Hey guys, what do you recommend for short range comms for tactical type training.  My friends and I are wanting something to hook up to our Peltor Comtac's that will give us decent comm ability.  What do you guys recommend?

Dozens and dozens of threads on this topic. It's not going to be worth you or your friend's time and money to do anything other than buy inexpensive amazon/walmart FRS radios and roll with those.

The same question gets asked there a lot too. Same conclusion.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/f_10/22_Ham_Radios.html

Cheap BaoFeng is a good start.

That forum is like trying to read Chinese to me.  Too many unknown acronyms, etc.

ETA what's an FRS radio? Lol.

Family radio service

Sort of like CB but on UHF (Ultra High Frequencies).
,
For you, this means small handheld radios with short antennas. The band is available for public use without any licensing requirement. The radios have limited power and therefore limited range.

The truth about the range of FRS radios.

At these frequencies, very short hills will eliminate their usability.

I doubt anyone who uses Peltor products is going to be in the market demographic for "bubble pack" FRS radios.

Some questions to answer:

What radios/frequencies are you using now? Can you get simplex low-power freqs programmed into the radios you have? Presumably this question came about because your primary system is a repeater....

Which brings me to the next question...are you licensed/legally able to use any low power simplex freqs? That being said, you could do something simple like have your radio shop take the repeater output frequency and program it in with a completely different tone. For example, your current repeater output is 460.500, 100.0Hz. Have the shop make a simplex-only 460.500, DCS032. Or do the same on the repeater input. I am not sure of the exact law, but as I recall law enforcement can use less than two watts of power on almost any VHF or UHF public safety or business frequency not allocated to any other local users, for purposes of short-range comms such as surveillance.

Ah no, unless you are the agency licensed to use that repeater pair. Go MURS (VHF-HI) or get everyone to get a GMRS license. Or get a commercial Intinerant license on what ever freq band you are after. About $35 for 8 channels, you need to be a business or some organization. Easy enough to do.

I see these threads and cringe when people say get a cheap chinese radio and just roll. As a person that works at a 2 way radio shop we see our share of illegal users and unethical shops just putting people anywhere because a scanner didn't show any traffic.

So either go FRS or MURS or get a license and pick your band plan.

If it's not business related they could go GMRS, UHF $85 license (last I checked) for an entire family and they could set up a repeater if they wanted to.  Or get everyone licensed for amateur radio (ham) use.  Most folk are not interested in doing that, though.

Get your HAM. Tell your budders to do the same. If one buddy does it all will.

Agreed, gmrs is really a good choice for communication with family and friends. I think the fee dropped to 65 or 70 for five years.

We as a family went GMRS with a repeater. I even put extended family on. I did apply for a commercial license for the repeater. Will put the gmrs back at the house for short range shtf and homestead comms.

As an aside, you can get super cheap radio gear for gmrs on eBay or from me, IM me. Used police and commercial radios are everywhere.


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There is a good article over at ITS on this.  Link

Your radios are just like your weapons.  They require knowledge and practice to use reliably and well.  You and your buddies need to take a weekend and either link up with a local Amateur radio club for some learning or everyone needs to bring laptops sit around a kitchen table and spend a day or two doing some self/group learning on the intarwebz.  

There's so many variables and options it's hard to give a one size fits all answer to anyone especially to folks with very limited or no knowledge of radios.

FRS will be very short range which may be an advantage as its very low (500 milliwatt) transmit power can also help keep your comms secure as your radio wave won't be going very far.  GMRS gives you more power and options and the license is easy to get.  HAM gives you the most options but requires a test to get the license.   Not that the test is that hard.

Where in Texas are you and do you feel like putting a class together? Lol. Only thing holding me up is the groups around here only have knowledge on the desk top style set ups and I want to get an understanding of hand held units.

I'm in Dallas but frequent Mineral Wells/Weatherford, ect often.  I'm sending you a PM now respond back I'd be more than happy to do some edumacting on the subject :)

I'm interested in this topic as well, and I have a few questions.

