Vintage Futaba Megatech FM FP-2PDF

[Aerobert 2142]

I have recently received a lot of several RC cars and two Futaba radios. One of them is a Megatech FM FP-2PDF.

I already found a manual online and from this I would estimate it's from the late 80s to beginning 90s. In general I don't have much knowledge about radio gear history and I would like to know how this transmitter is seen in RC history.

It seems that it was used for nitro cars or boats as the recommended receiver has no BEC and needs a receiver battery pack while there is another TX/RX combo in the manual which got BEC.

Unfortunately the receiver is missing and it seems to be not so easy to find the one recommend from the manual. 

Any thoughts about this? Does it make sense trying to find a receiver and put some work in this or is it just a good looking transmitter without any value?

[alvinlwh 5895]

17 minutes ago, Aerobert said:

Unfortunately the receiver is missing and it seems to be not so easy to find the one recommend from the manual. 

Any thoughts about this? Does it make sense trying to find a receiver and put some work in this or is it just a good looking transmitter without any value?

Since it is a FM system, I think any FM receiver will work with the pairing crystals? 

[Aerobert 2142]

1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

Since it is a FM system, I think any FM receiver will work with the pairing crystals? 

It probably will. Thanks. For me it's more the vintage part of it. If it is let's say collectable I would like to have the 'right' receiver for it. But it makes sense to test it with a random receiver to see if it works. And not to put time and money in it for nothing in the end 

[alvinlwh 5895]

Just now, Aerobert said:

It probably will. Thanks. For me it's more the vintage part of it. If it is let's say collectable I would like to have the 'right' receiver for it. But it makes sense to test it with a random receiver to see if it works. And not to put time and money in it for nothing in the end 

I thought you might want to pair it with a "matching" Rx but if none is available and you still want to use it, any other FM Rx might be the only way. 

[Lee1075 282]

There is a nib one on eBay Germany at the moment, albeit the "junior version" It comes with this receiver: (Robbe Futaba like your radio)

Click me According to the description it works.

[Juggular 4964]

3 hours ago, Aerobert said:

to test it with a random receiver to see if it works

I think there might be a certain range of crystals you could use. 

For example, if your radio is for 72.010, but you buy a receiver that used to have a 72.990, that might not work well with a 72.010 receiver crystal. 

I tried something like that back in the days, and it didn't work.  Only then I discovered that it doesn't work well if the frequencies are too far apart (between the receiver crystal and what the receiver used to have. It's like receivers are tuned for smaller range out of entire frequencies).  But if you get a receiver that used to have 72.230, then put in the 72.010 crystal, that might be close enough to work. (I know it's baffling. What's the purpose of having swappable crystals?)

On the other hand, what if you change the transmitter crystal instead?  I have no idea.  

 

[Aerobert 2142]

23 minutes ago, Juggular said:

I think there might be a certain range of crystals you could use. 

Okay, that's something I have to think about. Some years ago I only had two or three cars and each had its own radio gear. Then swapped to 2.4GHz and forgot about all this. Have to take a closer look. Thanks for your input.

[Willy iine 18805]

FM is not all the same, so you would need to purchase Futaba specific FM receivers with if you are planning on using aftermarket (ie:  Novak XXL).

But at the end of the day, it's probably going to glitch and potentially cause all sorts of other issues (mainly crashes ) so if that was my radio, I would clean it up real nice and just display it.   GL with whatever you decide, @Aerobert!!   I still have several AM/FM radios from the 80's/90's.   

[Aerobert 2142]

5 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

But at the end of the day, it's probably going to glitch and potentially cause all sorts of other issues (mainly crashes ) so if that was my radio, I would clean it up real nice and just display it.   GL with whatever you decide, @Aerobert!!   I still have several AM/FM radios from the 80's/90's.  

It seems that this will be the direction I'm going. It's just a cool looking radio.

[Willy iine 18805]

2 minutes ago, Aerobert said:

It seems that this will be the direction I'm going. It's just a cool looking radio.

Yeah, definitely a good looking radio for sure. 

And it's Made in Japan probably ..  that alone has value these days, I think.