52 replies to this topic

[kiteking]

Found this today for anyone wanting to get some radios

Midland Two-Way Rechargeable Radios for $43 with coupon EMCYNNP56 . These are a slightly better version than the ones which were on sale at Amazon last weekend for $30.

[Jeepster]

Found this today for anyone wanting to get some radios

Midland Two-Way Rechargeable Radios for $43 with coupon EMCYNNP56 . These are a slightly better version than the ones which were on sale at Amazon last weekend for $30.

Have you stumbled onto the adapters that John says Bazzer bought for the team? Now that the secret is out that the teams are using simple FSRs, I can listen in with one of my older Motorola radios. But, I either have to buy a "Motoroa" headset - just what I need is another headset - or obtain one of those adapters.

18 Gerups!!!

Cheers,
Tom

[quaa714]

Have you stumbled onto the adapters that John says Bazzer bought for the team? Now that the secret is out that the teams are using simple FSRs, I can listen in with one of my older Motorola radios. But, I either have to buy a "Motoroa" headset - just what I need is another headset - or obtain one of those adapters.

18 Gerups!!!

Cheers,
Tom

If I'm not mistaken....(and we all know how that goes)....if Motorola units are as I think they are...you could prolly just use a regular walkman/ipod style headset by just plugging it into the larger of the two holes on the unit. That gives you the listen function that you want. The smaller input is for mic transmission, which is not required for your purposes.

As I said, I could be wrong..............flame on:blue-music:

[Jeepster]

If I'm not mistaken....(and we all know how that goes)....if Motorola units are as I think they are...you could prolly just use a regular walkman/ipod style headset by just plugging it into the larger of the two holes on the unit. That gives you the listen function that you want. The smaller input is for mic transmission, which is not required for your purposes.

As I said, I could be wrong..............flame on:blue-music:

Rich,

Nope, mine doesn't work that way. I've got a pair of Motorola T6220 "Talkabout" units. There is only one headset/phone jack and it's too small for the iPod style plug - 3.5 mm diameter. A 2.5 mm diameter cordless phone headset plugs in, but doesn't stay in nor does it work!

Cheers,
Tom

[cadguy]

Tom (and others),
I bought the Motorola T5000 Talkabout radios from "the Shack" about a month ago (now discontinued). And, yes you need to find/buy a Motorola headset/ear-bud because of their plug. I first bought an ear-bud from "the Shack" but when I got everything home, the fine print on the back of the package said that it will not work with most Motorola radios. When I took that back, I saw a set that had the 2.5mm mini adapter. The salesman let me take the mini adpater out of the package to see if would fit. It did not stay in. Stopped in at a Best Buy and found an ear-bud type with the push-to-talk button, 2.5mm mini plug...that one fits.
Here's a pic of that plug... the shape of the tip is just a little different than the normal 2.5mm mini plugs.

Dayton David

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[Jeepster]

Dave,

Thanks! I was afraid it would be a special plug. I did some surfing on the web and found what looks like a reasonable headset (read that cheap). The Motorola 56320 headset sells for around $10 with free shipping. It's an ear bud style with boom mike and push to talk.

That wouldn't happen to be the one you bought from Radio Shack?

Cheers,
Tom

[cadguy]

Tom,
No, the one from Radio Shack was their "generic" brand for "2-way radios" - nicely located right under the radios - that will not fit any of the Motorola radios (which were the only radios there).

[Jeff]

I've got a pair of original Talkabout Plus units that I got in 1996, I think. I would hate to say how much I paid for them when FRS radios were so new, compared to today's prices.

[Wayne]

Tom (and others),
I bought the Motorola T5000 Talkabout radios from "the Shack" about a month ago (now discontinued). And, yes you need to find/buy a Motorola headset/ear-bud because of their plug. I first bought an ear-bud from "the Shack" but when I got everything home, the fine print on the back of the package said that it will not work with most Motorola radios. When I took that back, I saw a set that had the 2.5mm mini adapter. The salesman let me take the mini adpater out of the package to see if would fit. It did not stay in. Stopped in at a Best Buy and found an ear-bud type with the push-to-talk button, 2.5mm mini plug...that one fits.
Here's a pic of that plug... the shape of the tip is just a little different than the normal 2.5mm mini plugs.

