I'm a civilian skydiver who does a lot of CRW (Canopy Relative Work) and want to set up some sort of air-to-air comm with other jumpers using off-the-shelf GMRS or maybe a motorcycle bike-to-bike system, e.g., Cardo or Scala. Any hot tips?

I've read that in general throat mikes suck and my limited experience with a throat mike was not good. Also, those plastic air-filled tubes that go to an earbud seem to be completely ineffective above a certain altitude so electronic speakers seem to be the way to go for sound.

Any and all advice appreciated!

ETA: Just realized I had a "duh" moment and had HALO instead of HAHO in the subject.

Im not HALO but do military HALO even communicate via electronic comms?  

I always imaged shit was always very well explained before jumping about whats gonna happen in the air and if any comms take place during the jump its hand signals.


So i guess im here to learn.

You can use a standard boom mike (but be prepared for wind noise), an oxygen mask mic (which sucks for CRW since all noise is restricted INTO the mask) or a throat mic.  

None are really good for CRW.  Dicking around with a PTT switch (even one on a thumb or finger) distracts you from what you're doing and can get caught in lines.  A hot mic negates the use of a radio (since you're the only one transmitting).

Agreed on all points. On big way CRW, radio is sometimes used and boom mikes do work because they airspeed is only ~30mph. The system I saw was fairly complex, though. I have heard of a team using one of the motorcycle bike-to-bike systems (I think it was Cardo). I suspect I will go that route but I am kind of leery of Bluetooth for that application, even though they do offer full duplex communication.

Wish I had time to design a system. I started to do that a couple of years ago but got really busy and haven't stopped. There are 2-way radio systems-on-chip (SOCs) out there and reference designs so it is doable--I just don't have time and won't for at least another year or two.

Walt

I've done a lot of HAHO/HALO both in training and overseas as part of my former job.

The only comms devices we used were the standard boom mics on our Peltors. There were some sound cancelling masks and helmets we tested, but it was just another piece of equipment that you weren't going to carry with you to the target. HAHO/HALO is just an infix method, not a mission- so eliminating as much crap as we could that wasn't going to be used to say hi to whatever dirt worshipper was on the visit list that night was important. (Don't say "but, throat mics"- they suck when they get wet/cold/anything).

Most of the jump commands and actions under freewill are pre-planned and/or non-verbal. Really it was the same for once we were under canopy, although- using organic comms through Peltors and MBITRs were doable.

During our closed freewill course for young operators, we used the Garmin Rhino radios. The students placed them in a zipper bag on their best or side and ran a remote earpiece and PTT through their chest strap. Once under canopy- they key up, producing a visual accountability of all the students to the ground crew map screen. Terminal landing guidance and stack control could then be provided by instructors.

There are commercial solutions to what you are looking for. A quick google search pointed to this and other options: LINK