I have been to sod busters, I have not flown there, but I have seen it, it looks like it has a couple of minor challenges as far as the field goes. Tcrc does as well, our biggest challenge is the area that we fly is near the Minnesota River and tends to flood in the spring. But we do have paved runways and we own the land. A lot of clubs including ours is hit and miss as far as who will be out and when. I will let you know when I am going to be out and I will see if I can get a buddy box working on a trainer of mine. I am not sure what your schedule is, but I know that a friend of mine (Dave) is out at the field most Mondays (that is his day off work) and I know he would be happy to talk to you. PM and I will forward on his info if you are interested.

i would go with a 4-6 channel radio now, then you can always use it latter for a buddy box of your own or as a backup if something happens to your "good" radio. I would also look at Airtronics radios and or Hitec radios. Both are very good radios and may be a better value then JR (Spectrum)

As far as noise goes, I am not an expert as far as those mufflers goes, but we generally don't have noise worries (but much of our club seems to be going electric )

Good luck, it will all work out at the end, just keep reading and asking, there often is no right or wrong answer.

Jon