Dayton David

That headphone set looks exactly like the Jensen sets I purchased (both brands must be from the same source). As I don't find the ear-bud style in the Jensen as secure a fit for my ear as some others i have used, I will look into adapting the connector to allow use of generic headphones (without mics). If I find anything I will share the info.

[quaa714]

Rich,

Nope, mine doesn't work that way. I've got a pair of Motorola T6220 "Talkabout" units. There is only one headset/phone jack and it's too small for the iPod style plug - 3.5 mm diameter. A 2.5 mm diameter cordless phone headset plugs in, but doesn't stay in nor does it work!

Cheers,
Tom

Dave and Tom.....as is often the case....I stand corrected!!!
Back to my Dead tunes and cheshire cat grins:blue-music:

[HedgeWarden]

Some have asked for suggestions for good units that provide maximum usability beyond monitoring team leader instructions. Here is some information to consider.

I have a pair of Motorola Talkabouts MR350 from Costco, packaged with rechargeable batteries, charger, and PTT (Push-to-talk) ear-bud "headsets". Great units at a great price. Check the reviews.

http://www.amazon.co...8/ref=pd_cp_e_1

However compatibility questions do arise on the Motorola units. As for batteries, no problems - AA compatible. Headsets are another problem. Forget plugging your MP3 headsets into these. Or your cell-phone headsets.

I haven't found any over-the-ear headsets or earphones that are advertised as definitely compatible with that model. Also, the units have, as I read the user manual, automatic VOX if you plug in VOX compatible headset - not what we want. The Motorola literature on their headsets list a number of compatible Talkabout series, but never the MR350.

So, I'm taking a chance on a Motorola over-the-ear receiver which should arrive in the next two days. If it works, then it with the MR350 should satisfy those who want a full function FMS/GMRS with great user feedback for a reasonable (not a no-frills) price. Features beyond what you need for team flying include NOAA weather channels, VOX, superb audio quality, maximum range, emergency calls to partners (like a group of hikers/hunters), sophisticated call filtering (those 22 FMS/GMRS channels are all open and can get noisy and busy). And, an LED flash light. As I said, this info is only for those who asked what they should look at beyond a basic monitoring unit for group flies.

http://www.amazon.co...&pf_rd_i=507846

If these pair properly (or not), I'll report in the next few days.

Edited by HedgeWarden, 24 February 2010 - 09:59 PM.

[HedgeWarden]

Received the Motorola "Ear Receiver" and tried it with my Motorola MR350 "Talkabout" radio today. The "Ear Receiver" does not list this radio as compatible, but it is. Lots of volume. Decent fidelity. Pretty secure on ear. Decent price. This has the "stereo" (actually transmit-receive paths) sub-mini plug (2.5 mm). Only the receive is used, the transmit is via the standard mike in the handset. Fits left or right ear.

P.S. Ignore the comments on Amazon, and some of the specs. They have this unit confused with the unit with both earpiece and boom microphone.
Wal-Mart on-line has the unit also, but not our local store.

Hopefully this might help some of you with Talkabout radios, or contemplating buying them. I don't know about Alkaline battery compatibility of other Talkabouts, but the MR350 is very happy to run on 3 AAs.

file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Howard/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.png

A separate issue, maybe John can comment. The FRS/GMRS channels are divided into three groups:

1-7 FRS or GMRS
8-14 FRS only
15-22 GMRS only

Very old FRS only radios should provide channels 1-14. Hence, if the director uses GMRS (i.e. high power) in channels 1-7, the signal should be compatible with all old and all new radios. If the commands come on channels 15-22, then only the "newer" dual mode FRS/GMRS units will be usable. If old units are problem, the solution could be to use one of channels 1-7. However, these channels may have high traffic interference - just a consideration or two for which I raise the question without a definite answer.

