[gravity2oo4]

My friend and I just recently purchased a couple chatterbox frs multi-sport units. I am very unhappy with these products. They do not work well at all. If the bikes are sitting still next to each other it works and you can hear one another fine. When ever you start moving it starts breaking up a little. On the interstate, there is a whole lot of wind noise and it breaks up. The range claims two miles, but after about a 1/4 mile you cant hear anything. We also had a problem with the battery cable on one of them fit very loose so it wouldnt always charge. These units are not by any means worth the price that they cost. I would not recommend this product to anyone.

Now my question is what alternatives are there? I would love to be able to use another one. Has anyone tried any other brands. I was even thinking about hooking up a nice handheld walkie talkie to a headset. Has anyone tried this?? Let me know your suggestions. Thanks for your time!! :cheers: :here:

 

[Mudpuppy]

sorry to hear about your bad luck. I purchased an xm2 i believe? not sure - Gasman bought it off me. But it worked fairly well except the HJC velcro made for the chatterbox was too low in the front and I did get a decent amount of wind noise at speed but the range was never an issue. not sure about alternatives. I would recommend offing the frs cheap model and upgrading to the xm2 - maybe you can ebay them off and find a cheap used xm2 on ebay - i bought my xm2 for under $100 but i had to purchase 4 of them and sell off 3 to make it worthwhile - it was a little work but worth it. then i would recommend mounting the mic higher in the helmet to eliminate windnoise - that was my plan but I never got to that point - we all bought them and rarely used them so I sold mine.. good luck.

 

[R1up0n1]

If you bought the chatter box's new..I'd return them and just say you were not happy with the product.
I know Gas Man had a chatter box and from my understanding his worked fine.

just get a Nextel phone to chat on and a ear bud...that will work all the time. :lol:

 

[Gas Man]

Chatterboxes are great. The problem is that many people use VOX and have it set to sensitive.

Range.... not sure about that. Don't mistake range for wind noise.

I have owned both the FRS and the XM2... both worked really well.

You can also buy a nicer headset with more noise cancelling properties.

Make sure your mic is positioned right!

 

[gravity2oo4]

For the price of the chatterbox I would expect it to work flawlessly, but it does not. I am going to probably go with a handheld radio/headset. Anyone have any suggestions on what brand of radio? What kind of headset should I buy to work with this? Thx...

 

[Mudpuppy]

I would say stick with Motorola - they seem to work the best in my experience..

 

[Gas Man]

Yeah but most of those handheld radios are basically the same as the chatterbox... same technology!

 

[jeeps84]

Chatterboxes are great. The problem is that many people use VOX and have it set to sensitive.

Range.... not sure about that. Don't mistake range for wind noise.

I have owned both the FRS and the XM2... both worked really well.

You can also buy a nicer headset with more noise cancelling properties.

Make sure your mic is positioned right!

:iagree: :withstupi :iagree: :withstupi
They have to be adjusted right. Even then the VOX is very sensitive at best. Defiantly invest in the better head set.

 

[Gas Man]

Alot of guys just use the PTT!

 

[gravity2oo4]

I have tried to use the PTT with the same result. I am not about to put MORE money into this unit just to make it fuction correctly. I would rather buy a quality set of handheld radios and two headsets. I would then have a better and cheaper set up with a whole lot more features...

 

[Gas Man]

please clarify your problems... I have owned 2 sets and haven't had a problem with either of them. I find that most of the time it is the user or the users instalation of the headset and mic!

 

[jeeps84]

Why would you not improve on what you have already invested in? They can be made to work efficiently.