Comms gear

bullets

So where to ye guys buy yer ol Comms stuff then ?

Saw the pic of the Iasus UHF transiever which looked OK and sparked an interest
but not sure where they are bought in these parts.
Ever since my teenage days in the Field Sigs in the FCA I was
always fascinated with throat mics and was always meaning to eventually buy one.
Now that the pic reminded me of them I may do a little research. If ya could pick up
a nice small unit that also could be used to scan VHF as well as UHF it would be even better.

~B

Rew

I bouth a cheap throat mike for my Mot T6222's/5500's off ebay and its terrible. Quality of the audio coming through is crap and the quality of the audio it sends is crap. I think any decent coms gear is going to cost as much as the AEG's and you need to make that everyone elses is compatible then...

Hivemind187

For small sites like HRTA comms are pretty much useless anyway. good planning and a little discipline (plus knowing hand singlas) will be far more effective over such short distances.

For something as large as the Town Assault weekenders then radio communication between different units has its merits when co-ordinating large scale, long distance synchronised op's.

Even then, if you think about it, only the squad leader or the comms man really needs one since he should be close enough to inform the rest of the team of the plans and orders coming in from the Command group.

There are a bunch of situations where this wont be the case but for the vast majority of op's this set up works just fine.

Rew

Id disagree compleatly, comms even over very short distance can be extreamly effective. Alot of Armys use the likes of Marconi PRR's for section level comms. Wont be a huge amount of use in the CQB room but if it were any bigger you would need them.

Lemming

bullets wrote:

Saw the pic of the Iasus UHF transiever which looked OK and sparked an interest
but not sure where they are bought in these parts.

They're not. You cannot buy these in Europe since they don't have CE certification (I found this out after it had shipped), but it's fully programmable right down to the power output.

The throat-mic can be had from a place in the UK and has CE certification, but the radio .. no.

Rew

You have to be carefull what you use as well you cann't just start transmitting on random radio frequencies and outpout powers.

Lemming

Rew wrote:

You have to be carefull what you use as well you cann't just start transmitting on random radio frequencies and outpout powers.

Aye, hence i'm taking my time going through the settings on the radio. It's configurable to fit in with PMR446 specifications, including power output.

The radio's got a massive spectrum range (400Mhz - 469.90Mhz, PMR is in the 446Mhz band) with power output configurable between 0.1w - 5.0w (PMR 446 is at 0.5w)

I've gotten a PM enquiring about the radio & throat-mic as well, so rather than possibly answer loads of pms, I'll post up an FAQ here:

the throat mike looks a bit bulky, is it comfy and does it chaff when moving your head from side to side?

The throat mic is actually not bulky. What you're looking at is the strap that sits around the mic to stop it moving around much on your neck. The mic is adjustable, and the velcro strap on the collar allows you to determine how tight to your throat you want the mic.

As for chaffing I've not worn the mic for prolonged periods of time yet so I can't say, but see my comments about adjusting the throat-mic & its collar.

how long did shipping take

Should have been about a week give or take, but my package decided to go walkabout for some bizarre reason and ended up taking up 6 weeks courtesy of An post and/or Canada Post playing silly buggers. Customs weren't involved at all in this (I rang them looking for records of entry).

how much for the lot ( did you get a good deal wen buying throat mike and radio together?)

The lot amounted to €250, including shipping. The radio was discounted, and the shipping essentially made up the full "normal" cost of the radio. The throat-mic was discounted as well if purchased along with the radio. The throat mic was $94 if bundled. Anywhere else you look online has the throat mic on average at $125 minimum.

Personally I think it wasn't a bad deal at all. The company I bought it off were also very quick to get back to any email responses and were very helpful.

Rew

Lemming wrote:

Aye, hence i'm taking my time going through the settings on the radio. It's configurable to fit in with PMR446 specifications, including power output.

