Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Land Models / February 2006

only if you needed or might in the future need more servos. it is
usually cheaper to buy a combo than to buy the pieces separate. If you
have 3 trucks it might be worth it to have an extra servo around. if you
don't have servo savers on your steering or metal gear servos you can
easily lose one crashing into a tree.

the radio receiver of course needs to be the same band as the
transmitter (27MHz,75MHz, 2.4 GHz etc.)if they are in the same band
there is a channel crystal (70,72, etc) that plugs into the receiver and
one for the transmitter. if you have a channel 70 crystal in your
transmitter you will need a channel 70 crystal in your receiver.

you can swap crystals between your radios if you want to as long as the
receivers use the same IF frequency. Airtonics receiver crystals do not
work with Futaba receivers and vica versa. i doubt that has changed
since back in the stone age when i was still running ground based RC.

Transmitter crystals were interchangeable between brands back then... i
don't imagine that has changed.

i'll leave that to those with more recent experience. I have Futaba
radios that are 20 years old and are still fine and Airtronics radios
that are 10 years old and still OK. There are more expensive radios if
cost is no object...

The major difference in radio systems is AM vs FM. FM radios are much
less susceptible to interference from the motor arcing and other sources
of noise. They are also more expensive in general. If the receivers in
your trucks are AM you probably want an AM radio system unless you want
to replace them all.

OK, Doc?

-bob

I own and can vouch for this bad boy:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXGPZ4&P=7

This is next on my hit list:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXLKU7&P=7

Find the radio you want and then grab it on E-Bay!  Much cheaper and faster
shipping than Tower to boot.  I wouldn't waste my $$$ with the combos that
include the standard servos which are pretty much useless on a monster on
either steering or throttle/brake.  Use the money you'd save on the combo
for a 6V rx pack if you aren't already running one.

Doc

Spektrum makes a great radio and right now they are giving a free ($100
dollar canadian value) extra reciever with them.
You get the Radio 2 recievers and 2 servos.  You can't beat that.  Best
thing with the Spektrum is no channel!
No dicking around with Freq. clips at the track and it dosn't matter if you
use your radio in the pits.  It will not cross channels with anything else!

http://www.spektrumrc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=SPM2030F

Shaggy

I have that radio and I really like it. The receiver is very small as
well. It really sips the battery juice too. I have had the same set of
bats for 9 months.