tciolk02

I have a decent amount of experience with radio throat mics and odds are good if it was cheap it won't work well. This is definitely one area where you get what you pay for. Even with mid-level throat mics ($100-300) you may have to hold it in the 'sweet spot' for clear transmissions - something that would obviously be impractical in freefall. Plus I would guess the wind as well as skydiving body positions (arching and dearching) would cause it to slide around slightly - and it doesn't take much to move it off the sweet spot. I would guess the best solution for an in-air radio would be a closed-face helmet with a mic pickup inside, along with a PTT (push to talk) button routed through your jumpsuit to your hand. A VOX (voice activated) mic pickup inside the helmet (again, closed face) might work as well, but any environment with high background noise (like freefall) could trigger the VOX and that gets annoying fast. Having said all that I tend to agree with those that said it was generally impractical and not worth the effort. In my limited experience I've never had trouble communicating in freefall with looks and hand signals and could easily see a radio chattering away in your ear becoming a distraction.