Radio communication? Which one works best?

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Brunter Burner

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Jan 10, 2005
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Illinois
Can anyone give me some suggestions on which helmet radio gear is the most for the money? And were you suggest to get them? I would prefer not to make major alterations to the helmet itself. Thanks. :o|
 
I've got one of these. Can't beat the price at $125 with a radio!

http://www.radiogadgets.com/sidekick55.html

Pros - Price, Hook up Mp3 player with $40 AUX cable (love having tunes on my sled), Easy to install, and tucks out of way in helmet when not in use. PTT switch mounted on left bar very convenient.

Cons- Range, 10mile claim is ridiculous (could be my installation tho, 2way radio in map bag pouch), extra wires (that makes 3 from sled to helmet, heated shield, helmet cam, radio).

Here is a link for just the kit w/o radio
http://www.csonline.net/crawford/Motocomm/motocomm helmet headsets.htm

My cousin has Chatterboxes which mount right to his helmet. Expensive, and don't know if limited range was due to his Chatterbox or my radio. I suspect my radio so I'm going to try putting it in my pocket or somewhere else.

Once you have radios you won't want to ride without them. I'm asking all of our regulars to get them for next years trips.
 
I just purchased the chatter box with a 5 mile range, 15 channels, 38 talk groups, mp3 player connection, cell phone connection and emergency channel....so far it works great...i have mine attached to my handle bar bag, tucked the wires up through the handle bar cover, so i have only one wire going to my helment...i put my mp3 player in my handle bar bag, it is easy to operate both because you can see them both in front of you...
 
or you could chaep out like we did. bought cobra mini walki talkies. 15km radius has head set avail and has vox. the pair of talkies is avail at costco and the head set you can get from radioshack.
 
There is one thing to consider with a communicator. The snowmobile designed communicators have a groomer warning signal. Most groomers are equipted with a warning beacon. The 2 way radio's will not give you that. I understand that there is groomer warning device coming out that all riders can buy for around $20, if that happens then the 2 way radio's would work just fine.
 
Brunter Burner said:
Can anyone give me some suggestions on which helmet radio gear is the most for the money? And were you suggest to get them? I would prefer not to make major alterations to the helmet itself. Thanks. :o|
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I tried Chatterboxes. Too much money, too little range, mounts on helmet (ugh).

I found you cannot beat a 2 watt GMRS radio with a Firefox throat mike. No cutting , no drilling, no velcro...just slip the thing in your pocket, plug in the earpiece and throat mike, put on your balaclava, and you have excellent VOX without trying to find a place in your helmet for the microphone. Or, you can put the PTT on the handlebar if you don't want to use VOX. There's no screwing around with VOX settings - the throat mike doesn't transmit that background noise and the sensitivity is the same standing quietly or 100mph/8700RPM.
 
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Brunter Burner said:
These all sound like what we are looking for, got any specific locations to pick these items up at?
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My long-term experience in EMS has given me a firm belief in Motorola radios for reliability and durability, so I have gravitated to their Talkabout series. Currently, I'm using some T7400's and they've been excellent, but I think any of their 2 watt GMRS radios work fine. They advertise up to an 8 mile range, and I think that's probably accurate if we're talking about 2 opposite unobstructed ends of a lake. In the woods on a typical snowmobile trail, it's much more usual for the range to be around 2-3miles. If you would plan on using them in VOX mode, you need to make sure the radio supports that. Most do. Some of the radios are rechargeable with NiMH batteries. That's nice, but I get about 8 hours per charge as opposed to about 14 hours with alkalines. Many of the radios can use either battery setup.

The throat mike is made by FireFox , originally designed for paintball. It's kind of spendy, but is really excellent. I have opted for the model with two throat pickups and two earpieces. The nice thing about a throat mike is that it doesn't pick up external noise such as wind or machine. This makes it more reliable on VOX. These mikes do come with a nice, weatherproof PTT switch than can be attached if you don't want to use VOX. If I use PTT, I wrap the velcro around the base of the index finger of my brake hand and run the PTT switch down my sleeve, out the cuff and velcro it to that finger so that I can reach over with my thumb to click it without even taking the hand off the handlebar.

Here is a review of one of their throat mike models. They've become so popular that they keep improving and adding at a rapid rate. Their website is at http://firefoxtech.com/ .

I bought the radios at Cabela's , and you can also buy the FireFox throat mikes there too, although I did opt to spend more for their upgraded version with two pickups.
 
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Maim said:
or you could chaep out like we did. bought cobra mini walki talkies. 15km radius has head set avail and has vox. the pair of talkies is avail at costco and the head set you can get from radioshack.
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I was thinking of this and have 2 talkabout sets.But do you hear the engine noise when you talk to the other person???
Thanks
 
SRX7 said:
I was thinking of this and have 2 talkabout sets.But do you hear the engine noise when you talk to the other person???
Thanks
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cant tell you yet. every time i go to buy 2nd head set they are on backorder again. maybe after the season they will leave enough of them on the shelf so i can get some!
 
Works great

My set works great and neither the wind nor engine noise interferes with the conversation. My main problem is it's hard to enjoy the music if guys keep talking to me. You can see my mic and speaker in the picture. In the other picture you can see the wire lead from the headset.

Having the music is great and having commo is a must now when riding in a group. It's pretty inexpensive, especially if you already have a good radio.
 