The radio's got a massive spectrum range (400Mhz - 469.90Mhz, PMR is in the 446Mhz band) with power output configurable between 0.1w - 5.0w (PMR 446 is at 0.5w)

You will need to get to grips with the 38 CTCSS codes as well if you want to use the sub channels within the 8 frequencies.

Lemming

Rew wrote:

You will need to get to grips with the 38 CTCSS codes as well if you want to use the sub channels within the 8 frequencies.

Yup. It's a fairly steep learning curve to get to grips with, which is the one downside to a radio like this (as far as I can see). It may be disgustingly versatile, but with that comes complexity, so don't expect to simply pull it out of the box and start working the way you want it straight away.

It's a lot of fun figuring it out though

Rew

Then theres squelsh, db, dbm, antennas etc etc

Oh the fun. AT least you can do it for eveyone elses radios when you figure it out

Seriously though if you get stuck I have friends who knbow this stuff backwards.

Lemming

Rew wrote:

Then theres squelsh, db, dbm, antennas etc etc

Oh the fun. AT least you can do it for eveyone elses radios when you figure it out

Seriously though if you get stuck I have friends who knbow this stuff backwards.

I've had a look at the squelch already. I guess I'll need to see how good other people's radios are before I do much. The temptation is to ramp the squelch up to reduce noise, but if I do that, 0.5w radios will be pretty much buggered for trying to get through to me over distance in sizeably rough terrain.

IRISH RAIL

You could always crank it up to 5 watts and jamm everyone elses radio!!

Lemming

IRISH RAIL wrote:

You could always crank it up to 5 watts and jamm everyone elses radio!!

That might get a visit from Swords Garda station, which I'm most keen to avoid

bullets

Lemming wrote:

Aye, hence i'm taking my time going through the settings on the radio. It's configurable to fit in with PMR446 specifications, including power output.

The radio's got a massive spectrum range (400Mhz - 469.90Mhz, PMR is in the 446Mhz band) with power output configurable between 0.1w - 5.0w (PMR 446 is at 0.5w)

Got a link to where you bought yours? Its gonna be a future purchase for me.
My Father is a member of the IRTS (Irish Radio Transmittors society)
and has been using the ol wireless and building his own kit and ariels for
since I was a child.

He has alway said be careful out there when messing about with frequency's.
as there are always people listening and some are not legal to use
without a radio license. The PMR range is very small.


I will be looking out for something (for hopefully under 300 Euro) that
will allow me to both use as a transiever for airsoft and be compatible
with other units and have the facilities to hook up a decent throat or whisper
mike. Since I have never skirmished at all and probably wont in the near future it will be a nice "toy" that I could use to monitor the frequencies
to hear what others are chatting about.

Purchase for me is a long way off though and not a priority as there
are no practical need for me to have one right now apart from the "want" to have one.

~B

Lemming

bullets wrote:

Got a link to where you bought yours? Its gonna be a future purchase for me.

<SNIP>

I will be looking out for something (for hopefully under 300 Euro) that
will allow me to both use as a transiever for airsoft and be compatible
with other units and have the facilities to hook up a decent throat or whisper
mike.

I put a link alongside my picture post on the gear thread, but the site I got my bundle off is Evolution Tactical in Canada.

You can get the radio & throat-mic bundled together. The prices for both radio and throat-mic are cheaper than pretty much anywhere else online I found, and if you bundle them together it gets cheaper again. View the radio on the evo-tactical website, and then select the throat-mic in the accessories drop-down list at the bottom of the page.

The total including shipping cost me €250.

