Decent comms without costing a fortune?

[Halo]

If I was to go full ham I’d probably buy the Peltor IV, quite like the look of them but before doing that are there alternatives?

 

Im not fussed about having cans as I’ll be wearing a breathable cap (reduce that bloody fogging!) and a Delta Mike mask unless there’s a pressing reason for them.

 

I’d read people using baofang uv-5r but some didn’t like them for some reason?

[EDcase]

I got a pair of Baofeng 888 for £16 on fleabay.  Basic but do the job well with no fuss.

You can get all kinds of accessories for em...

[Emergencychimps]

Comms and ear pro can be the same thing, but they don't have to be. 

 

For the radio, the baofeng you've mentioned is very popular, cheap and relatively easy to programme (several good how to videos on YouTube). Looking at a small business license is sensible/needed if you want to remain legal. Some sites have this already and you can use their channels (such as gunman).

 

Personally, I hate baofengs, their QC is lacking and they often get moisture ingress which renders them useless or constant niggles that make them inconsistent. To be fair this was when I was doing around 15 weekend events a year and some were very wet, but in 1 year I went through more than 4 handsets.

 

If you can spend more, check out yeasu which is a much better quality handset and a better longer term investment (c£100) 

 

Generally I'd recommend that, a speaker mic and a in ear covert ear piece. If you then want to run ear pro such as sordins you can run them over the ear piece or some have an aux input which you can plug straight from the speaker mic. You'll tend to find the sordins with the aux input and no boom mic are cheaper as well (c£130).  

 

Regarding ear pro, I never thought it was NEEDED, however I was on the receiving end of lots of pyro at catterick including the new tag 67s (£10 each!) And it was horrible, I now intend to wear ear pro every time I play.

 

I have never heard of z tax, ear mor or whoever are the latest greatest clone to last long under serious use and the quality of their sound enhancement is never as good. 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

Shout louder at your team mates. Costs nothing, no extra weight and no electronics to go faulty...

[Jacob Wright]

I’ve got a set of 8 Baofeng UV-5Rs that we use for events as required. 
 

They were cheap, very easy to program, there are multitudes of accessories available for them as well. 
 

Most of us run them with either earpieces or speaker mics, never felt the need to have an entire headset. 

[Shamal]

5 hours ago, EDcase said:

I got a pair of Baofeng 888 for £16 on fleabay.  Basic but do the job well with no fuss.

You can get all kinds of accessories for em...

👍

Good,cheap comms. I've got 6.

Regards 

[rj1986]

in term of headsets, it really is a case of buy cheap, buy twice.

Most of the chinesium version will fail in hours. The m32's will last longer but will still fail.

 

Alternative is a pair of 2nd hand Comtac 3's, mono cable, and a fist mic.

[shadowfacex]

2 hours ago, Jacob Wright said:

I’ve got a set of 8 Baofeng UV-5Rs

 

Is this a number of Baofengs you’re currently burning through? Are they so crap you need to buy a regiment of them just in case? 🙃

[Tactical Pith Helmet]

Think I've got four Baofeng 888s kicking about.  Had them for years now.  No issues at all.

 

I plug them into a pair of Howard Leight active earpro.  Sound quality in receive is whiny, but for £7.50 radios and ears at less than £40(?) they have worked for years in all conditions.

 

Perhaps I'm just lucky?

[Jacob Wright]

1 hour ago, shadowfacex said:

 

Is this a number of Baofengs you’re currently burning through? Are they so crap you need to buy a regiment of them just in case? 🙃

No, there’s 5 of us on the team plus a spare and then 2 which I programmed to VHF channels instead. I use them outside of airsofting too hence the quantity 😉

[EDcase]

Hey @Jacob Wright, did you get any different antennas for them?

 

I got a couple of shorter flexis and they work great.  I was tempted to get a couple of the longer ones to see if it would give more range but I honestly don't need more.

 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by EDcase

[Jacob Wright]

@EDcase no I’ve used the short flexi ones and not had any issues.
 

Range-wise we found that the radios will sometimes struggle if you use them in very built up environments over about 2km (possibly due to the UHF signal being reflected/absorbed by buildings, it’s been a while since my signals course). 
 

