When is a GEM not a GEM?

[Pchristy]

You lads were real men with muscles on your fingers.

I've got delicate musicians fingers used to Sanwa, Multiplex and ball-raced sticks.

Well, I'm a musician (of sorts!) too, and I find that I can't get the springs strong enough on modern transmitters! I think the last stick units with decent spring tension were the Kraft-Hayes sticks used on my Royal Classic Tx.

I think it was Phil Kraft who said "Soft springs sell transmitters, hard springs win competitions!"

And as for the helis, well ALL heli flights were crash avoidance back then!

--
Pete

[Shaun]

Pete, totally off topic but have you flown the Kwik Fly 3 yet?

[Pchristy]

Yes, but its taken a while to sort it out! I'll start a fresh thread to avoid taking over this one...!

[stuart mackay]

I think Mainstream and GEM were both brand names of F&J distributors. Mainstream originally made Simprop sets under licence in the UK, then brought out GEM as their budget range. They were supplied with GEM labelled Simprop servos. I think Shaun has a metal cased GEM with Bonner joysticks and I have a metal cased GEM with SLM joysticks. The Tx and Rx circuit board layouts and components are very similar to a Simprop Alpha.

Then they brought out the toilet seat GEM 4, with F&J (Europe) Distributors on the GEM 4 instructions and box. It was completely different circuit design to previous GEM 4, the previous ones were good quality, a complete contrast to the toilet seat. It was still supplied with Simprop servos. I've no idea if the toilet seat was designed by Mainstream or if it was made by others and just "badge engineered" GEM 4..

GEM4.jpg

What I am trying to get my head around is why were the metal cased GEM single channel and GEM4 sold through Keil Kraft when Mainstream were selling their own gear (Simprop) direct If I remember correctly? Were these metal cased GEM radios actually made by Mainstream?
The plastic GEM 1 and 4 were sold through Roland Scott I thought?
Any ideas/more info on this?

[stuart mackay]

Here is the NIB single channel I found recently.