Best radio and why?

[tntpoof]

Whats your favorite radio(aka Best) and why.
For me its the radiopost ts 401 v2- cost and new rx price.paid 25 for radio nib and purchased 100 rx nib thru ebay from North Korea maker going under paid $5 each...best for distance best control fast ..very good unit...next was a ex 10 Helios with Spektrum 2.4 till tx module took a dump.

 

[Tunedfrog]

I don't have much experience with other radio's but I have a Spektrum DX5C and really like it. So simple to set up and bind with receivers.

 

[BobP]

I have the Spektrum DX5pro. it's great for mixing & race profiles you can switch on the fly. I still have a DX4C for backup

 

[HPIguy]

Any of the Futaba 4 series radios.

 

[Outcastblxnut]

Dx5. Lots of features for the price. Lots of receiver options. And if you ever get a spektrum smart system (a lot of companies headed that way) your ahead of the game

 

[RustyUs]

Best radio is the one that does what you want; at the price you want.

For me, there is one little feature that I look for when I go radio shopping. I've looked long, and hard at radios that have this one little feature. RadioLink had the RC3S priced right ($40-ish) for what features it included on it, but it's been discontinued for quite some time now. The $53 price tag, on the RadioLink RC4GS, is the lowest price radio that I could find nowadays that has Sub Trim on it.

Having a Sub Trim feature makes my steering setup OCD that much easier to do. It's that big of a deal to me. Yeah, I could get by with just Trim, but having Sub Trim adjustment gets the servo centering job done perfectly every time.

I have a Futaba 3PM that I bought back in 2005? for my return to racing. I can't/won't get rid of it... I love it that much. It is that mid priced quality radio that I expect from Futaba. Of course, the Futaba FASST receivers for the 3PM radio are outrageously overpriced @ $79 for one. That's the main reason why I only ever had a single receiver for the 3PM radio for many years. Thank goodness for companies making FASST compatible receivers.

Other features that are a "must have" for some people are Expo, and Servo/Steering Speed. Those are the other two adjustments that I look for on a radio if I were planning on getting into racing RC cars. Generally, but not always, you'll find Expo, and Servo Speed on transmitters with Sub Trim.

 

[D3MON]

for general bashing i am really liking my FlySky GT3C, many options, many models can be linked to it, 10$ a receiver (also waterproof), and right around 50$ for one RX/TX.

 

[slowngreen]

"Best" is too much based on opinion. Although, the high dollar Futaba's are like owning a Lexus, they are incredibly nice.

 

[HPIguy]

^^An SNG sighting!

 

[olds97_lss]

I have the spektrum dx5c and have been using spektrum for around 15 years. I had the DX2, DX3.0, DX3S, DX3C and now DX5C.

I honestly don't know why asspektrum has never given me great range... back in the day when they offered only the single wire (no pigtail/non-coaxial) antenna, my range was just abysmal, 50-60 yards at best with LOS. Then 6+ or so years ago, I found DSM2 knock off receivers that were $8 a piece and they had coaxial antenna's which tripled my LOS range, just had to get them from China. Now those are more readily available. However, I found that they would crap out after about 6 months of use. I don't drive half my trucks, so it wasn't a huge deal, but then I was able to find OEM spektrum sr210 receiver which were $30 and also had coaxial antennas. I tried a couple of those, my range wasn't too bad and they seem to be lasting longer.

I thought my range was great, but that was back when I ran nitro and I rarely ran that far from myself, 100 yards at most usually as I didn't want to roll it and have to do the walk of shame to go get it. Now with brushless, you can blip the throttle a few times and get the trucks bak on their wheels usually, depending on the truck. Also, I found a public grass bmx track that is roughly 150 yards end to end and I'm finding that if my truck is around 100 yards away and down in a valley, it doesn't respond... Still, it's better than the 50 yard LOS range I had, which was at the max distance I could drive it before.

I think if I were to buy a new radio, I'd give that new flysky noble a try. It's cool, stores far more models than I'd ever need, from what I've read/seen on youtube, the range is great and since it's software based, odds are, it could be updated as needed. Also, the receivers aren't too expensive. Still, it's a lot of radio for a basher. With the receivers at $25 a piece, they aren't too bad either. Having 10 trucks means I'd have to spend $200 on the radio with 2 receivers and another $200 on more receivers. Still not bad.

When I bought the DX5C a year or so ago, I was thinking of getting the futaba 3PV, then I realized it stored only 10 models, which led me to the 4PM... but $270 for the radio and another $600 for receivers was too big of a pill to swallow. So, I went with the DX5C instead. It does what I want, stores 20 models and while the sr210 isn't available anymore, there is a new SR215 for $30 that will work with it.