I have purchased a few lots of RC stuff in a year. I am into cars and truck, but might go into flying later on. On those lots I have acquired 2 Futaba airplane transmitters. A Futaba Concquest 4 and a Futaba Attack 4 with a matching 4 channel receiver, both look vintage with the black and chrome casing, a power meter on center top and all reversing channels and trims.

What is the difference between the two, I am about to let go on one of them, which one should I keep?

Thanks

Personally I would let both go, they are old and very basic entry for the time. There are lot of really good 6-7 channel packages for cheap and they have multi plane ability. They also come with RX and servos and NEW batterys. Your old TX and RX will no doubt require new batterys so the prices will off-set somewhat.

If you want to learn how to fly then you should look at those radios. I think one of them has a trainer cord setup and the other does not. I would keep the one you can use for a buddy box.

You also need to make sure the one you select is on 72 MHz band and has a narrow band gold sticker.

I think that if you can get $10 for either, you'll be pretty lucky. Reel that fish in while you've got'em on the line!

If one has a trainer cord outlet it might be used as a Buddy-Box. Check that out and if you obtain a new radio make sure they match.

Both are 72mhz AM narrow band and does not look like there is any connections on the back for a trainner cord. I got the conquest from the swapmeet, an old lady had a box of tv remotes and this one was also in it. She wanted 8 bucks for it, but sold it to me for 4$. I got the attack 4 with the matching rx, rx pack and tx pack, with a complete rc10 vintage graphite car, esc, batteries, motor, quick charger, and a lot of misc stuff all for 30$.

I found someone on craigslist that wanted one, sold him the conquest tx alone, he bought it for 15$.

Thanks for all the opinions.

very possible the one with the car is not flight legal as they use diffrent channels. Sounds like you are in the market for new gear.

It came with the car but it was not used for that, I practically purchased the box with RC stuff in it. Owner said the Attack 4 was used for planes.

Just because the owner said it doesn't make it so.

doubledee

All he needs to do is check the frequency and verify the gold sticker.
There are currently no 72 MHz freqs for anything but aircraft but since his radio is so old he can check his frequency against this approved list:
http://www.modelaircraft.org/comp/frequency.htm

Its for aircraft, Im pretty sure. I have been in the RC hobby for many years, I could easy tell. Just want to know if these would still be usefull, or has some value.

Should I keep this one then with the 7 channel and a trainer cord attachment.

The way you can tell is if it is on 72mhz (aircraft) or 75mhz (surface). There really isn't any other way.

Those are both AM radios, and aren't likely to be narrow-band. Unless they've got the gold narrow-band sticker, they're junk. No club would allow their use.

Good, reliable, legal radio equipment is cheap. There's really no reason to use old, out-dated, and likely illegal systems. For what it's worth, a guy showed up at our field with one of those old Futaba Gold series radios. They were great back in the day, which is when he bought it. He blew the fuse inside of it the moment he turned it on, putzed with it for a few minutes, then left. Never saw him again.

If you want to use that old stuff, send it to Radio South and have them go through it. I have a 1986 vintage Conquest 4 channel that has never been used that is going in for band narrowing and new batteries. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's junk. I wouldn't put it in a real fancy or complex aircraft, that's what my 9CAP is for, but the Conquest is fine for the Kadet I'm building after I learn to fly. Retuning, batteries and receiver will run about $100, so it's not that bad.

You are aware that for about the same price, you can buy a complete 4YF FM system that includes transmitter, receiver, nicads, servos, switch, etc, right? http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXEFJ4**&P=ML
I've got 4 Conquest transmitters, 2 four channel and 2 five channel. They sit in my shop because the price to narrow band the transmitters wasn't worth doing. This is especially true since I'd still have wide band receivers.

I know, but my Conquest was bought to go in a Kadet Jr that was destroyed before I finished it in a move. I figure I might as well use it for what it was purchased for. I have the servos and a 4.8 battery pack that came with my 9c, so all I need is a receiver and I'm good to go. Even if it was already gold stickered, I would still need to get a new battery pack to use it, so the extra $10 to $15 is no big deal[8D]

Both have a gold sticker on them. Got both the manuals for them, the attack 4 is definitely narrow band. The gold series is older and does not mention anything in the manual about being narrow band, but it does have a gold sticker on the back.

Hey Hydro junkie, would you like to buy my FP-R114H 4 channel AM reciever?

Is this the gold sticker that I should be lookin for?

The sticker in the photo is the one you need. Your stuff is legal, it's just a bit out of date. One of our club's best pilots still uses an AM system in one of his planes. He bought it new many years ago and it still works, so there's no reason to change.

Still, I'd probably try to sell all of the AM transmitters and receivers and buy a current model Skysport 4 ($120 new) or 4EXA ($140 new). That way you know you have something compatible with modern trainer boxes and transmitters.

If you stick with the AM system, definitely keep the one with trainer cord provision. The next potential snag is finding a trainer box that will work with it. I get the impression that the trainer box has to be another old AM radio and that one based off of an FM transmitter will not work.

Futaba has two trainer cords for the older radios with round connectors.
http://www.futaba-rc.com/radioaccys/futm4400.html
Stock Numbers:
FUTM4400 MTCAM 6' Trainer Cord AM-Gray
FUTM4410 MTCFM 6' Trainer Cord FM-Black

Trainer cord info page
http://www.futaba-rc.com/radios/trainer-cord.html

I looked at the photos. One has a 72 mhz crystal showing. The other has a sticker that says 72 mhz. Unless someone went to a lot of trouble running a scam, both are definitely for aircraft.

IMO both are still good systems. Just because they are AM should not be of a major concern. I still have three Attacks and use them. The pictures reciever is designed for "J" type plugs, so you can still use current servos. Just make sure the transmitter batteries are still good. As for the power dial in the middle, sometimes I would rather have that than the LCD display.