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Creating a low cost ear protection/ PTT setup for hunting

Amateur Radio Asked by Layne Hedrick on September 27, 2021

I have been trying to create a low cost communication setup for when I go hunting. Using this setup the hope is to be able to talk to one another while separated without having the audio up too loud. Here is what I have:

  1. Baofeng UV-5R radio
  2. Howard Leight Impact Sport Ear Protection Muffs
  3. 3.5mm Right Angle Male to Male Auxiliary Jack Cable
  4. Baofeng BF-S112 Two Way Radio Speaker

So, I plug the mic into the radio, one end of the auxiliary jack cable into the mic, and then the other end of the auxiliary jack cable into the ear muffs.

The idea is to be able to ear my radio through the earmuffs and use the mic to transmit. But, I am having several problems.

First, the baofeng mic is crap. I can’t really tell if it works at all even though it is brand new. when everything is set up and I click the mic, sometimes it keys the radio and I see the screen color change, and sometimes I don’t. Even when it does change the color of the radio display indicating it is transmitting, I can’t hear anything in the earmuffs.

Second, the auxiliary cable. I put the radio of FM just to see if I can hear anything and I was only getting audio out of one side of the muffs. That is sometimes. Sometimes I could not hear anything at all.

Any thoughts are welcome and better low-cost solutions are especially welcome.

One Answer

I always wondered what the extra jack on my Baofeng microphone was for. I was able to find another reference on the web (PDF) that described plugging headphones into the microphone. That reference implies that the jack is a two-conductor mono jack, or possibly a three-conductor jack with one conductor not wired. You didn't mention whether your 3.5 mm male-to-male cable is mono (2-conductor) or stereo (3-conductor), but these days most such cables are sold as audio patch cables and have three conductors, with TRS plugs on both ends.

In your shoes, I think first I'd do a little troubleshooting: see if the radio works with nothing plugged into it. Then try the radio with just the speaker-microphone plugged into it. If that works, then you know the trouble is in the microphone's accessory jack, your cable, or the earmuffs (headset). In that case I'd try getting a 3.5 mm mono-to-stereo adapter. Plug that into the microphone, and then plug the earmuffs into the adapter.

Answered by rclocher3 on September 27, 2021

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