I am in the market for the radio for my airmadillo, i already purchased an OS .46FX and an OS LA .46 , planning on switching from the LA to the FX when my skills improve... Now im in the planning phase of getting a radio.. I have a Futaba 6 channel radio from 1992, no RX or servos though... but it served me well during its time. Does anyone have any reasonable suggestions for a reliable and somewhat inexpensive radio... dont want AM and I dont want to go PCM just yet... not looking for a 30 channel radio or anything..but something reliable.. (i said that already didnt i?)

I just picked up a Hitec Flash 5 on the Swap Board for $135 complete with 4 servos. Not bad for a computer radio.
Lots of Futaba and Hitec 4-channel FM's around if you watch the boards.
Look at the manufacturers web sites. Learn the model numbers of the radios that have the features you're looking for. Then look for a gently used one.

Try a Futaba TXAS 6 it is around $229. It has model memory that you can fly several planes with one transmitter. Plus all the other goodies!

Your 1992 Futaba TX should still work. All you need is a flight pack (RX, servos and battery) those are less than a whole system. All you need to do is get the crystal on the right frequency.
Maybe a new battery pack for the TX. You should cycle that to make sure it's OK.


Phil

i can guarantee you the power pack is dead. Wont hold a charge, even deep cycle. Are receivers still not interchangable? i.e. gettinga hitec rx with servos with the appropriate crystal...would that work? or no? since this is going to be primarily used on the trainer.. I dont mind using straight analog..I am however weary about buying something used, as I do not want to end up putting my model into the ground FT because of a radio that had been dropped during a "pass the box" training lesson. I dont want to go toooo cheap..i.e. a 50 dollar radio etc... But I do have a wife, and me throwing down 300 dollars on a radio will raise an eyebrow in the wrong direction if you catch my drift.

G.

I have run a futaba reciever on a JR radio before I didnt have problems u just need to make sure that the crystal sets are the same. I did it because my RX was having issues (older RX that i bought off someone and needed to checkout) I would recomend sticking to using the same brand RX and TX.

I originally started w/ a airtronics vangaud 6 CH and got (still am getting) great flights out of. My second TX was a JR xp622 another great radio w/ simple programing fetures. My current radio im using in my planes now is an Airtronics Stylus. I absolutly love this radio. I wish i'd just went ahead and spent the extra money when i was looking for a second radio and gone w/ the Stylus.

Now dont get me wrong there are a lot of people out there that bash Airtronics (even i have for some time due to my frustration with their lack of forthought to produce a 10ch model and their designs leave me feeling like im holding a $400 piece of plastic) I really felt that the JR XP622 was just what i needed at the time and at $250 (horizon hobbies) its fairly affordable.

Probably my next radio will be a JR 10X so that i can get a larger mixing platform But for now my recomendation would probably be the JR xp622 great little radio

DO not use a JR anything with a futaba anything because they will not work well and most likely cause a crash unless they are made to use together, Hitec makes recievers for both and they also make some pretty good radios too, I now use exclusively JR (8103 I love this thing) A place you could take a look is servocity.com http://www.servocity.com/ServoCity/index.html
They have good prices and free shipping. Let us know what you decide to do.

Dauntae

I would stick with the futaba TX and just get a flight pack for it that matches the channel your TX is on.

you can pick up either a futaba flightpack or a hitec and they should work fine with your TX.

rogers259,
you said you used a futaba RX with a JR radio? How?

was the RX modified? because JR and Futaba work on diffrent shifts and its impossible for them to control each other.

me and a guy that flys on the same channel as me (I had it first ) did a test with a JR RX and a fut TX. the futaba TX didnt even glitch the JR RX even when his TX was off.