Anyone still use crystals?!

[Hrimfaxi]

Back when boats used to be my thing, I ran a Futaba Attack tx and rx with crystals, would swap the rx between boats when using them.  I remember confirming with other people at the lake which frequency they were on!

Just pondering really..... anyone still bother with these?  Or are they mostly confined to RC history and I'm showing my age? 

[ADRay1000]

My crystal equipped radios were all sold off like 10 years ago… was very surprised that they have become antiquated upon my return to the hobby 2 years ago. 

[Cynan]

I have them in my HS2 shelf queen, which I tested when I restored her. Other than that nope… don’t think you’re legally allowed to run them anymore anyway?

[bRIBEGuy]

Crystals were the best thing to ever leave RC, IMO!

I think they represent a great historical piece of the hobby pie, but ya... they were straight up terrible, and the newer 2.4ghz stuff is bazillion times better in every metric possible.

[Hrimfaxi]

21 minutes ago, Cynan said:

I have them in my HS2 shelf queen, which I tested when I restored her. Other than that nope… don’t think you’re legally allowed to run them anymore anyway?

I am/was aware that certain frequencies should never be used, but didn't think it's all completely illegal now?

[Tamiyastef]

I'm so glad I don't have to use them anymore. There was always someone during a race or event that got jittering servo's because of radio interference, really annoying that was. 

[Hrimfaxi]

Should just say that, for the record, I don't plan on running my old crystal gear - just curious! 

[El Gecko]

I used mine up until a few years ago when I switched everything over to 2.4Ghz, and it's still hanging around on the shelf and in the parts box, and could still be used in any vehicle if I wanted, but yeah as others have said it's just not worth the bother these days (or the extra batteries--the old Tx takes twice as many!). I never had high-spec gear, or even multiple receivers at first, so it's really nice to have one 2.4 Tx for all cars with no crystal switching necessary.

[Saito2]

I think all but two or three of my transmitters use crystals. I am very "behind the times" when it comes to radios. Shockingly, I still have some MSCs in use too, and believe it or not, they don't catch fire or cause my cars to run away and smash into 1:1 cars, curbs, walls, small dogs, cats, squirrels, my wife's ankles, steamrollers, or the mailman. Amazing.

[Wooders28]

On 2/10/2023 at 4:29 PM, Hrimfaxi said:

Just pondering really..... anyone still bother with these?  Or are they mostly confined to RC history and I'm showing my age? 

I ran my Attack R for a few years when i came back, until old elecs do what old elecs do, and fail.

I joined the 2.4ghz World, and wow, I thought it was just a frequency change, but no, the features are absolutely amazing, doing things I couldn't even dream of bitd, never mind the response time.

This was my last radio purchase (probably one of higher end radios ,but), a Sanwa Exzes ZZ, and this is the manual, I presumed it was a couple of pages for each language, but no, it's all English (although, understanding half of it, it may aswel not be...😳🤣) 

 

 

Since sold all the 27mhz gear, all the splits and solids. 

 

[Andreas W]

Just like Wooders28 describes above I ran my Sanwa from 1992 as I returned to the hobby in 2020. I forgot to take out the batteries after I ran my Kyosho Burns 10+ years before, so that was a mess and the batteryholder had cracked. I glued the holder with epoxy and the radiogear worked fine again. I quickly found out that there was loads of more going on in the air than it used to be. There was endless interference. After I joined the 2,4 GHz-club I have not looked back. 

 

My brother is now also returning to the hobby and is not convinced that 27MHz is so bad. He gotta find it out the hard way.