They came with earpiece mics and it has VOX (apparently just negates the need for pushing a button, on the other hand if I swear or shout "hit" everyone on channel will hear)
good point about dropping them!
VOX is evil
At first (paintball) event I ran, we had a portable compressor system in the game field as well as the main site system and were also swapping cylinders to keep people in game for some vast set piece battles across a valley
The Marshall operating the compressor switched on vox. Every time he kicked in the compressor the entire game co-ordination comms were wiped out with his transmission
He needed vox to operate the radio after we inserted it where the sun doesn't shine
Vox does it's own thing and is often set off by heavy breathing, ambient noise, chatting etc
When you do want to transmit vox needs good radio discipline. At best you lose the first word of a transmission, but you are just as likely to lose the first word of every sentance.
Imaging hearing "Ord sword alling any boy, ord sword alling any boy...." you might be able to work out what it's meant to say, but what about your mission assignment, or how long you need to hold an objective to score maximum points?
If you don't want your radio to shout out at an innapropriate time then the headphone will sort that out, and most decent radios can pick up your voice if you have it on a pouch and press the button to transmit, or don't mind taking it out on occasion.
But most will also support a PTT button and microphone on the cable. Press the button, pause for a moment to allow it to start transmitting then talk and release to listen
There are good cables around including ones with extra long lengths allowing you to stow the radio away, feed the microphone and headset around your clothing or vest etc, and if you like a seperate ptt cable that can go down your sleeve and a loop to slip the button on your finger
be very careful in selecting an after market headset & microphone, as even though some of them have identical looking and fitting plugs the actual configuration may differ. I have had times where a team mate was carrying our radio with headset cable and was also given the commanders radio set. These were
to allow him to relay messages between networks
But after radio testing he decided to swap the headset over. It plugged in but left him in silence
He's now banned from headsets and surprisingly never gets command relays
Vox has its use for roofers when they fall off and are hanging off the roof, but otherwise it's evil
There are plenty of radio pouches around with holes in place for button controls, but it's easy to make or cut a pouch customized for a specific radio
One way is to take some plastic laminate, score and fold it to a box shape approximately the dimensions of the radio, cut out squares around the buttons and either insert into a general pouch or cover it with some material sewn to fit or dabbed in PVA glue
if you have a molle system then consider installing MALICE clips or Blackhawk speed clips to fit it
