options. I tested five of the most popular brands of speaker/mics to see which one came out on top for preppers. If you haven’t already ready read those articles you might want to now…

< click here to read Part #1 >

< click here to read Part #2 >

< click here to read Part #3 >

I ended Part #3 announcing the clear overall winner is the AnyTone…no doubt about it.

But I also threw a little teaser out there about a great little option for a speaker/mic. This article covers that option…

Yup, your eyes are not receiving you! One of the cool spinoffs from that effort was pretty much unexpected. I found my hearing protection solution! This is the Baofeng UV-5RA radio with the Anytone speaker/mic attached to it. And then a Howard Leight Impact Sports hearing protection headset plugged into it.

Why all of this hooked together?

Have you ever imagined yourself in a building in a gunfight, especially with your AR? Yeah, some of you know all too well what that sounds and feels like. I am concerned about hearing. Yeah, as in losing your hearing.

A fairly long time ago I switched my hearing protection over to Howard Leight Impact Sports headsets. They are incredible electronic protection allowing you to hear conversations but protecting your eardrums then the guns start to bark. Actually, when the volume is turned up my hearing is way better for the normal ambient sounds around me.

One feature of the Impact Sports headset is a 3.5mm jack on one of the earphones. It is for plugging in electronic devices to be heard even with the headset on. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to integrate a radio with my headset. But, try as I might, I just couldn’t get the right combination of devices pulled together to be a realistic solution. So I stopped trying a couple of years ago. But, that changed a couple of months ago…yea!

While testing the different lapel speaker/mics I was testing the acoustic tube covert earpieces. I wanted to be a little more discrete in situations. While testing I saw the acoustic tubes had a 3.5mm plug that went into the 3.5mm jack on the speaker/mic. BINGO!

I ran to the garage and got my Impact Sports headset and the 3.5mm able that came with it. I plugged one end into the Impact Sports headset, the other end went into the lapel speaker/mic…YEAH!!! The radio was playing in my headset just fine, very clear, and easy to understand.

When the transmission stopped there was no leftover electronic interference at all. The ambient sound in the room was also available loud and clear to me in the headset as well. The headset was working perfectly!

So now I finally have that solution that I have been seeking for so long. I now have my radio, my hearing protection, convenient microphone placement, radio communications, and improved hearing all wrapped in one very affordable and practical package.

I am not going to make this complicated…

1. Attach the Anytone speaker/mic to the Baofeng UV-5RA radio just like the previous articles talked about.
2. Plug the cable (came with the headset) into the Anytone 3.5mm jack.
3. Plug the other end of the cable into the Howard Leight Impact Sports headset.
4. Turn on the headset volume control.
5. Turn on the radio and adjust the volume between the two sound volume controls to the right level.

The headset will allow you to hear more ambient noise if you would like by turning its volume control up. The radio communications comes through loud and clear. When you start shooting the headset will dampen the incoming additional ambient noise below 89dB.

There you go!!

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