Tag Archives: radio

Radiomaster and ELRS – Advice from The Top…. Spares, Service and Adjustments to Transmitter Power….!!

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We just had some great advice come in from one of Australia’s top skippers – great fans of Radiomaster down there 🙂

LM points out:-

“Radiomaster offer full set of spare parts for all of their radios on their website.

You can buy direct from them and not a retailer. They will answer inquiries.

Their website have all the software updates for all of their radios and receivers.

ELRS transmitters have ability to transmit at up to 1w which is not necessary for our sport and can effect other sailors radio connection. People should be aware and limit their transmission power to 250 mw or 100mw depending on local rules…etc….”

I have had a few UK skippers complain that their Futaba JOG switches fail and are difficult to replace. So “access to spares” is no small topic. By the way, if in UK you might try the Futaba distributor, Ripmax, for spares supply. We have feeling that Ripmax may have merged into “Sussex Model Centre” – try http://www.sussex-model-centre.co.uk

That last part of Lincoln’s message which I have typed in italics is interesting. I suddenly wonder if I have been unknowingly a victim of that one whilst at the Club with my Radiomaster.

Before I decided to set a “binding phrase” on all my Radiomaster kit, I did suffer a couple of odd happenings at the club ….which in retrospect may have been interference from someone else’s kit.

The photo above shows where in the SYS menus you can change the transmitter power. As Lincoln suggests, mine was shipped from the factory at 100mw. I can see now that some owners might fancy turning that up a bit to see what they get. Have you tried it? Honestly – if it’s range increase you’re after, forget it. Check out our range tests between the transmitters on this website. You’ll see 100mw gets you 200metres straight line ELRS transmitter-to-boat range – which is about 3x more than you need for radio sailing. Any further and you won’t even see the boat!

Increase Your Radio Range by 50%… for £5.50 ….??

Lincoln raises a great question in my mind – should we have a local rule about transmitter power setting. Needs careful thought as to how to implement it. A topic for AOB at the next Club AGM !!

Any ideas?? send them in!

Thank you to LM for this.

Radio Transmitter Advanced Manual – Printable PDF Version of Spektrum Manual Now Available…!!

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Screenshot

Following popular demand for printable versions of our websites of advanced Radio Sailing Manuals for Transmitters we have now produced one for Spektrum.

You can download it and print it by clicking here:-

https://drsailing.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/sailing-radio-manuals-pdf-version-advanced-spektrum-programming-for-radio-sailors-jul-2026.pdf

The online website for this transmitter is where I shall put any updates and you can find it by clicking here

https://drsradios3.wordpress.com

Forgive me for getting mentally worn through with this project – Spektrum was the final brand that I learned how to program and implement our advanced suite of transmitter ideas. It’s possibly not quite as complete as our Radiomaster and Futaba manuals. In the event that you find any errors and ommissions – or have ideas of things we can add – please write into this website via the Contacts Page and let us know.

FR Sky Transmitters…!!

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I managed to get my hands on one of these a couple of days ago. From the airplane and gliding world, the FrSky Tandem X20….. Bit of a wow. It was interesting to see what they use over in flying.

They cost about double (450GBPs) what radio sailors would think of as “pricey”, but can you tell the difference?

Amazingly – a resounding “yes”…. the feel was a huge step up from what we are used to. The body was a lot more solid (alloy maybe) and interestingly weighed about 900g so a bit heavier than common radio sailing transmitters. It felt very good in my size/shape hands. The “Apple” of transmitters maybe.

Gimballs (“Hall gimbals”) very smooth and more central on the console which somehow gave a nice balance (nearer centre of gravity perhaps) while you used it. Thinking about it more, if you move the screen to the top of the unit (most of our transmitters have the screen at the bottom), you can then move the gimbals down lower on the console itself.

Another thing I noticed was that the gimbals can be rotated slightly for those in search of more comfort over longer periods. Somehow, the whole thing looked more showerproof too. Really tightly fitted together.

When we decided to write the radio sailing manual for Radiomaster transmitters, I came across FrSky because the previous range FrSky along with Radiomaster use the same OpenTX software. FrSky seem to have abandoned that OpenTX strategy now as it was holding them back. They have done their own modern looking operating software called EthOS. That’s amazing too – it’s like having a full iPhone aboard, …all icons, colour and sexiness. Lots of preloaded configurations for power mixing and the like.

I might have misunderstood, but the owner said you could send updates (like custom model configurations) to it “over the air”…. so he can swap configurations with friends very easily.

The owner of the unit that I tried was a Competition Gliding fan. I asked what he used previously, and interestingly he had a Spektrum DX6E – which of course is very common in sailing.

Way over-configured for the needs of radiosailing, but it was interesting to see what £450 would buy you.