Having compared field results with other 2.4GHz systems with people from the club i fly with, Ive come to this conclusion.

Failsafing as John already pointed out is only on the first channel (aka throttle cut). De rest of the channels stay in position until the signal comes back.

That is not acceptable to us because that means if the robot goes into failsafe during a right turn for instance, it keeps turning to the right instead of stopping.

The Futaba use a different way of avoiding clashes of the radios then Spektrums do. Spektrum uses something called DSSS (direct-sequence spread spectrum), and Futaba something call FHSS (Frequency-hopping spread spectrum). Futaba has dubbed this system FASST (Futaba Advanced Spread Spectrum Technology). Hows that for marketing.

Both are perfectly good methods of avoiding collisions, by most of the experts it is the general consensus the FHSS way is better because you never stay on a channel long enough to interfere with other.

Overall, if the Futaba receivers were to be made like the BR6000, with a programmable failsafe on all channels, the FASST would be the better choice. However, since this is not yet the case, and trust me, I always keep an eye out for these developments, we are down to 2 choices:

Graupner/IFS (Also know as Extreme power systems), or Spektrum DSM.

Both have receivers with programmable failsafes, unfortunately Spektrum does not have a DSM2 RX with programmable failsafe settings on all channels yet.

In the near future, Spektrum is going to release the DX6i, a new 6 channel transmitter that is DSM2 and DSM (like the BR6000) compatible, but way cheaper than the DX6 or 7.

XPS or Graupner/IFS is also an option, but very recently a problem was found that the modules do not hop to a different channel if interference kicks in. That means it will failsafe and wont return to work until the interference is sorted.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=814276http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=814276

For robotics, Spektrum atm is the best choice. For aircraft/helicopters, FASST would be my choice.