FRS 2-way radios for motorcycle use

["Neil Lindsey" <neil@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Season's Greetings to All,

Well over the last several months I had expressed some interest in the new
generation FRS radios, so SWMBO took the hint and bought me a pair for Xmas.
Being non-technical, she picked up the first set that looked like a good
deal, namely the Cobra microTalk FRS 110-2, thinking that they would at
least be a good starting point.  They support 14 channels (no privacy mode),
and only have a PTT button.  They seem to work fine (no idea how they
compare to others), but as they are they won't do for bike-to-bike
communication.

My first question would be:

Other than units like the new Chatterbox that are specifically made for the
task, are there any of the more general-purpose FRS 2-way radios that have
the features suitable for motorcycle usage?

The microTalk has jacks for speaker and microphone, and Cobra sells a VOX
headset for $50 CDN (doesn't look like it would work inside my Shoei RF800
hemet though, and I have no idea if it has a good noise-cancelling
microphone).  With third-party headsets you would have to be careful with
speaker impedance and microphone sensitivity.

Each microTalk unit runs on 4 x AAA batteries, but I don't think it wouldn't
be too hard to modify the internals to run off a bike's battery instead (a
6-volt zener, wire, and a few other components).

My second question would be:

Has anyone had success and satisfaction in converting a 'normal' FRS 2-way
radio for motorcycle use and what headset do you use?

BTW - the main reasons I'm not really interested in something like the
Chatterbox is that you can't use them for much else besides motorcycling (or
snowmobiling), and they're quite expensive (although I realize that I'll
prolly have invested about as much by the time I'm done with the 'normal'
FRS radios).

Some discussion would be most welcome

Neil



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