(Me, today .. Yeh!)

[katrina]

I have radio questions , thought I'd resurrect this thread just to keep all the info together.

Team Free Agents (read: NWish fliers without a proper team who commonly fly "team" anyway) is hoping to get more of our members equipped with radios. After reading through this thread and others, it didn't seem too complicated. Everything works with everything else, provided we're talking new/newish radios, and then you just have to make sure regular headphones will work. It's the regular headphones part that's giving me trouble. What have you all found that works for you? Or alternatively, anything to stay away from?

Yesterday I went to Fry's. I was looking at all the Cobras until I realized that every single one of them had just one headset jack, and it's 2.5mm, which means you can't use regular headphones. Anybody find adapters that work? I had already bought some, but they didn't work with my old motorolas.

I bought a set of midlands LXT380, because they accepted the double prong plug on all of the headsets available at Fry's. Got a midland headset in the cool "mossy rock" camo (no other color avail) so that any deer on the beach will surely mistake my left ear for moss. These work with the radios I got, and regular headphones work too. And they can talk to my old motorolas, so that's all good. But the volume doesn't go very low at all, I'm afraid if these are used on the line people might go deaf if the caller is even a little bit loud. And the beep that sounds when you turn the radio on and off must be disabled, otherwise it's excruciatingly loud. Turning down the volume doesn't affect that beep at all. Also you only get sound in one ear, no big deal, but are there any radios where you can get stereo sound?

Seems like the preferred brands are cobra, midland, and motorola. Anything else worth looking at?

I'm headed to Best Buy soon. I want to see if there's anything better than what I got, and I'd like to be able to recommend a good basic radio for anyone on the line who needs one.

[Jim Foster]

Along the same lines as listening to calls over radios, we have found that listening to music when flying teams is sometimes a challenge. Pittmans showed up the other day with a Goal Zero speaker/amplifier which plugs into your mp3 player, then the player goes inside the unit which then zips closed for protection from sand etc. Works great. Plays loud, volume is controlled by your player, and units can be "daisy chained" together, or far apart with head phone extension cords. Goal Zero does "road shows" at Costco stores. The units sell for $22.00 at these events. We got two at a Costco. Now we can "light up" the whole beach or park with one small mp3 player.

Check it out here:
http://www.goalzero....er---Green/6:4/

http://www.goalzero....er---Green/6:4/

[lasapcheong]

Just thinking about this, has anybody managed or tried to setup a radio system using some Walkie Talkie Apps on the IPhone?

Thanks
-Darryl

[katrina]

I'm set up now, but I'll just let you know what worked for the good of the order.

FOR CALLING: I've ended up with a set of midland GXT 1000s. They are a little spendier and have way more features than I need, but they came with headsets, and I really like that they have a twist on-off knob rather than a too-small button that I can't find by feel. They are large, but the clips are great, they go on my back waistband, don't notice it's there at all. They were $65 at fry's. You can use regular headphones with these if you like, to receive only, but you'll only get sound in one ear (mono). The headsets they came with are fine, they work. The earpiece can be adjusted a little for fit, it's not obvious at first, but there's a piece that can slide. They could use a foam cover on the mic. As long as I was facing away from the wind, it was fine, but when I'd turn sideways, there'd be wind noise. I think foamies can be bought separately. The midland camo set I originally bought had foamies, and a slightly longer boom. The ear thing looks weird, but it was comfy enough.

You need to make them transmit continuously if you want to use them for calling. The vox feature will not work for this! Make sure it's set to OFF. There are fancier ways to jerryrig it to continuously transmit, but what I did worked just fine. I found a little stick on the beach, broke it to the size of the PTT button, and rubber-banded it on there. When I wanted to receive only, I just moved that stick to the side. Kind of funny, but it worked perfectly. There's also a PTT button on the headset, probably could just tape that down.

