This is quite large, but also fairly slim which makes it quite comfortable to hold. It is fully programmable, as we have come to expect these days, and has a number of model memories. Did I say 'a number', well actually it has 99! Getting most of the superlatives over with, it also has a six cell nickel cadmium battery of 1700 mAh capacity which gives a normal operating life of 8 hours! Those two features alone make it a fairly unique unit.

Having stated that the transmitter is larger than usual, it is in fact roughly the same size as most units are when fitted into a transmitter tray. A separate tray is available for the Mc3030 which incorporates a clip assembly which locks the transmitter in position producing a very solid unit.

In unexpanded form, as supplied for review, the transmitter has a total of 6 switches, 4 sliders and a rotary knob in addition to the usual two sticks, with trims, and an on/off switch. This on/off switch is flush mounted on the upper left edge of the case and has a red LED adjacent to it to indicate that it is in the 'on' position. The trims are linear sliders and do not have the usual semi-rotary action.

A large Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) is set into an angled panel in the centre of the top edge of the front panel. This, together with 8 pushbuttons concealed under a hinged panel at the bottom of the front panel, allow all of the various control functions to be programmed. More on this after completing the description.

What appears to be 4 slider controls actually consists of 2 controls with separate indicators immediately adjacent to, and inside, them. These indicators have a far stiffer ratchet than the actual control slider and the idea is that you can use them to indicate some preset control position which can be identified by feel rather than having to look at the transmitter.

Two long toggled switches are fitted, one each side of the LCD unit. The left one is labelled 'SW5/CS' and can be set to perform a wide variety of functions. That on the right is labelled 'Memory' and has a special function which will be described later. Below the left switch are 3 short toggled switches which are labelled as 'Dual Rate' but which can perform many other functions as, required. On the right side there is a single short toggled switch labelled 'G' which is primarily intended as a 'gear' or 'retract' switch.

Finally, there is a rotary control knob which is adjacent to the "Memory' switch and associated with it. This may all sound a little long winded but it is necessary to establish the actual layout because of the unique nature of this particular unit. In fact, all of the controls (apart from the on/off switch) so far described can be configured to serve any purpose you may require. To this end, the stick functions are labelled 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D' and the two sliders 'E' and 'F'. A curiosity here is that the switches are referred to by number in the program but these numbers do not appear on the switches themselves.

The back of the case contains a clip in holder for the aerial and a useful folding handle. By pressing two pushbuttons at the top of the case, the rear cover can be easily removed to reveal the plug-in RF module. All of the controls plug into the circuit board and the previously mentioned switches are on removable panels allowing a variety of types to be fitted. Finally, three different length sticks are available which are simply pushed on and turned to lock them in place.

Note that there is no indication whatever that the transmitter is actually transmitting!

'Setting up' rather than 'programming' because you have to set it up before it will do anything. In other words, there are no default levels! If you don't set it up, it won't do anything. As supplied, there are some sample programs available in certain memories, which you can use, or modify, as required, but you need to find out what each of these do for yourself and some of them utilise channel mixing which might not be immediately obvious.

All of this is explained in a fairly comprehensive instruction manual, with diagrams of the LCD at each stage, but you have a lot to learn before you can really get to grips with setting up a given model and this takes time. I would seriously recommend that you read it right through first and then sit down with a fully charged transmitter and work through the examples set out.

The LCD has 4 lines of 16 characters. By accessing various menus, this can be used to show a tremendous amount of information. When first switched on it presents a status display as follows:

Model number (0-99)/Model name (up to 8 characters)/PCM or PPM/Transmitter battery voltage (digital)/Transmitter voltage (analog)/Total operating time since last reset/Owners name. The last one can only be set by your dealer, otherwise it says 'PROFI mc3030 3.0'. Not bad for 64 characters! I particularly like the bargraph type analog voltage display in addition to the digital value.

Further details of the setting up and details of what is available will follow at the end of this review, but I had better explain the memory switch and that rotary control here. By setting up three consecutive model memories in a certain way, the three position 'Memory' switch can switch between them instantly without any other operation being necessary. This means that one model can be set up in three totally different ways (different throws, trims, directions, mixing, etc). One example would be to set different pitch and throttle ranges on a helicopter, or as an 'invert' switch.

