Chris Schneck

If you’ve ever played a large enough game to warrant the use of radios you already know how just plain awesome and genuinely useful they can be. Just as anything else in paintball, or any other hobby actually, there are a few expensive mistakes you can make a long the way before you find the perfect practical working combination between cost and functionality. The radios featured in this article are admittedly a couple years old, but no less effective or relevant.

The Motorola T6500 FRS/GMRS radios have stood up well to plenty of outdoor abuse. I’ve used these in all weather conditions and only once when there was 4 inches of snow on the ground and it was raining and muddy did they have a hiccup, but that very well could have been the headset getting damp. A rugged radio like this model is ideal for the beating that comes with playing woodsball. The T6500’s come with rechargeable battery packs and a charging stand, but I would ditch the battery packs and go straight to consuming straight up AA’s. Each T6500 takes 3 AA batteries and battery life is quite good, I’ve never had to panic and swap out during a days play. The complete list of features is quite impressive: 22 channels, PTT, VOX, pad lockout, etc. check out the main product page here. They’ve been shot, dived on, dropped and stepped on and Motorola T6500’s get an overwhelming thumbs up.

A good radio in pair with a good headset & microphone combo increase the advantage you have over your opponents. If you have only 2 radios in a squad of 8, you can maneuver 2 groups of 4 people in and out of danger without the other team knowing what really just happened. At the end of the day they will most definitely be asking themselves how you always seemed to pop up out of nowhere with such a showing of force.

More importantly then what brand I would recommend is of course the technical information. The most important tidbit is the difference between FRS and GMRS.

FRS stands for Family Radio Service. Radios that are only FRS compatible will be limited to 500 milliwatts of power. Unfortunately for Americans the FCC has regulated that to use anything more powerful you have to pay a licensing fee, currently at $85USD. FRS radios are just fine for short range use and are very often affordable to anyone!

GMRS stands for General Mobile Radio Service. In the United States, licensed GMRS operators are permitted to transmit at up to 50 Watts of power It’s more likely that the GMRS radios you buy will be powered at the same level as my T6500 radios, outputting a blistering 1 watt and providing you with ample range in which to communicate with.

PTT stands for Push To Talk. Either the button on the body of the radio or the button on the cable that leads to the plugged in microphone can be pushed to initiate a transmission. Having a boom mic under your mask is an enormous advantage, you can literally whisper and be heard by the person on the other end. Excellent for directing movement or fire from a concealed position.

VOX stands for Voice Operated Transmission/Transmitter. So why isn’t the acronym VOT? I have no idea. Although I HIGHLY recommend you don’t use this feature. With all the running, gunning and shouting you’re going to be doing it will sound more like a violent obscene phone call then anything tactically useful.

VOX = *pant*pant*pant*oh crap*pop*pop*pant*pop*IM HIT IM HIT*

I’ve been holding back my review on this NcStar red dot sight until I had sufficient time to actually use it, after 6 days of use ( approx 24 hours of play ) I can confidently say that it’s FAR superior to a standard single point red dot sight. I was admittedly slightly skeptical as to how the quality of the video game crosshairs would be in real life, but once again the Canadian distributor for NcStar products, KJ Sales, has delivered a fantastic functional tactical upgrade for my T9 MilSim paintball marker.

This red dot sight is several kinds of awesome and I have nothing bad to say about it. The rheostat for adjusting the brightness has 7 different levels of output and even on the lowest setting is powerful enough to be seen in broad daylight, I find the highest setting actually too bright! The construction is all aluminum and the entire unit is quite hefty weighing in at 4+ ounces. Windage and elevation are easily adjustable with the included allen key.

The only potential downside to this NcStar red dot sight is that the lens is not protected in any way, unlike the 42mm NcStar red dot sight. I haven’t taken a direct hit to the glass and although these units have come down in price substantially they still aren’t cheap enough to shoot it on purpose for testing sake. Since the lens is held in by an all aluminum shroud, and the lens is fairly thick, I would surmise that the lens would pop out instead of shatter. In either case with a broken lens or a missing lens the D4C would cease to function.

It hurts that a lot of the really cool products for paintball are made in the USA, not that I have anything against the USA, but I really really really hate cross border shipping. Duties are usually arbitrary, UPS / DHL / Fedex often have insane brokerage fees and if somethings wrong and you want to return a product for  repair or replacement it just ads to the already high cost of cross border shipping.

Not long after I bought a Tac 9 Covert rifle package I wanted to add a nice sized red dot sight. The only thing I found that had a large enough field of view AND had see through flip up lens covers was an OpsGear 42mm red dot sight. Not only does it look just badass on top of the weaver sight riser that comes with the Tac 9 Covert, it really helps placing that first shot.

So the time came that one of the flip up lense covers for my 42mm red dot needed to be replaced. I contacted OpsGear directly and to my dismay they don’t carry replacement see through flip up lens covers, they instead recommended that I get in touch with a local sporting goods store. Well, honestly, that’s no help.

With a little searching I discovered that a company named NcStar manufactures an identical 42mm red dot sight, complete with the flip up lens covers that I was looking for. Again there was a catch, they were in the USA, and I hate shipping from the USA. The email I sent to NcStar asking for the location of a Canadian distributor was promptly answered and they handed me over to a fellow in Ontario by the name of James McKay.

Not only was James sympathetic to my situation, he even called his rep at NcStar on my behalf to see if there was anything they could do about my situation. Within 2 weeks James had my replacement flip up lens covers in Canada and on their way to me. The cost of the replacement flip up lens covers was reasonable, the shipping costs were reasonable and James even phoned me to keep me up to date on the status of things.

If youre in Canada don’t hesitate to check out NcStar’s Online Catalogue and Contact James McKay to order. They have quite the selection of optics and accessories for milsim paintballers.

James “Jim” McKay
www.riflescope-shop.com
KJ Sales
255 Pigeon Creek Road
Janetville, Ontario
L0B 1K0