[tskca]

There's so much written on this topic; some of which is opinion rather than fact. Here's some information:

"For Futaba FHSS is the name they give their most basic implimentation of the shell. Limited "bells and whistles" - just a straight forward implementation of how to send control signals from a transmitter to a receiver - full stop. Its only available on their basic (I think 4 channel only - not sure about that) systems.

FASST (Futaba Advanced Spread Spectrum Technology) - is a different beast. Yes it does the command transmitting thing, just like FHSS, but it has lots of additional information in its specific coding. Information used to achieve lower error rates, better error detection, faster operation, more sophisticated techniques for deciding on channel swaps and so on. In addition it has lots of software "hooks" for future expansion - for example see the new S-bus system Futaba are pushing. FASST will be "future proof" for some time and more new developments will come.

All this increased sophistication and complexity needs more complex receivers and transmission elctronics - hence why FASST systems are more expensive."

I use both JR and Futaba systems presently - both reliable in my flying environment. From my perspective it's a matter of how deep your pockets are and what features you need. I used the features of the Futaba 18 MZ that the JR 11X doesn't have, but in the end I use both radios.