GXT 760s also come with headsets, and would be just fine too. Kevin had a set of those at Rockaway, they are almost the same as the gxt1000s.

FOR RECEIVING/LISTENING ONLY: The midland LXT models are nice and small and would fit in your pocket. Will also take standard headphones, mono only. The set I had and returned (lxt380) were $32/set at fry's. The lxt114 set was only 19.95 on the Fry's website. If I just wanted radios for receiving, I would've kept the lxt380s, or maybe found some lxt114s. I had a few reservations, see my previous post. You don't need a bunch of features, you don't need range, you don't need 50 channels. So why pay for all that? Unless you really want the twist on off knob--lesser models don't have it.

The cobras I saw all took a 2.5 mm jack. Standard headphone jacks are 3.5mm. I tried 2 different adapters, both of which fit nicely, BUT the radio then thinks it is transmitting. No good.

So far, all radios seem to work with everything else. One thing though, some radios have privacy channels, ie you can set it to channel 9, then privacy code 5, say. If you are trying to communicate with receive transmissions from a radio that doesn't do privacy codes, that won't work. So just set it to privacy code 0. (edited after reading Howard's comments, below. I think it is correct now. Please see his post for a much more thorough explanation.)

[HedgeWarden]

Katrina,

I don't understand why the VOX would not work for you. Is it a problem with the delay - e.g. when you say "NOW!" and the VOX kicks in on the "W"? That I would understand.

I would not expect much battery life in continuous transmit mode, though.

As for the privacy codes - they are transmitted at the beginning of a transmission. If a receiver is set for code 0, or to the same code as the transmitter, then it will turn on its amplifier (i.e. you can hear the message that follows the code transmission.) Otherwise, the receiver will ignore messages with a different privacy code than what it is set to.

Each brand and/or model may have different privacy codes, or no privacy codes at all - the codes are not specified by the FCC. So, it is essential for everyone to use code 0, or no code, as you said.

Good luck, and keep us posted with facts instead of this theory stuff.

[katrina]

Katrina,

I don't understand why the VOX would not work for you. Is it a problem with the delay - e.g. when you say "NOW!" and the VOX kicks in on the "W"? That I would understand.

I would not expect much battery life in continuous transmit mode, though.

Howard,

The vox feature on my radios is in perfect working order, but I found it to problematic for calling for the reason you mentioned. Even the most sensitive vox setting was inadequate IMHO. It is true that continuously transmitting eats up batteries. And yet JB, Mike Kory, Scott Weider, and if I'm not mistaken, Terry Wiggill, all choose this option over vox.

Good luck, and keep us posted with facts instead of this theory stuff.

While I appreciate your offer of good luck, I am already set up with radios that work and so are the people I fly with. My intention was only to pass along the little bit I've learned (after 3 stores and redundant purchases) in the hopes that it might be of use to someone else. And as I have now exhausted my limited, non-expert knowledge on radios in the last few posts, I have no plans to keep anyone posted with facts or otherwise.

Chuckrev just bought the midland lxt114 radios, perhaps he will update this thread on whether they work well or not.

[Kitelife]

FYI - VOX has always been a solid no-no for us, just too many issues with missed verbals.

[HedgeWarden]

Howard,

While I appreciate your offer of good luck, I am already set up with radios that work and so are the people I fly with. My intention was only to pass along the little bit I've learned (after 3 stores and redundant purchases) in the hopes that it might be of use to someone else. And as I have now exhausted my limited, non-expert knowledge on radios in the last few posts, I have no plans to keep anyone posted with facts or otherwise.

Chuckrev just bought the midland lxt114 radios, perhaps he will update this thread on whether they work well or not.

Katrina,

You've already provided some good facts from experience to correct some bad conclusions I may have drawn from theory - or more to the point, dangling questions.

As for "good luck" - go break a leg. (Really trying to make a joke here. Did not mean the original post in an ironic or sarcastic sense.)

See you and the rest of the gang in Lincoln City, if we can get ourselves organized.