Radio Link

[Martin McIntosh]

Has anyone on here actually flown one of these sets? Popping into a model shop I looked at one which is obviously made by FlySky due to the similarities to the Turnigy range. The proprietor stated that they were only good for land based models because they kept losing the signal but I suspect that it was due to the amount of metal shielding on trucks.

I have a TGY i6 and i10 which work fine (the i10 was only £70 at the time), except that the 10ch has s/w problems which neither HK nor myself have been able to resolve. The s/w is for two position rates but the set comes with three position ones; also it will not bind to their park fly Rx`s even though the instructions state that it will. Now withdrawn from the market.

Even so, I am rather tempted by the Radio Link 10ch.

[Trevor Crook]

The three sets have all been reviewed in the magazine over the last few issues. They look spectacularly good value. I can't remember if the reviews mentioned flight testing, perhaps Graham can comment?

[Old Geezer]

Possibly I am being cynical, but my guess is that with the Radio Link ticket price as low as it is their profit margin is unlikely to particularly generous, and he'd rather move on one of his higher priced and more profitable offerings from the established manufacturers.

[Cuban8]

Hardly a review in my opinion although nicely written and presented as we've come to expect.. The set needed to be used for a while to glean some insight into its practicality. I understand from another source that the display screens are difficult to read in bright sunlight and the build qualty is, shall we say 'average'.

While we're on the subject of reviews dear old Brian (one flick) Winch's review of the petrol engine was good except that no noise test was carried out - I wonder why ? - you can't convince me that BW doesn't own or doesn't have access to the neccessary test gear. These engines are field losers in their standard exhaust form.

[Peter Miller]

One of our club members has been using one. He hasn't had any problems with losing the signal...only the model but that was due to other causes i.e a small white model head on too far down wind.

Yes it was found two fields away.

[Martin McIntosh]

The model shop proprietor knew that I was just being curious with no intention to buy since I already have several rather better sets, some bought from him. I think that he was only giving out friendly advice should I have got tempted.

Not much point in reviewing stuff if they do not put into practice what it is designed for. I am sure that these should be OK because FlySky have been making radios for quite some time, but then there is the known issue on my i10.

Regarding the BW reviews, according to him the NGH 38 is beautifully engineered using high quality materials.

I bought one on the strength of that and the valve gear was scrap after just two tanks of fuel.

[Dave Hess]

I think if you want a cheap radio, you should have a look at the Jumper T12. I've been using one for quite a while now and I prefer it to my Taranis. Hobbyking now have the new version with hall gimbals for $110 or my version for £68

[robert chamberlain]

Just wondering. With freq hopping ,just how many hops does it do in a second.---Bob

[Denis Watkins]

Micro seconds Bob,

The frequency will Hop, as required, depending too on other transmissions close by

Have no concerns, as 2.4 ghz is designed to operate in a crowded environment

Claims were 80 sets with models in the air at once

But typically, for safety, apart from eyesight and collision, would be 20 flyers ! ! ! !

[Peter Christy]

Posted by robert chamberlain on 18/07/2019 09:11:49:

Just wondering. With freq hopping ,just how many hops does it do in a second.---Bob

Quite a few, but that's not the whole story. A thing called the "Media Utilisation Factor" comes into play as well. For practical purposes, you can think of the MUF as being how long the transmitter is actually transmitting for in any given period. (Yes, I know power and other things come into it, but lets keep it simple!)

If the transmitter is NOT LBT compliant (Listen Before Transmit), you are limited to a MUF of 10% or less. In other words, you can only transmit for 10% of the available time. If you use LBT, this figure rises significantly, but is still nowhere near 100%. Compare this to 35 MHz FM, where the transmitter is transmitting continuously (ie: 100% of the time), and you will see that there is a big difference between the two systems.

If you look at a typical frequency hopping system on a spectrum analyzer, you can see the channels hopping faster than the eye can follow. The speed varies between manufacturers and whether they employ LBT or not (not all do).

So the short answer is - er, it depends! But it is quite fast, nonetheless!

--

Pete

[Richard. W.]

Hi, chaps...

Sorry if this comes a bit late, looking at the dates of previous posts.

I've been using the AT9S since the beginning of the year. I'm the only one in my club to use RadioLink but several members have held the tx and some have flown one of my planes with it.

The comments from club members are that it's comfortable to hold, the flight controls and switches feel smooth and fall to hand naturally. A couple have said that if they weren't so heavily invested in another brand, they'd buy one tomorrow.

As far as the range, all I can say is that I flew a 78" span model almost OOS due to pilot error on a breezy day and one of our experienced flyers managed to get it back for me......All the controls were responding perfectly but the plane was a tiny dot in the distance.

Now I'm no expert, either on electronics or piloting so I can't have a technical conversation about how it all works. ... But work it certainly does and very well too, actually!

I'm not mentioning or knocking any other brand and I'm not trying to sell RadioLink to anyone. This post is simply in answer to the OP's question.

Yes. I use RadioLink and I'm very, very happy with it.

The only small niggle I have has been mentioned in a previous post and that's that the screen is impossible to see in sunlight. If that's a deal breaker for you then look elsewhere but other than that one issue, I can't fault it.