2.4 GHz Radio Transmitter Shootout – 2 – Ease of Use
For our Ease of Use section, we each sat around a big table, and together installed each radio, transmitter, made sure they were bound, then re-bound it for good measure. We looked at things like did they have a fail safe built in, did it work past the ‘turned the radio off’ test. We also looked at manuals, and tried to picture things from a point if this was your first new upgrade radio after a stock one.
Remember, these scores are based on all of our individual scores added together.
Just like in golf, the lower the score, the better.
| Points | Radio Name | Sum of Our Scores |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Futaba 3PRKA | 5 |
| 2 | Turnigy 3XS | 7 |
| 3 | Turnigy GTX3 | 10 |
| 3 | Spektrum DX3C | 10 |
| 5 | Futaba 3PM-X | 13 |
Some interesting things to point out about the radios.
The Futaba 3PRKA was about as simple as they got. The manual was still about 20+ pages, but it was all good basic stuff you should know. The radio was the closest to a ‘stock’ radio, being easy to install and use.
The Spektrum DX3C had the only receiver that didn’t allow the tabs for a ‘J Plug’ type servo connector. You need to file off these tabs to install most servos.
The manual for the Futaba 3PM-X is over 65 pages long. While some of the information in there is great for a newbie to learn about, the flow charts and menus just get way to complicated to follow some times.
The Spektrum DX3C and the Turnigy GTX3 both needed bind ‘plugs’ when binding the transmitter and receiver. Not horrible, but it’s one of those things you need to carry with you on your radio because when you need to re-bind, you aren’t going to have it with you.
Move on to Features or head back to the beginning shootout page.
