My friend told me about this and I looked it up. Apperently Polks hobbies makes an 8 ch fully synthesized computer radio for only $100. This sounds too good to be true! Has anybody tried it? The reason I asked is that the 2.4 radios wont work for my sub and I need more channels than I have for a Dreadnoght.
Yes I have one. It works quite nicely. Last year I wanted to get another one for my brother Kotori, but they reported problems with the delivery of their new stock of 75MHz radios, so I had to wait. Since Kotori and I don't have a submarine, 2.4GHz works fine for us, so he eventually picked up a cheap one to try out and seems happy with it. Still, I am perfectly satisfied with my Polk radio, asides from the issue with getting a second one. It has two sticks, two knobs, and two three-position switches, which is nice for depression on a battleship (short, medium, long range). It has lots of nifty programming features, too.
How do they get away with selling it for only $100? The Spectrum DX7 seems like an equivalent radio, (7 channels, fully synthesized, computer radio) yet it costs over three times as much! Am I missing something here?
Yea it only says that that radio is 72 MHz, but it mentions 72/ 75 MHz radios... Is there a benefit to buying the 75? I'm seriously interested in this now!
The benefits of a 75mhz, is water penetration. 2.4 isnt so hot for that, and if you can't find your ship, with a 75 mhz radio, often times you can fire the guns and see where the bubbles come up. Obviously, 75 is a bonus if you want a sub. The downside to 75 mhz is freq availablity, however with the Polk this is minimized by the ability to change channels. You simply set the Polk to a channel nobody else is using, and you're good to go. I can't speak for the 8 channel Polk. I have an older Polk Tracker II and I dislike it for a variety of reasons, but none of them are worthy of turning up my nose at a $100 price tag. That being said, I'd rather have a 2.4 radio since I don't plan on building a submarine.
75MHz is legal for ground use. 72MHz is legal for air use. 2.4GHz is legal for both. While I haven't seen any police checking our radios to make sure we are on legal ground freqs when they visit, it's generally frowned upon to use an aircraft frequency. You should call them and ask about ground frequency radios.
Generally the police are not who enforce the FCC regs, it is the FCC, with a truly hefty fine. If you use a 72mHZ air radio, you also probably lose your insurance coverage (you are operating with illegal equipment prohibited. If you are under NAMBA, they are not permitted. Also, you really DO NOT want to use an aircraft radio fro ground use for another reason. 75mHZ radios have a range measured in miles. You do not want to "shoot down" a guy's $3,000+ airplane that took years to build that is flying a mile away from you and cause iot to crash into a group of kids do you? Really bad kharma or juju. Not to mention liability should they track you down....... I also believe most clubs prohibit using 72mHz air frequencies in their competitions. As for the Polk, it is a simple programming thing (that has to be done by Polk) on the TX. Not sure about the RX. You will need to call them to get the 75mHz. I have a couple of Polk's and like them, feature for feature. However, you can get a 6 channel Turborix 2.4gHz which is pretty much as capable for $42, and you program it from your PC over a USB cable. We have one undergoing battle testing ion the NTXBG right now. Cheers,
That makes since. I forgot about the ground/air use thing. The main reason I want the Polk is that it isn't 2.4 gHz, so I could use it with the sub.
Changing it from 72 to 75mHz is a programming thing that Polk's can do at the store before shipping it to you. You do need to call and make arrangements, though. By the way, the DX7 is not "synthesized" - it is the 2.4gHz technology that works quite differently in concept. With a synthesized TX you still need the correct crystal in your RX, or a synthesized RX that is matched to the same frequency channel as your TX. Cheers,
No with a Polk you reprogram the channel without replacing crystals. From the guy who does not own a Polk. Peter K was looking to sell his Polk at NATS this year. He had issues programing it. A bunch of people started to use them but had problems with them and stopped. Then 2.4ghz came a long and that's now the cool thing to have. I've never had a conflict on channel 70.
