We had a super flare-up on our WhatsApp Group this week about radio transmitters! There’s real passion out there !!

Reasonable reactions …. as for all of us, the transmitter is your primary interface to the boat. We all have different size hands, different feeling at the fingertips etc etc. It’s good that people have strong views!! Don’t mention purchase price to a group of radio sailors, or you’ll never get away. (!)

It’s clear from our WhatsApp chatter that every transmitter brand has both war stories and accolades in good numbers. For beginners, I’d say the stories (good and bad) just make choosing your first transmitter much harder to work out. Oddly there’s almost no way to compare how the various models feel in one’s own hands – big/small/balanced etc.

As a result of all the messages I posted the little poll above – half the members replied in about three hours, so we have touched a nerve!! Interesting result above, actually….

I’m thinking we might run a “Transmitters for Beginners” section here on the website, as understanding all of this area is a significant barrier-to-entry for newcomers. Very daunting,… speaking for myself anyway. It need not be, if we can demystify it. If you buy a second hand boat as your entry to radio sailing there’s a high chance that it comes without a radio. So the beginner hits this wall straight away.

There is limited help on YouTube for radio sailing beginners (excepting FlySky to a degree) and they all have dreadful User Manuals… or no manuals at all to speak of.

The radios are all built for the market as a whole. The market for transmitters is dominated by planes, cars, drones, gliders and the like. At MYA we have a little over 2,000 members… you’d think that was a lot. Do you know how many drones are licensed in UK as at 2023?? 513,000…. Mind boggling. Furthermore, the needs of planes, drones etc means that the transmitters are way over configured for what we need. Radio sailing needs only a tiny amount of the functionality that the transmitters deliver.

So, if we are going to get the help and manuals for beginners sorted out, it will have to be radio sailors that do it.

The Commodore and I have an idea……