appreciate all the info.. I talked to the suppler again and I'm sending the rx back to him and he's sending me one that doesn't have the stripped stickers.... ie.. one that is identified as high band ... he's been in business for over 15 years in this hobby.. and is being very negotiable with me on my issue... so we'll see if the exchange rx works well after I bench test it for distance,,etc..