Ed Anderson wrote:
Craig,
There are several factors why the JR 9303 2.4 is getting more press than the
Futaba.
1) This is a soaring list serve and the 9303 has received much greater
acceptance as a 6+ servo sailplane radio than any of the Futaba transmitters.
True enough. Unfortunately not enough of the 14MZ radios are being used
in soaring (big in aerobatics and helis) to realize what an incredible
radio it is for soaring. Assign any function to any stick, switch,
slider, etc. Including mixes, trims, whatever. Whatever you can think of
you can do. Same holds true for the less expensive 12Z and 12FG.
Up to 9 flight conditions per model. Each condition allows you to change
EVERYTHING except where the functions are assigned and the channel.
Anything else can be changed. Throws, mixes, etc.
The Futaba 12 to 14 series radios are truly powerful and flexible
radios. Honestly I cannot imagine having to mess with anything less now.
Kind of like once I got a microwave I could not imagine how I got along
without one.!!
2) Futaba entered the 2.4 GHz market with a very limited function transmitter
which was not of much interest to the 6+ servo sailplane market. They have also
come to market much later and much more slowly than Spektrum/JR, so Futaba has a
tiny installed base compared to the others. Many Futaba users, like myself,
have purchased Spektrum modules for our Futaba Radios. That is the same
technology that JR uses.
True for airplanes. Futaba has been in the car/boat world for sometime
and has pretty god market penetration there.
3) Spektrum/JR, XPS and Futaba all use Spread Spectrum of one form or another,
but only Futaba uses continuous frequency hopping. I will let the wizards argue
which is better, but they all seem to work, so to most users, the difference
does not matter much. This is like PPM vs. PCM, both are 72 MHz FM. Which is
better vs. which is most popular. They both work.
In a sense I agree. It can become a very academic argument. Personally,
I like the continuous hopping scheme over the other types of implementation.
4) There is a lot more hands on experience in the user community with
Spektrum/JR than with XPS or Futaba.
SS I agree. But radios in general not so much. At many large contest
Airtronics still rules the roost with Futaba and JR splitting the
remainder. Plus it can be very regional as well.
5) Spektrum/JR offers the widest range of receiver choices. For many people,
this is very important.
In SS this is true. However, given how tiny these things are I can't see
that as an issue. At least for me. Even the 14 channel RX is smaller
than most 4 channel 72 RXs!!
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