ORIGINAL: John C
Find out what your instructor has/uses and what is compatable with the buddy box, assuming you will be using one to learn with. My personal preferences are HiTec & Futaba, but all are good radios no days.
Thats what you need to do.
Recently, we have had a rash of new students comming to the field with a new birds. The two I am thinking of, got all the gear online and surf here on RCU for advice. In fact this is how I met one of them, though the instructor link.
One of the guys had a Hitec set up and the other a Airtronics. With 4 different instructors present and an additional 10+ pilots at the field, not a one of us had a buddy box set up for either one of their radios. We had plenty of Junior and Futaba set ups.
We flew one of the guys on the pass the transmitter program and the other we sent to the hobby shop to buy a buddy box set up. 4 hobby shops later, none had buddy box cord or transmitter for the guy to buy. Noone carried Hitec or Airtronics. In his frustration of wanting to use a buddy box, he went back to a hobby shop and bought a Futaba 6 channel radio for $160.00 or so, we swaped the receivers and he flew.
After you visit your local flying field, go to the local hobby shop and buy what they sell.
Do the right thing, FUTABA.