Please explain what they mean to me the modeler and why one is better or worse. I have a Futaba 6XAs that's about four years old that I bought new, and at the time it was one of the better mid-price range six channels, but I never really knew what any of that stuff meant. Electronics isn't really one of my strong suits (I'm not so sure I have any strong suits! :huh: ). And charging and chargers will be another topic altogether!

That would be a six channel radio, meaning it can control up to six servos/functions on the aircraft.
Most average airplanes use four functions; throttle, rudder, elevator, and ailerons.
That leaves two that you could use for like retract landing gear, bomb drop, split ailerons, remote engine needle adjustment, anything that a servo could control on the plane.
That radio software will have enough adjustments for most any airplane you would want to fly. Servo reversing, servo end point adjust., expo. adjust., several model memories (you can set up different software programs for more than one airplane), elevon mixing for flying wing types with a tail/rudder/elevator.
Cheaper radio would have less software options and more expensive radio have more options. Of course the more costly radio would come with upgraded servos and better quality construction and more accurate/better feeling transmitter stick gimbals.

You usually get what you pay for, but no need to have more radio than you plan on useing unless for the bling/brag factor.

Alvin covered it pretty good but looking at the post I was wondering if you were talking about what the differences in FM, PPM/PCM were...

First, Fm and PPm are the same setting. On your radio there's only 2 different transmitting types, Fm and Pcm. You need the appropriate receiver for each kind, fm or pcm.

Fm is an analog modulation type where Pcm is digital. Fm has a 'variable' modulation, Pcm is made up of 1's and 0's, either it's on or off. What this means to you... Not really a whole lot. The advantages of fm is it's reliable, if there's some kind of interference you'll be able to see it right off, ie the servo will start oscillating to the interference, and the receiver is less expensive.

Fm in a way is more like your fm car radio where as pcm is more like computer data. In Pcm, since the data is 1's and 0's this enables a couple other options. One option is that the receiver to a certain extent can check the signal for errors/minor interference and 'delete' it (or not act upon it). Some people refer to this as 'masking' the signal. It makes it look like there's no intereference happening. This can be good and can be bad... Unlike Fm, if there's a constant interference source then the pcm receiver will go into constant lockout to a preset condition (basically you'll loose all control of the receiver until the interference is gone). On fm, you'll loose control for a second and then probably gain control for a second then loose it again etc. So on pcm, if the interference was bad enough you'd probably never get any control of your plane again until it crashed where as in fm you may have at least a little control over how the plane crashed ;)

Usually people prefer to run pcm on planes/heli's with gas engines. Because of the electronic ignition systems, sometimes it will bleed over onto the fm radio system and cause some moderate interference where a pcm radio will 'eliminate' the light interference. The pcm method is good but the best thing to do is to find out the cause of the interference and eliminate that....

Both methods are extremely reliable... The best is yet to come though....

Spread Spektrum!!!!! Transmits on 2.4 mgz and you'll never need to get the frequency pin again or worry about being 'shot down'!!!! :hyper:

Thanks John, that's more of the answer I was looking for. I have owned and flown R/C before, but the technical jargon related to all of the electronic stuff is above my knowledge and comprehension. I'd like to understand more about electronics, especially batteries and charge/discharge rates and how to know when a battery is bad and so forth. I guess I should have taken that class way back in High School. :banghead: