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Digitrax Zephyr is the way to go in budget DCC - its way eaiser to use than the Atlas Commander (which is designed by Lenz and sold by Lenz as the Compact in UK and Europe). Although the Digitrax system has the ability to do complicated stuff if you want it to, you don't have to do all that to begin with, its no more complicated than the Atlas system to get going. I have no experience of the MRC system but from what I've read, although its very easy to use, it is very basic - it can only do very basic programming of decoders and you can't expand on it if your pike grows or you want it to start doing some flash stuff. Although the first Zephyr I bought had a fault the dealer swapped it out straight away and I've been running the replacement without a problem for about 12 months. The whole beauty of the Digitrax system is that its totally expandable beacuse all their units run LocoNet networking system - so I can buy any Digitrax throttle or accessory (or even use my Palm Pilot as a throttle!) and run it off the Zephyr. On a real basic level I find the ability to key in a loco's number from a keypad a real advantage too. Compared that to the Atlas/Lenz system where you have to buy the dedicated walkaround throttle (tethered only no chance to expand to cordless or radio here) and have no option to expand if your layout grows (chuck it away and start over with a new command station). To access loco or accessory addresses or alter progamme CVs you have to use the main dial to scroll through, I find this a real chore. At least you CAN do more complicated programming with the Atlas unlike the MRC unit. I also know of a couple of people who have Lenz Compacts flake out and be unrepairable after not a lot of use. There have been lots of horror stories in the past about Atlas Commanders frying certain types of decoder (particularly Soundtraxx) but as long as you follow the advice on the Atlas and Soundtraxx websites there's no need to be a problem.
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