epop

I just bought a used nitro buggy with a lot of extras. I came with a JR Racing 2 controller and but has a airtronics receiver. My question is are these compatible? The car can't get very far away before I start losing it. I'm talking about 50-75 feet. Even a lot closer if the antenna isn't fully extended. I didn't realize that the were different brands and talk to the LHS about it and he figured the receiver was just going bad. After finding out that they are different brand I was wondering if that could be the problem. If so could somebody tell me what a good receiver would be without braking the bank. I see JR sells a two channel AM 27mhs for about $44.00 but it says it's ideal for electric cars making me think it's not good for nitro. Is this true? Are there any other receivers compatible?
Thanks for any help, epop