We tried to overcome this by using them in VHF mode; which works well for distance but not at close range. 
 

Depends where you’re using them I guess but I’ve had them 4 years now with the standard antenna and not found any reason to change it!

[EDcase]

Yeah, I really changed them because I like the shorties and they are amazingly flexible.  In fact I was trying to reduce the power output since they are slightly above the limits.

Not had any range issues in woodland games so far.

[Impulse]

Me and all my friends use Baofang UV-5Rs. They're about £30, but they're so good for the price. Mine is acting up a little after 6 months, but I've dropped mine a few times in the woods (mostly just damaged the ports where the headset connects to) and used it through AI500 in 2021, which meant absolutely torrential downpours that soaked it through.

[Jacob Wright]

Put them in a pouch and you won’t drop them 😉

[Druid799]

Yet another for the Baofeng 5R’s , I’ve accrued 5 or 6 over the years(both my sons play as well) and a shed full of fist mic’s and D shape ear pieces to go with them as there cheap as chips on fleabay  , if a particular rig is flavor of the month I’ll leave the comm’s set up on the rig to save fannying around re-threading it each time I play ! Antenna wise I use a flexible on the back of my rig with an extension cable threaded through the molle to the hand set or a 12inch wip antenna if using a chest rig or belt set up , if the weathers looking a bit shitty I just stick the radio in a plastic bag with a couple of the silica packs you get with packages and a bit of Lekky tape wrapped around the cable to stop moisture getting in and effecting the handset .
if I’m playing indoor CQB and there’s a risk of loud bangs I use a set of Howard Leight impact sports with a cable from the the fist mic to the auxiliary port on the cans .

 

[concretesnail]

Another vote for the 5r, I used mine with the standard and fist mic and ear piece for a while then swapped out the ear piece for my sporttac ear Pro. I don't have the boom mic as I'm not a fan of them in general use as I always seem to get them hooked on things.

[MadMole]

5 x UV5R

2 x UV9R waterproof model

 

Run the 18" aerial on them, provide coms for all mates for Airsoft and Skiing. they replaced a swathe of MT50 PMR's

 

I have a licence for them. no issues what so ever with any of them, but I get them from Baofeng UK direct to make sure I dont get fake ones

[Jacob Wright]

Is there any price difference in getting them from Baofeng Uk direct?

[shadowfacex]

I’ve got a question about headsets: got a pair of Motorola Talkabout T80 and with Earmor M32 headsets they transmit properly but the volume on the receiving end is seriously low, barely noticeable despite both transceivers being set to full volume (headsets too).

 

Could those PMRs be just simply underpowered? I have a personal license so could buy proper radios, but prefer not to replace them without a good reason, as they are solid otherwise.

[concretesnail]

1 hour ago, shadowfacex said:

I’ve got a question about headsets: got a pair of Motorola Talkabout T80 and with Earmor M32 headsets they transmit properly but the volume on the receiving end is seriously low, barely noticeable despite both transceivers being set to full volume (headsets too).

 

Could those PMRs be just simply underpowered? I have a personal license so could buy proper radios, but prefer not to replace them without a good reason, as they are solid otherwise.

How are you connecting them? Is it a 3.5mm jack?

[shadowfacex]

@concretesnail I run a Earmor adapter from headset to Z-TAC PTT, which plugs directly to the radio. If i use any other headset (like another from Z-TAC) the receiving volume is fine.

 

Just to note, it's not a technical fault with the M32 headset, because I have two of them and tried swapping elements on both back and forth to no avail. They work exactly the same way.

[concretesnail]

It could be that the ptt output is mono and the adapter is stereo. The mismatch means very low volume. I had it when I connected my sporttacs to a baofeng fist mic using a stereo cable connection. Once I changed it to a mono cable connection all was resolved.

[shadowfacex]

@concretesnail Thanks, I’ll have a look at alternative PTT without an adapter, but it may be hard since a single-point plug accessories for Motorola are hard to come by.

[Emergencychimps]

You can get amped ptts to combat this issue, however they are generally not cheap and often for the dual pin boafeng/kenwood plugs. Disco 32 do a range and would imagine JCI comms does something too. 

 

One of the nice things about the baofeng is that it's easier/possible to get a wider variety of accessories.