dykm2

I've been lurking here a while, and I've had a lot of comments about these Racals, so I decided it's about time I actually joined and posted something (hopefully interesting to the community). So I got fed up with breaking and fixing repro comms kit for myself and the team, (now on my 6th headset in 2 years playing). But I didn't want to fork out £500 on peltor comtacs. I'm sure many of you can relate to this. I found real steel Racal Frontier headsets being sold off dirt cheap. The catch being they come with a lemo connector for military prr radios. I read the threads on the lemo connectors and the price of adaptors and custom PTTs and thought what the heck, I'm going to have a go at modifying a set to work with a TP-120 / u-94 ptt. So a bit of experimentation later, I figured out a tidy way of doing it. I've done a few with with a Kenwood 2 pin cable to go straight into a Baofeng, retevis etc. radio. I've also done a few with genuine peltor tp120 cables to go into a u94 PTT on your shoulder. And I have to say, I'm dead chuffed with the results. The custom ear moulds are made from polymorph plastic. It melts in hot water and is hand (or in-your-ear) mouldable. The headsets are pretty slick. They electronically allow talk through, but limit the volume, the radio comes in your left ear and the cool bit is the microphone picks up from inside your right ear. Even at a whisper. I also like that there isn't a big can on your ear getting in the way of your cheek weld! The set on my plate carrier is my first off. The ones with the curly cables are a later version where I've managed to do all the mods inside the control box so the cable is all intact right into the control box. Anyway there's my show and tell, I'd be interested to see what you guys think! PS. The diagram in the background is a different project - Music phone and comms in my snowboard helmet (don't try and put that in a Racal!) PPS. If there's interest in these I'll put a post in the Classifieds.

So most people on my team started with the in ear cheapo things that last 5 mins, then a £15 throat mic because they're cool but found no-one could hear you, then a £25 bowman which are cheap and clear but don't offer any hearing protection and several of our guys have had nasty incidents with excessively loud pyro, then £65 earmore or wosport headsets with talk through which allows you to hear your surroundings and do Comms but the cables are fragile. I must have fixed every earmore and wosport on the team several times. I think most people follow a similar route. Haven't tried them yet but the tacsky comtacs look like a decent quality clone at £100-£120. Genuine peltor headsets are £500-600. I use peltor at work, nice kit but £££! I've since started converting real steel Racal Frontier headsets to work with civvy radios. There's some seriously nice Kevlar reinforced, over braided, double shielded over engineered mil spec cables on these! Mmmm nerdgasm! They have electronic ambient sound talk through, deliver Comms into your left ear and the Comms microphone actually picks up your voice from inside your right ear, even at a whisper, so no boom mic tangled in your face pro or earmuffs messing up your cheek weld. Fancy!