I was about to settle on the Spektrum DX7 until I did a bit of research on Airtronics. It's been around a long time, has a loyal fan base, costs less than $200 for 8ch tx and rx (RDS8000), and has the 3 position switch. I got mine at www.radicalrc.com.
I like the Turnigy 9ch 9x because it's super cheap ($50?), based on the popular Arduino microprocessor and has an open source firmware project (http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/turnigyimax-9x-now-with-custom?co...) that has upgraded the feature set as well as made it more stable.
(I was at my local RC store for buying a new Futaba RX. They had none, but were changing supplier of radio equipment and were selling out their Hitec radiosets at great discounts).
I think the main recommendation is one of the Spektrum series with six more more channels... DX6i or DX7i. Certainly that's what I'm going to be going for once I've trialled my airframe with a loaner radio system from a friend.
I'd initially wanted a Futaba system (used to have one waaaaaaay back in the past on my old nitro plane), but the cost of a similar system to the Spektrums is much higher. I don't know whether that translates into better range, reliability or features, but it made me open my eyes a little!
The other one I saw at the lower end of the pricing spectrum was on hobbyking.
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I like the Turnigy 9ch 9x because it's super cheap ($50?), based on the popular Arduino microprocessor and has an open source firmware project (http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/turnigyimax-9x-now-with-custom?co...) that has upgraded the feature set as well as made it more stable.
(I was at my local RC store for buying a new Futaba RX. They had none, but were changing supplier of radio equipment and were selling out their Hitec radiosets at great discounts).
I'd initially wanted a Futaba system (used to have one waaaaaaay back in the past on my old nitro plane), but the cost of a similar system to the Spektrums is much higher. I don't know whether that translates into better range, reliability or features, but it made me open my eyes a little!
The other one I saw at the lower end of the pricing spectrum was on hobbyking.
http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=10173
Cheap is the key word here. I have no idea what the quality is like.