In common with many other programmable transmitters, the mc3030 expresses throws, etc as percentages and these are changed by means of '+' and '-' buttons to increment the value. Many of these can be changed much more quickly by using the rotary control which 'clicks' from one value to another. This is very useful, other manufacturers please copy!

As previously mentioned, several receivers are available which can be used with the mc3030. The one supplied for review is the top-of-the-range 'PCM-DS 35 E'. This is a double superhet, also known as 'Dual Superhet' or 'Dual conversion', type and extremely complex. If you don't understand the terms, don't worry about it, you don't need to (if you do understand, it's worth pointing out that while a dual superhet is always dual conversion, dual conversion does not have to be a dual superhet). It uses 'surface mount' technology - which is just another way of getting more into a given space!

It is larger than usual, but it's also built like a brick ****house and should take a lot of punishment.

All sockets are at one end of the case in conventional fashion. The sockets themselves are of a very high quality professional type with gold plated contacts. Once again, they are larger than we have come to expect these days, but it would be difficult to find better quality anywhere. The only real problem that they may create is in compatibility with other systems, and the answer there is that you should not mix systems anyway!

Much use is made of foam packing between components and inside the case and most components are 'potted' to the PC board, or to larger components.

Frequency changing is by means of a plug-in crystal at the end of the case remote from the sockets. Multiplex use a very robust type of crystal fitted in a plastic holder which fits flush with the case and supports the crystal. Changing the frequency band to suit other markets involves a new transmitter RF module and a new receiver.

Here again a choice is available and two types were supplied for review. These were the 'EUROPA-BB' and the 'MINI-BB'. The only external difference is that the first named has a taller gearbox housing on top of the case and they are otherwise identical in size, this being about average for a modern, general purpose, servo. Certainly the term 'mini' is inappropriate by some way!

As a purely subjective assessment they seem to have plenty of power but are noisy and 'notchy' in operation and not particularly fast. Removing the output arm on the 'mini' revealed a splined metal output shaft. Further investigation revealed that only the primary gear is of plastic and the remainder of the geartrain is metal. There is one ballrace at the outer end of the output shaft and the case joints are sealed with rubber 'O' rings. Construction is very robust and the result is just about bomb proof!

The 'Europa' servo has all plastic gears and two ballraces - hence the taller gearbox case.

As you may have guessed, a range of batteries are available, the review sample being a conventional 500 mAh type in a plastic case. The plug and socket between the battery and switch is different to all the other plugs which ensures that you must use the switch to operate the system.

The switch itself is housed in a plastic case which incorporates the charging socket, complete with sliding cover. This socket matches the battery socket, so it is possible to charge a battery without the switch, if required. The case has a separate bezel and fixing screws which enable the whole assembly to be mounted to the model very neatly. Yes, of course it is larger than normal, but who cares?

The charger is so typical of the modern charger that it came as no surprise to find that this, alone, is made in Taiwan! It has a plastic case with integral mains plug and two output leads terminated with plugs to match the transmitter and receiver inputs. Two LED's (green for receiver and red for transmitter) indicate that all is well.

The integral mains plug is of the two pin type, in common with many other R/C manufacturers chargers. Since it has a plastic case, the lack of an earth connection is not particularly significant, but it would be nice if a suitable adaptor was included.

Both outputs are at 50 mA, contrary to what it says in the manual, which means that the 1700 mAh transmitter battery will take about 48 hours to fully charge!

Well, just about anything if you are willing to find out how.

Unless you have already programmed it or are using one of the sample programs, it will do absolutely nothing, so you have to follow a system. The manual is very good, but it tells you how to program it rather than how to set up a model.

First of all, you have to tell the system what each and every control has to do. Then you tell it how much throw you want and in which direction. It still won't work until you tell it which servo is to be operated by each control. Having got that far you should have a good understanding of the basic system, but you will not even have scratched the surface of what it can do!