Personally, I like mine, but you are still stuck with the issues of limited frequency channels on 75mHz, and will need to change crystals in the RX (unless you get a 75mHz sysntesized RX like the Sombra Shadow. Considering you can get an Eurgle 8-9 channel computer radio with RX in 2.4 gHz, for under $100, or a 6 channel Hobby King for under $40 (yeah, add @20 for express shipping), and the polk is less attractive. Especially since 2.4gHz eliminages the crystal hassles and is more glitch free. Remember, though, the HK, Turborix, and Eurgle are not for the faint of heart or newb - they come with little or no instructions and you need to find and download some stuff. And the Eurglehas a safety feature you will discover that may think it is broken when you get it (not going to reveal it here - if you buy it, you need to learn to find out where the information/support is on RCGroups etc. yourself anyway). A google search for Eurgle Switch Error will help get you started on the quest. BUT, if you are willing to invest the time and learning curve, ..... Cheers,
From what I heard the problems with the Polks was getting them programed and keeping them programed. Though the people having issues seamed to be the guys who are not great computer people. having never had owned or played with one I don't know any more.
I found the Polk radio to be somewhat a pain to learn how to program the various functions. But like most all radios, once you get used to it it isn't too bad. Another issue I had with the Polk was the effect of bad servos on the radio. During the 2008 MWC NATS, my ship suddenly went haywire near the end of one sortie. Once we recovered the ship, we found the rudder servo had went bad and somehow was interfearing with the reciever. After replacing the bad servo, the radio worked perfectly for the rest of the NATS. Other than that, my Polk has worked flawlessly. The pushbutton modification works without a hitch. I'm hoping that Polk will eventually see the light and make a 2.4Gh version of the radio.
I don't need complicated programs, can you do the important stuff like EPA and reversing just with the transmitter, or do you have to hook it up to a computer? All I want is a good radio that will let me do end point adjustments to tweak the speed (without spending too much)
The EPA, servo reversing, and such is all in the transmitter. There is a small lcd screen to navigate through the menus. I do like the 99 model memory feature. Once you set up each ship individually in a memory slot, you can easily switch between ships. The synthesized frequency part of the transmitter is nice too. You can set a freq for each ship in the memory and when you switch ships, the transmitter will automatically go to the saved frequency for that ship. By the way, someone mentioned the Polk had a problem when used with Delta boards. Personally, I never had a problem using the Delta boards with my Polk.
Dave, the $33 Hobby King or the Turborix 6ch radios from Hong Kong require you to hook them up to a computer to program them. You save money by not having a display and a mess of buttons, and an interface, built in. After all, once it is set up, you are not going to want to adjust the EPAs etc. a lot. They do also have an old-school mechanical trim. Except for speed, you can do all the setup on the bench, pretty much, with a computer handy. Though you might want to bring a laptop to program the ESC EPA at the pond. If you want a full 8 channel computer radio with EPAs, mixes, model memories, etc. you could go with the Eurgle from http://r2hobbies.com/proddetail.php?prod=rcps61207 - be warned, it does not come with a manual, you will need to do some internet research, but for $100 and no frequency worries (it is a 2.4gHz unit) that uses very inexpensive RXs, might be worth the frustrations of no nice manual. Cheers,
The problems I found with my Polk Tracker II have probably been mostly resolved with the Tracker III. What I found was that: - the battery life in the TX was horrible. It runs out of juice far faster then I would like, but this could probably be fixed by replacing the TX battery. - the TX itself was heavy and not didnt fit the hand well. The Tracker III has definitely fixed this. - I had problems with interference when I initially tried to start the radio up with other radios running. I worked around this by not extending the antenna, and walking a bit away from the other radios when I powered on the TX. I'd assume this is fixed in the Tracker III The bottom line though is there is no reason to go with a Polk when you can go with a 2.4 gig Futaba or Spektrum, unless you are planning on running a submarine.
