I just want to thank everyone for the very thoughtful and informative post.
I was expecting a lot of flames :-) hehe Just a little background... I left Soaring in 1979 after moving to LA to work in the Film Industry. I took my trusty Kraft 4ch transmitter and my Super Esprit, White Trash and Todi to Pearce collage in the Valley and watched some guys ( Probably Joe, and a few other of U hot shots" Launching their home made Carbon rockets to the moon... I asked " Hay were can you buy one of those gliders" They all laughed at me and said " You can't, you have to make them" ...... Oh shit :-( I went home that day and put my planes in the closet never to fly again.... Oh ya... My cars engine froze up on the way home to Hollywood too.. So all in all it was a very bad day. In 1999 I was back in Sac town searching the web and somehow found DLG's. WOW I was hooked... More bang for your buck !!! U bet ya... Now I had to buy a new radio.. I went to the local hobby shop and bought a Airtronics Stylus Radio.... Could I program by myself ?? Hell No... Then after some time I traded that for a brand new JR 10x... Could I program it??? Hell No.... I still have it if anyone want to make me an offer? Never used once in 4 years.. Then I went and looked at a Futaba 9c... Within 5 min I could program it. It was so so simple, just like my Apple 2 and my very first Mackintosh. I think you will notice a lot of newcomer to the hobby chose Futaba for this reason as well. So I have been flying Futaba ever since.... Maybe I'm missing something that I don't know about.. But time after time I see people out at the local field with Radio issues, Programing issues, and it's never been a Futaba. So what ever I might be missing, I don't miss :-))) As far as Spread Spectrum systems. From purely an engineering point of view, the Futaba system is by far more reliable.. Sure the JR system might work just fine. Although we have already heard reports of problems with satellite receivers... But true Spread Spectrum is the only way to go and I would not buy any 2.4 system that doesn't have it.... Just my two cents :-) Craig