Budget Comms/Radio Setup (Pros and Cons)

I modified my EarPro to have a mic and a u-174 u connector, now I can connect to a PTT and it works perfect on my baofeng, there is videos on my channel showing the final product.

Thanks man

We used our Motorola's on a lake while kayaking and communicating from land to boat, boat to boat, and boat to land. They rock! under those conditions. Did another test on our 40 acre property with lots of trees and heavy vegetation. We could communicate over the diagonal (hypotenuse) of our land. Some static, but was still effective. When we got back to the cabin, we figured out that were on GMRS and were illegally transmitting. I wanted to turn myself in because of the guilt and shame. Finally, I cocked it up to poor newb experience and learned from my mistakes. We know now to never ever do that again!

I like comms, they are so pretty

Something a lot of people leave out is, if SHIT HITS THE FAN (SHTF) a license will be irrelevant, just like money, luxury items its all BS when the world is going to s***.

"Hey guys! I'm Joey, the repeater."

Any experience with earmor m32? $89 and is comms capable with Downlead

I am not totally sure but the last time I checked which was maybe a decade your novice license for ham doesn’t require Morse code anymore. So it’s a pretty easy test🤷‍♂️ morse code takes a minute to learn, but I’m not saying you don’t need to learn at least the basics and train your ear….

Setting up a repeater Base station from a Vehicle or residence something would be a great idea especially if you live somewhere like I do in the mountains.

Kenwood connector y-line, with Howard Leight impact sports, and a baofeng. Perfect combo and you get a boom mic with directional hearing.

Have you tried the CovertArms 3.5mm system?

What model is the Motorola radio that you show

BOW-FANG pronounced :) Not bow like what hunters use. But what do Japanese people do at a meeting.

Good stuff. Any idea if the stuff will hook up to walker razors?

Gotta give the FEDS permission to enter your home an take a look at your radio set up if get licensed to use the Ham. Dont get the license just radio an listen, when shit hits the fan you wont need to ask permission to use it.

I have this same set up and I can use the 3.5mm on my Peltors, Com Tac III's and Howard Leights! I added a 3.5mm female socket on the Peltor Active Hearing Protectors and my Com Tac III's (I never could get the Com Tacs to work with Baofeng Radio's no matter what adapter or amplifiers I tried..so I rewired the Com Tacs with a 3.5mm plug). The only problem I have with clicking is very slight with the Howard Leights.

If you have/get a GMRS license, I'd suggest swapping out the Midlands for Part 90 Kenwoods such as TK-3170's. They are GMRS legal, repeater capable unlike any of the current Midlands handhelds, IP67 rated for water/dust and most importantly the receivers/filtering is is far superior. You would need the right programming software and cable(usually found on Ebay for around $25), and the radios themselves can be had for about $75 if you keep an eye out.

Paired with a decent antenna(Smiley's 5/8 Slim Duck) and counterpoise, they will blow the Midlands and Baofengs out of the water for usable range. I have Kenwood TK-370g's and 372g's set up that way. They can easily pick up signals from cheap FRS radios at distances other FRS radios or my Retevis RT76 GMRS radios can't. With UHF, a good receiver is often more important than power and the Baofengs are notorious for their receivers getting overloaded in high RF environments(urban areas).

The last advantage to the Kenwoods is that a majority of cheap Chinese radios use the standard Kenwood 2 pin speaker mic plug. That means options are plentiful and your not limited to OEM offerings. There are even Bluetooth adapter options for discreet use.

The biggest advantage for GMRS is repeaters. If you look on MyGMRS dot com, you might be able to find a local repeater available that will greatly extend your range. I have a 40W GMRS repeater on my parents property that covers a 20 mile radius. From the front of my house, about 18 miles away, I can hit that repeater with one of my 4W Kenwood HT's. Find a spot with good elevation and you can set up your own repeater including battery backup for around $500, or even a portable battery powered 'parrot box' simplex repeater in a 30 cal ammo can for less than half that(check out GUERRILLACOMM here on YT, he managed a usable 80-ish miles on 5W with one).

All that said, since I'm in a semi-rural area, I'm moving most of my local comms to MURS as VHF does a lot better outdoors due to signal attenuation characteristics. I'm not getting rid of my GMRS gear though because short of a business band or amateur radio license there are no other options that can give me the same range. But I can legally hand out MURS radios like candy to unlicensed users.

I run the Midland gtx1000 with head piece for around the house and keep the Baofeng just in case.

I have that plate carrier too

Baofeng UV-5R w/ Extended Battery $28
Disco32 U-94/A-Kenwood (Amped) $105
FCS AMP Headset (Opscore Repro) $185

Disco 32 ptt with kenwood adapter, hook in armorwerx pt120 to 3.5mm adapter and now you can run walker razors and howard leight as poor man comms.

This was pretty dope. I’m trying to get into the comms community now. Military life I used them regularly but as a civilian and not being around an organization like that, I hardly have any real reason to have em outside of weather checking incase of power outages or maybe being stranded on the highway 🤷🏾‍♂️

I have gotten 3 miles with many dead zones with the Midland GTX radios before my daughter gave up on me. May have to try further distances in the future. Also connected my UV series radios with the Midland radios.

I have a question, can you pit the link in for the hand-mic you showed in the vid, thanks!

This Midland radio is a GMRS radio and requires a license to operate in “non emergency” situations. I put a link in the description to a FRS radio that requires no license to use.

Hit the gym...

Any experience with the Opsmen M32 MOD3 headset? I’d love to see a review.

What carrier are you using ?

During civil unrest you don’t need a license, just saying!!

Hey just wanted to point it out that radio is GMRS which takes a license and its 70$ to talk in any of the channels passed 7 . Also i got my HAM license for free but soon they will be charging to get it so i would get yours now. Having both licenses and experimenting with all types of radios and frequencies is great preparedness

You should put amazon links to this stuff

Question about the longfri ballistic helmet; how long did it take to ship and get to you? I've have really bad experience with botach before

Perhaps open the Howard ear pro shell and paint the inside with nickel paint to try to shield them? There are other things to try and attempt RF ingress mitigation.

Dang it! Are all you Italians allergic to Bluetooth? lol

I did the same thing with Midlands and howard lites. Had the same feedback issue. Finally got a set of MSA sordins that work with a PTT and let me run the Boafeng perfectly. I program in walkie talkie freq into the Boafeng so I can talk to people on Ham and also people in Midlands. I think having the capability to do both is a good idea in this day and age. Still right on point with your reviews hitting what people want to see. Keep it up guys!

Me and my own as well as friends and coworkers are integrating all are comms as much as possible, I'm just glad were like minded, I've been bouncing around a idea that we should build a serious relay tower in between all of us where property permits.