I'll include the manufacturers links (both made by IASUS-Concepts) so you can additional info:

NT Sniper Pro throat-mic
IA-5 Radio

IRISH RAIL

Lads Im an amatuer for a long while now
what you need is something robust like a motorolla which i use
but being realistic its too heavy
try a yaesu vx5 or the 7 version get them from gary o hanlon in south east comms he will do next day cash on delivery theres alsdo the scan on it so its more than just a walkie but the real stuff is racal expensive but worth it

i wouldnt worry about swords garda as long as you keep away from the 450s
also albrecht have some good stuff so keep an eye out for them
dont buy in dublin ( if you do ill personally slap you as you will be robbed at leasts dick turpin wore a mask these guys dont )
anyone needs any help pm me and ill be happy to sort it out

Lemming

Hey guys,

the radio & mic got their first work-out yesterday at HRTA and they performed rather well indeed, despite my still learning how to play about with the radio. I've still not investigated the scan feature, so I was manually setting CTCSS to fit with whatever channels people were using.

That's one thing I really need to learn - the art of scanning, since where other people's radios have "channels" with preset frequencies, I have frequencies

So channel 7-7 isn't much good when I've to figure out that it's 446.085 *

But I'd like to revisit a question I was asked in a pm and I half-answered it above.


Q: the throat mike looks a bit bulky, is it comfy and does it chaff when moving your head from side to side?

After running around with the mic attached to my neck for half of yesterday at HRTA, I can say that the throat-mic does not chaff. It feels a little uncomfortable at first, but that soon passes. Depending on how tight you have the mic and velcro strap set it can feel a little uncomfortable at times, but that's a personal thing.

The sound-tube is fantastic, and since I'm deaf in one ear, I don't suffer hearing loss due to having a massive ear-piece (like the Bushmaster) clamped over my ear. The throat-mic also allows me to talk under my breath and people will still hear what I'm saying as if I'm speaking normally.

The only "negative" I can see to the throat mic is that you will feel your neck sweating like hell for obvious reasons. But the rest of you will be sweating anyway, so that's a moot point.


* may not be .085, I'm just using that as an example

Rew

Lemming wrote:

the radio & mic got their first work-out yesterday at HRTA and they performed rather well indeed, despite my still learning how to play about with the radio. I've still not investigated the scan feature, so I was manually setting CTCSS to fit with whatever channels people were using.

Have you tested it out much yet? Wondering if the audio transmit and recive is good on the radio and the radio combined with the throatmike.

What are other peoples impressions of your send audio with and without?

Its supposed to be:

Channel Frequency (MHz)
1. 446.00625
2. 446.01875
3. 446.03125
4. 446.04375
5. 446.05625
6. 446.06875
7. 446.08125
8. 446.09375


Tone No CTCSS Tone in Hz (Hertz)
1 67
2 71.9
3 74.4
4 77
5 79.7
6 82.5
7 85.4
8 88.5
9 91.5
10 94.8
11 97.4
12 100
13 103.5
14 107.2
15 110.9
16 114.8
17 118.8
18 123
19 127.3
20 131.8
21 136.5
22 141.3
23 146.2
24 151.4
25 156.7
26 162.2
27 167.9
28 173.8
29 179.9
30 186.2
31 192.8
32 203.5
33 210.7
34 218.7
35 225.7
36 233.6
37 241.8
38 250.3

Lemming

Rew wrote:

Have you tested it out much yet? Wondfering if the audion transmit and recive is good on the radio and the radio combined with the throatmike.

Initial testing proved satisfying although I've yet to push the range to see just how well it performs.

I could hear perfectly through the sound-tube on the throat mic, even with some people on vox with mics shoved into pockets and muffled. When I had my broadcast working properly, the guys on my team with comms could hear me perfectly even though I was often speaking quietly.

My problems (if you want to call them problems) started when I switched to another CTCSS frequency for another team and my broadcasting was very intermittent. People were seeing broadcasts but often not hearing me. Which I put down to my not having the CTCSS code set correctly, and nothing to do with the radio itself. As I've said, I'm still on a learning curve and it was my first time giving the radio some proper use.

Rew

Lemming wrote:

Initial testing proved satisfying although I've yet to push the range to see just how well it performs.