Like many modern sets it can be used to operate all types of aircraft and helicopters. There are 3 user defined mixers available and each one can have up to 4 inputs. As an example of what this can do you could use one to control the elevators and have inputs from the flaps to retrim when the flaps are lowered, input from the rudder to correct for nose up or down effects when the rudder is applied in knife edge, input from the throttle to correct for power on/off trim changes and then add in a fixed value to give more up for spins!

One thing you must do is to do it's thinking for it. As an example, if you are using the equipment to fly a helicopter, you must remember to assign the tailrotor control to 'Yaw', not 'Rudder'. The system then knows that it has to include both the input from the rudder stick and some input from the pitch channel (ATS) and will request the values for both inputs. If you want more than this, to centre the tail rotor when operating the throttle hold for instance, then you must use a user-defined mixer and feed in a preset value to move the tail.

This basic system is used for many features. In helicopter use you must call aileron 'Roll' and elevator is 'Nose". There are numerous other functions to which a control can be assigned, including use with powered aircraft, gliders, helicopters or boats. These are:
UNUSED
RETRACT
ShipRudd
AILERON
TOWHOOK
MOTOR
ELEVATOR
MIXTURE
MOTOR2
RUDDER
ROLL
AUX.1
THROTTLE
NOSE
AUX.2
THROTT.2
YAW
AUX.3
SPOILER
PITCH
AUX.4
FLAP
GYRO

The 'UNUSED" option is a useful one! Many of these options automatically call up specialised mixing options as already described for helicopters. In other words, it's all there - you just have to find it.

When the servos are assigned they can be allocated to all of the above, plus the following:
FIX.VAL.
BUTTERFL
FLAREMIX
MULTNAUT
SNAPFLAP
HEAD-MIX
ELEV.MIX
QUADRO
DYN.THR.
V.TAIL
DELTA
USR-MIX1
V.TAIL+
TAILROT.
USR-MIX2
FLAPERON
HEIM-MIX
USR-MIX3

All of the usual facilities are included such as dual rates, exponential throw, servo reversing, stop watch, integrated timer, model name, copying from one memory to another, offset trim, etc. All this plus training facilities (buddy box), direct servo control (closed loop operation), CCPM and Heim mixing for helicopters,

This is merely scratching the surface and I apologise to those readers who would have liked more details. A proper in-depth review would entail using the system for some considerable time and then writing several articles. Unfortunately, the unit was only available for a limited time and had to go back.

In many ways an intriguing - and intimidating - system. It must be said that it is not exactly what might be described as 'user- friendly' and there is a lot to be learned to get the best out of it. However, there is a lot of best to be got - if you see what I mean.

It is certainly teutonic in character (spelled S-O-L-I-D) and will appeal to many for its individuality in a world where all radios tend to look the same.

Yes, it is bigger and heavier - as I find I said before - but it has many compensations. It should last forever and the performance is first class. The only slight let-down is that the servos are not quite up to the - admittedly high - standards that we have come to expect from those of Far Eastern origin.

Above the display is the aerial, which is fully adjustable for angle via a ball joint at the base. This can then be locked by tightening a single screw.

One useful feature is a 'checktrim' facility which is automatically called up if you have changed the model number (it can be accessed when the model has not been changed) which gives a visual indication if the trim levers have been moved since that model was last used. You are shown which way the levers must be moved to get back to the correct position and there is an indication when the correct position is reached.

All this is accessed via 8 pushbuttons as previously mentioned. These include two buttons ('M' and 'R'), which get you into and out of the menus, two buttons ('+' and '-') to increment the values up and down and four buttons which 'point' to the feature of the menu that you require. An arrow on the display duplicates the direction arrows embossed on these four buttons.

A tachometer is also available, with a sensing head which plugs into the socket on the upper left side of the transmitter, This sensing head must be purchased as an extra.The same socket also serves as a charging socket and as a connector for closed loop operation and for joining two transmitters in the training mode.

The upper front corners of the case are fitted with removable panels, each of which can accomodate up to 6 switches or rotary controls. Two spare panels are supplied, which allows you to change the existing layout and/or add extra controls.

It is worth repeating here that you cannot just switch on your new set and use it to operate a model; you must put some work into it first. Likewise, you cannot just select 'Glider' or 'Helicopter' and then set it up to suit your particular model.