The spread spectrum protocols are different between manufacturers (as you had probably guessed) but across the same company they should all be compatible with each other, as long as you make sure you're using say a DSMX reciever with DSMX transmitters you'll be fine. (You *mght* be able to revive the FF6 with a 2.4ghz hack module and new battery pack but having gone down that route myself I'd reccommend something new tbh!)
Telemetry seems to be quite a model aircraft specific thing, I can see some situations where having a temperature reading would be useful maybe in a robot?
One other thing for RW purposes is due to the amount of wifi flying around from spectators' phones and camera/lighting control, a few people had range issues even on 2.4ghz, so it might be worth looking into a system with satellite recievers as an option in case that remains an issue.
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