I could hear perfectly through the sound-tube on the throat mic, even with some people on vox with mics shoved into pockets and muffled. When I had my broadcast working properly, the guys on my team with comms could hear me perfectly even though I was often speaking quietly.

Intersting. Im serioulsy thinking of getting one and getting some throat mikes for my existing motorola's. Iv used loads of PMR's in lots of differant enviorments. From a high point iv gotten 4 or 5 miles no problem. In a city iv gotten 500-1km depending on so many things that its pretty much just hit and miss. On a mountin you lose the signal as soon as there is any kind of mass between you. They did very well Skiing back in Jan but generally line of sight is required. Whacking up the power will definitly help but even at 5w UHF is killed by solid objects and vegitation.

Does the radio have any kind of voice encryption or inversion? Seems like a great unit for the money.

Lemming

Rew wrote:

Intersting. Im serioulsy thinking of getting one and getting some throat mikes for my existing motorola's.

Well, the throat-mic you can get seperately and comes in differing pins for different type models. IASUS have a compatability chart on their website for this. Also, there are a few reviews of the throat mic out there and all of them are speak highly of it with few downsides, hence what swayed my willingness to fork out such an amount of money.

Iv used loads of PMR's in lots of differant enviorments. From a high point iv gotten 4 or 5 miles no problem. In a city iv gotten 500-1km depending on so many things that its pretty much just hit and miss. On a mountin you lose the signal as soon as there is any kind of mass between you. They did very well Skiing back in Jan but generally line of sight is required. Whacking up the power will definitly help but even at 5w UHF is killed by solid objects and vegitation.

True, although from my understanding in addition to giving more range, higher wattage output will also give a higher quality/clearer signal in dense terrain even if you aren't quite getting more range.

Does the radio have any kind of voice encryption or inversion? Seems like a great unit for the money.

I've a suspicion that there might be although I'm still very much in the early days of a) radios and b) learning my way around my radio.


Anyway, I'll be back up at HRTA either next weekend or perhaps the weekend after, so you're more than welcome to have a look at the radio and mic

Rew

Lemming wrote:

Anyway, I'll be back up at HRTA either next weekend or perhaps the weekend after, so you're more than welcome to have a look at the radio and mic

Yeah ill def get up there again when my time frees up from next weekend on. The cheap throat mike I got for my motorola wasn't great. Everything just seems to be muffled with it.

MaxForce

OK. So was checking out EBay as you do in relation to UHF Transceivers. I found this. Now not knowing a hell of a lot about radios. Is this comparable to the Iasus that Lemming bought?

Rew

Looks like their a Chinease version, hard to find any info on them.

MaxForce

Rew wrote:

Looks like their a Chinease version, hard to find any info on them.

Yeah would be scepticle about them trying to get a throat mic and that for it but for the price it seems to have every thing that is needed. It even mentions PMR and CTCSS.

Lemming

MaxForce wrote:

Yeah would be scepticle about them trying to get a throat mic and that for it but for the price it seems to have every thing that is needed. It even mentions PMR and CTCSS.

Might want to see if the power output is configurable since Irish & UK public frequencies are at 0.5w

Not sure how much of a problem it might be, but ye never know

Rew

MaxForce wrote:

Yeah would be scepticle about them trying to get a throat mic and that for it but for the price it seems to have every thing that is needed. It even mentions PMR and CTCSS.

Programing them may be a problem, its mentioned else where that the manuals arn't great.

H.O.T.A.S.

What radios would you guys recommend for the average skirmisher? I saw Lemming's radio on Saturday and was very impressed but I don't think I could justify spending that sort of money (even though the throat mike is extremely coo!). The radio would have to have decent range, allow the use of decent headsets such as throat mike or Bowman headset and be compatible with other people’s radios. Having pre-programmed Channels and CTCSS settings would also be an advantage.

