Glen Boyd purchased his PPG helmet,
including a push-to-talk (PTT) in 2004. He offered up this humorous
treatment of radio use during his training. It's funny, so it should
have been in the
humor section, but it's sufficiently informative to include in
reviews. He wrote:
The helmet cable ended in two plugs: headset and microphone. Not
surprisingly, the radios my instructors used
had two sockets into which those plugs fit nicely, thank you very much. The microphone connection
was superfluous in those days since there was little opportunity to
"Roger that" and "Got 'em visual"—all that neat new pilot vocabulary.
Rather, pre-take-off radio protocol briefings were indeed brief: "Shut
up! Don't think! Do what I tell ya!" My "landing gear" often became so
spongy while aloft from "kick your legs" directives—with the
subsequent belly landings —that the foam trucks were mobilizing every
time I turned base.
At long and at last I was part of a Fly-In: one of a dozen pilots in the
air. Freedom! Bliss! Like being in a house of ill-repute with a stolen
credit card (or do they strictly insist upon cash?). Trouble was,
finally I wanted to hear a friendly voice in my headset. Small problem:
I don't have a radio.
An office tech, who knows more about everything than anybody out to, condescended
that "FRS/GMRS" are available anywhere. I go "somewhere" (how does one
go "anywhere"?) and explain that I need a radio that can be connected to
an external transmit/receive device. Naturally, all I ever wanted out of
life is not in stock. I order it and it arrives the next week. Small
problem: there's only one transmit/receive port and I need two holes to
bung. No, there's no "Y-cable" that can connect your two to our one. OK,
I'm returning it—please show a "credit" on my charge card.
Solution (right or wrong): Some radio external ports are proprietary—a
plug can't be had for love nor money. Buy a radio that includes a boom
microphone. Cut its wire well above the plug, save this end and do
whatever makes you happy with the other piece. Shouldn't be any problem
getting sockets for your helmet plugs. Make a "Y-cable" with the excised
boom wire and plug, and the generic sockets.
