Sledge Posted July 27, 2005 Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 FireFox Airsoft/Paintball Edition Throat Mic This mic was graciously donated for review and field test at AG05 by the good folks of Airsoftmart. This is the Airsoft/Paintball Edition, intended (as the name says) for skirmish/paintball use. First Impressions As a fan of gadgets and doohickeys, I can't comment on the packaging, as I tore it open in my enthusiasm to get at the contents. What was inside was fairly self explanitory: the U-shaped plastic band housing the microphone itself, with an earpiece running from it; and a PTT (Push To Talk) button. The PTT is optional, as it plugs into the headset jack on your radio, then offers a second jack for the mic/earpiece to plug into. A nice idea, if you don't want the extra cable of the PTT trailing as well. The back of the PTT button has a piece of velcro attached, which can be fastened to the small velcro-fitted strap provided. This allows you to mount the PTT button... well, anywhere. On your jacket, your rifle, your wrist, the world is your oyster in the universe of PTT attachment . So, looking good so far. Dress to kill (or talk, at least) The unit is pleasantly compact, which is what you want if you're going to wear it all day. Putting on the unit, I found the throat mic section was not the uncomfortable burden I had feared, but was actually something easily forgotten after a few minutes. This really impressed me, as I hate wearing ties, so feared that this was going to produce a similar uncomfortable sensation, but far from it. The earpiece was perfectly comfortable, and had a sufficient length of cable to allow free head movement without either: i) cable trailing everywhere or ii) your head being stuck in an "eyes front" position. A well thought out bit of kit so far, but the time was at hand for the most important part. Connecting everything up was a case of plugging the PTT button into the radio, then plugging the headset into the PTT jack. Simple, quick and easy, exactly the way it should be. With everything plugged in and attached, it was time to test. It's good to talk Actually, it's great to talk! The sound quality was the first thing I noticed. Anyone using radios will be familiar with the "Sorry, didn't copy, say again. Over" syndrome, where you can't quite make out what the other guy said . This really wasn't the case here. The sound was so much clearer. It became possible to make out what people were saying first time, without requests to say again. Fantastic! As for speech transmission, I can only say that whilst using this unit, I did not have one request to repeat anything I transmitted. Given my sometimes garbled speech patterns, this is something of an achievement. Sound quality both ways is certainly up to the demands that any skirmisher is going to put on it. Throughout the day The mic proved its value through out the day. It was reassuring to know that another marshall could transmit to me without nearby players over-hearing. From a players perspective, this allows for far more secure transmissions, and minimises the risk of your position being given away by Dave bellowing "Where are you, Kevin?" down his radio. The unit didn't become uncomfortable at any point. The only minor problem came when I started sweating. Eventually, this could cause the throat mic to slip a little. Whilst not really a serious problem, it's one to be aware of. My recommendation would be to add it to your list of things to check during a lull in battle: wind hi cap, check mic, wonder where the rest of your team are. Conclusion The FireFox throat mic exceeded my expectations for it, proving to be a valuable bit of kit. So the question is, do you need one? Well, if you regularly use a radio for skirmishing, yes. It offers the advantages of privacy and clear speech, whilst taking up next to no room in your kit bag or on your person. Everyone who was on channel 6 at AG05 NEEDS one of these. You know who you are . The rest of you, if you have a radio, I really think you'd benefit from this. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xRAZERx Posted July 27, 2005 Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 Sorry mate was this the same one as mine? Or a different one I didn't see? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sledge Posted July 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 Er... not sure. Did yours have an ear piece or a sound tube? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xRAZERx Posted July 27, 2005 Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 It's like Wills but with only one tube. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sledge Posted July 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 Ah, yours is the Commando. Mine is I suppose the budget option. Do you want to review yours, only then we'd have all three covered? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xRAZERx Posted July 27, 2005 Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 Yeah sure. I'll go wire it up and put five transmitions through it for six minutes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Shao14 Posted July 27, 2005 Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 So, how many versions of this are there? R22's has sound tube, and Sledge's has an earbud, and xRx's is something yet in between the two? I see from firefox's website, the commando version is waterproof, but didn't say that for the airsoft/paintball version. Would the sweat destroy the airsoft/paintball version after a while then? Besides the waterproofiblity, and the different ear piece, anything else that's different between them? Oh yea, nice review, but I reckon you still don't have a decent camera yet? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xRAZERx Posted July 27, 2005 Report Share Posted July 27, 2005 There are three versions R22s With dual ear tubes and mics Mine And Sledge's Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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