BigMac.....do the radios you are talking about have audio inputs for an mp3 player? When there is group of you riding, if everybody has one, can you all talk to each other?....i went with the chatterbox because it allowed me and the guys i ride with the ability to do both of those...there are currently 7 of us that ride together and its nice not having to stop at each intersection waiting for the last guy to show up...we just let them which way we have gone...
 
warriorblue said:
BigMac.....do the radios you are talking about have audio inputs for an mp3 player? When there is group of you riding, if everybody has one, can you all talk to each other?....i went with the chatterbox because it allowed me and the guys i ride with the ability to do both of those...there are currently 7 of us that ride together and its nice not having to stop at each intersection waiting for the last guy to show up...we just let them which way we have gone...
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No, the Motorola radios I have don't have any other inputs, specifically no ability to plug in an MP3 player. It's a communication-only solution. Otherwise, yes, everybody can talk to each other if they're on the same channel. These radios will also scan a selectable range of channels so different sub-groups can be on different channels but still hear everybody else.

One other option in that that can be useful in some riding situations is the Garmin Rhino. This is a GMRS and FRS radio, but also is a GPS. The cool part is that the GPS will mark where your buddies are. Every time they key their transmitter, it updates their location on your GPS screen. We played around with them up on the Snowy Range where the huge play areas make it easy to get separated. It's a more-expensive solution that works great for that type of mountain riding, but we haven't found them to be as important on Minnesota trail riding.
 
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Blkhwkbob said:
That "throat mike" sounds freaky to me. Do you wrap it around your neck? Not sure if I would like that.
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I don't notice it and find it to be quite comfortable, but maybe it's not for everybody. IMHO, it's certainly less of a hassle than modifying a helmet, and putting that helmet on with ear speakers and microphones inside, not to mention a bunch of cables or plugs hanging out.

throat.jpg


throat2.jpg
 
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One the parts are mounted in the helmet you don't notice them. Either way there are wires yours goes to you radio in your pocket mine goes to my radio in my tank bag. The advantage of the Chatterboxes is to not have extra wires since it is self contained. The Cable kit has an AUX wire that allows hookup to another audio device such as an mp3 player in my case. The AUX cable also has a mute button to turn the music down for more conversation. The AUX cable automatically mutes then music anyway when a transmission is received but if someone is there is alot of communication going on then I hit the mute button.
 
jlance84 said:
One the parts are mounted in the helmet you don't notice them. Either way there are wires yours goes to you radio in your pocket mine goes to my radio in my tank bag. The advantage of the Chatterboxes is to not have extra wires since it is self contained. The Cable kit has an AUX wire that allows hookup to another audio device such as an mp3 player in my case. The AUX cable also has a mute button to turn the music down for more conversation. The AUX cable automatically mutes then music anyway when a transmission is received but if someone is there is alot of communication going on then I hit the mute button.
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Yep, I know. I used to use Chatterboxes, Nadys, Colletts...49mhz, 900mhz, full duplex FM -- tried 'em all over the last many years. If I were at all interested in listening to music while snowmobiling, I'd probably have to rethink it, but since my goal is just communication, I want it to be good, reliable and easy-to-use communication. I don't want to put anything in my helmet, I don't want wires attaching me to the tank bag or any other part of the sled, I don't want some box velcro'd or clipped to my helmet, I want reliable VOX without a lot of fiddling, I want no background noise, I want good range, and I don't want to pay $329 per unit. Plus, I want to be able to carry it in my pocket and use it as a walkie-talkie out on the lake in the summer, in the woods hunting in the fall, or as an easy-to-use communicator on my motorcycle (typically don't wear a helmet on the Harley).

It's just personal preference. I've tried a LOT of communication solutions. GMRS with throat mike is the best I've done so far for MY particular needs.
 
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Some great reviews of different solutions here guys! ;)!

We sure could have used communications on the last TY ride when a couple groups got separated for a while.
:rocks:
 
BigMac said:
Yep, I know. I used to use Chatterboxes, Nadys, Colletts...49mhz, 900mhz, full duplex FM -- tried 'em all over the last many years. If I were at all interested in listening to music while snowmobiling, I'd probably have to rethink it, but since my goal is just communication, I want it to be good, reliable and easy-to-use communication. I don't want to put anything in my helmet, I don't want wires attaching me to the tank bag or any other part of the sled, I don't want some box velcro'd or clipped to my helmet, I want reliable VOX without a lot of fiddling, I want no background noise, I want good range, and I don't want to pay $329 per unit. Plus, I want to be able to carry it in my pocket and use it as a walkie-talkie out on the lake in the summer, in the woods hunting in the fall, or as an easy-to-use communicator on my motorcycle (typically don't wear a helmet on the Harley).

It's just personal preference. I've tried a LOT of communication solutions. GMRS with throat mike is the best I've done so far for MY particular needs.
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I enjoy listening to music while i ride...listening to Led Zepplin while cruiseing down a straight, hard packed trail is awesome...as far as wire attachment is concerned, i only have one from my helmet to the chatterbox, my mp3 player stays in my handle bar pouch...cost of the unit was 225.00, i searched the internet till i got the right price...i dont hunt and my cell works fine on the water...if i am that far off shore fishing, the vhf radio in the boat is my communication to land...i wish i could find a unit that has the best of all combined...if garmin would take their rhino 130 and add audio input that would be perfect...gps, communications, audio and all in a hand held :4STroke:
 
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