Lemming

H.O.T.A.S. wrote:

What radios would you guys recommend for the average skirmisher? I saw Lemming's radio on Saturday and was very impressed but I don't think I could justify spending that sort of money (even though the throat mike is extremely coo!). The radio would have to have decent range, allow the use of decent headsets such as throat mike or Bowman headset and be compatible with other people’s radios. Having pre-programmed Channels and CTCSS settings would also be an advantage.

I've heard Motorola being mentioned a bit, particularly with regards their XTN models. They're still in the €100+ range though I believe, although I could be wrong on that.

On a note of costs, bear in mind my throat-mic took up a third of the amount I paid. Total was €250, with shipping of about €20, so €230 for radio & mic.

Rew

I have Motorola TalkAbout T6222's, T5500's and some Biatone's. There all PMR's that can be bought easily in Argos, maplin etc. The T6222 was the hight end PMR on a budget. Has great features including voice inversion to stop others listening in uinless they have an inverter. The XTL446 is the replacement for the T6222.

PMR is a licnece free standard in europe for radios for general use. Thats what most (all?) Irish airsofters have. There is a US equivlent that isn't legal here and not compatible with PMR.

The XTN is a comercial unit that comes in a few differnt models (UHF and VHF). Even a cheap one will set you back at least 150 quid. They have to be programmed with channels and im not 100% sure that they can do the PMR frequencies and codes. There is a specfic PMR version called the XTN446 though.

What Lemming got is a more advanced uint that can be programed to be compatible but im sure he will tell you there's a steep learning curve. You cannt just buy some of these and start transmiting on random frequencies.

There are other units that would be better again the the IASUS, from the the likes of Kenwood, ICom and Yaesu but there all pretty pricey new.

As Lemming said he spent a third of the cash on the throat mike. Throat mikes, head sets etc are all expensive if you want quality gear. Alot of people seem to be going for throat mikes but a good boom mike is eqaully effective and in some ways better which is worth keeping in mind. Most headsets come in versions compatible with all the leading brands. My bigest problem with the Motorola talkabouts for this stuff is the conection between the radio and the headset is very vunreable to breaking.

MaxForce

MaxForce wrote:

OK. So was checking out EBay as you do in relation to UHF Transceivers. I found this. Now not knowing a hell of a lot about radios. Is this comparable to the Iasus that Lemming bought?

OK Have found out that this is a Kenwood. I have emailed the supplier to see if it can be st to 0.5w and will let you know what I find out.

Rew

In case anyone is thinking of the same package as Lemming:

Hi,

We have the radios instock but we are waiting for the Sniper PRO's to arrive which are currently on back order. I think we should be getting more in within 3-4 weeks.

As for shipping to Ireland, we will only ship by TNT Express Courier to Ireland which costs $29.50 USD for the radio and throat mic, and will take less than 5 business days with tracking.

Thanks for your inquiry!

Stan
Evolution Tactical
www.evotactical.com

He's coming back to me on when their new NT3 will be available.

Lemming did you get caught for import duites and VAT?

Lemming

Rew wrote:

Lemming did you get caught for import duites and VAT?

Nope

Got smacked for tax yesterday on the boxed set of BattleStar Galactica season 3 from play.com (Guernsey) though. Mind you, all things considered, it's a fair trade off €58 vs €250 - go figure

MaxForce

MaxForce wrote:

OK Have found out that this is a Kenwood. I have emailed the supplier to see if it can be st to 0.5w and will let you know what I find out.

Got a reply from the supplier. Seemingly the lowest the TK338 can go is 2w but the PX777 has an output of .5w lo and 4w high. I know this is a cheap radio, but would it be good enough for a skirmish with out having to pay 200€+ for one?

Rew

Lemming wrote:

Anyway, I'll be back up at HRTA either next weekend or perhaps the weekend after, so you're more than welcome to have a look at the radio and mic

Ill be there in the morn for a look at all your new toys

Lemming

Rew wrote:

Ill be there in the morn for a look at all your new toys

It's like Christmas, only in September. A September Christmas even.