I hold a Tech and General Ham license, but my friends do not.  They're not interested in studying and taking the test, but the GMRS option is doable for them.

1.  Does it make sense to get Wouxun handhelds, and program the to use the GMRS frequencies if the hold GMRS licenses?  This gives them the option of a radio with HAM functionality, should they choose to get HAM in the future.

2.  What interface cables are necessary to interface the Wouxun handhelds to Peltor CommTacs?  Are these available prebuilt, or do they need to be custom built?

My goal is same as OP's.  I want to find a standardized, relatively inexpensive radio, that is not a toy, and the cabling to mount it in a Pouch on a chest rig, connected to a set of Peltors.

If you haven't  had a situation where you said "Damn, this would be a lot easier with radios", then you are probably throwing money at a problem that doesn't exist. Your buddies aren't going to want to get licensed or spend money. The end-of-days neighborhood watch thought process isn't going to work unless you are handing out radios, because nobody else is going to have a clue. If you have classes/training that require radios and they don't supply the class with commercial radios, they are breaking the law and you probably shouldn't hang out with them.

So anyway..


Here's what I do.

Howard Leights: $40-50, they work fine and have an Aux in
Peltors that fell off a truck: $30 ebay adapters convert the Peltor/MSA TP-120 (fat stubby) plug to 3.5mm headphones

Radios: Buy the nicest you are licensed to buy. Even the cheapest FRS radios have option ear buds or headsets.

PTTs: Not worth your time unless you are given/issued them for a work radio. Route your speaker mic on your non-shooting shoulder, then run a 3.5mm plug from that to your ear pro. If you don't want to use your electronic ear muffs, just run an ear bud under those. It won't mess with how the ear muffs work.

You use your speaker mic as a.. speaker mic, and you just run your audio to an ear bud or your ear muffs.

This is so you can visualize how the plugs work:


This is how you can route your cables from the back of your PC. I didn't route them under the elastic for this picture, but you can use rubber bands, the existing molle, or elastic shit on your PC.


Same concept with helmet mounted muffs. Cords are loose just to show the concept. My L shaped 3.5mm cord is missing in my bag, which makes it stick out of the ear muff a lot less.


Just remember.. only transmit what you are licensed for, and for what your radio is intended for.
The chinese radios are not legal to use with your other work radios, or on GMRS/FRS.

For short-range practice for a small group? Standardize on some bird calls or patterns of knocking against a tree trunk. Easily mistaken for "normal outside sounds" by others, meaningful to your group within a short distance. For emergency use, throw in some rape whistles.

Only being half-facetious.

Unpleasant,

Thanks for the detailed reply and the photos!!  

I have Peltor ComTac IIs, not the ones with the Mic, but a Mic Can be added.  I like your idea of using the speaker mic.  Is there a cable that connects into my ComTacs, or do I need to cut into them and do some wiring of my own.  I only see one small 2 pin connector on the ComTacs, which I thought was for a Mic/Down Cable upgrade.

My Radios currently are Yaesu FT-60Rs, but I've been thinking of picking up some beater Wouxuns or Baofengs.

There's a two-pin to 3.5mm aux adapter that runs into one of the peltor muffs, or an adapter for the peltor male stubby plug to 3.5mm male/female for $30. Both do the same thing.

Pick a ft-60r speaker-mic with a 3.5mm aux port. There are lots of them.

Last thing it's find a 12" male-male 3.5mm cord to run from your mic to your headset and you are set.

You may need to bump up your gain on the speaker mic a bit. I know my vertex works better transmitting while set to whisper mode on the Mic gain adjustment.

Any chance you have a source or a link to these??

Peltor 2 pin mono aux
https://www.amazon.com/3M-Peltor-Audio-FL6H-Length/dp/B0069AUOGK

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01L0O8Y98/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1473632235&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=peltor+to+3.5mm&dpPl=1&dpID=418EyL11NgL&ref=plSrch

Outstanding!!  Thank you!

Don't run an aftermarket boom mic. The mount will break. Trust me. Run the speaker/mic tp 3.5mm.