What is the operating range of the radio units?
The horrible answer is 'it depends'. You can expect an effective range of anywhere from 1Km to 5Km depending on conditions.

There are many things that affect effective range:

The power of the transmitter. The more power you have available, the further you reach. However, units that are eligible for use without a radio operators license must be low powered and this effectively limits the range to about 5Km in ideal conditions.
The power supply. Range will fall off as the batteries become exhausted.
The location of the ariel. The higher the better, but mounted on the helmet is about the best practical solution.
The local terrain. Once modified for Australian regulations, these units operate at around 915MHz, very close to the frequencies used by mobile telephones. At these frequencies radio waves do not like going around corners, so your effective range is far less than you would experience on the Nullabor Plain.
Other suppliers happily claim the maximum possible range for similar technology, but we prefer to be realistic.

What is the battery life?
We have not tried this to its extreme, but have found that the units will operate without fade on an all-day 600Km ride.

Is microphone placement important?
Yes. The best description of this is 'kissing close'. If the microphone is not directly in front of your lips much of the sound you make when you speak will be lost within the helmet. On units with VOX circuitry this may be insufficient to trigger the VOX.

Do I have to shout?
No, in fact its not a good idea at all. If you shout you can overload the microphone, and all the recipient hears is distortion. You do need to remember that the inside of a motorcycle helmet can be a very noisy place, and you need to make yourself understood over this background noise. What you really need is a 'stage voice'. Actors in live theatre have developed the knack of being heard at the back of the auditorium without the need to shout. They do speak a little louder than normal conversation, but importantly they focus on 'projecting' their voice so they can be heard clearly. Its not a difficult skill to learn - just think in terms of talking to somebody on the far side of the room without shouting at them. Anybody can do it.

Do the units work with Full and Open Face helmets?
Of course. The Collett and Backchat Clipper series use a sound tube on a boom, so you don't have to specify the style of helmet you use. For the Chatterbox and Bikercomm sets you must specify your helmet requirements. Full face helmets attach the microphone to the inside of the chin guard, but with open face helmets the microphone is attached to a boom. Note: If you wear a motocross style helmet you should consider the open face option: there is plenty of room behind the chin guard for a boom, but a microphone mounted on the chin guard would be too far away to be effective.

How do I mount the speakers?
Once again it depends upon your individual helmet. All of the kits supply headset mountings, usually in the form of double sided tape and velcro patches. This is OK, but there can be problems. A common problem is that the speakers are pressed against your ear and this can be uncomfortable. Another problem is that you knock the speakers off as you pull the helmet on and off.

Sometimes a better option is to mount the speakers in the helmet lining. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Helmets have four major components - the outer shell (which you must not modify), the styrofoam lining to absorb an impact, a layer of 'comfort padding' made of low density foam, and finally the fabric liner. With most helmets you can remove the internals. These are usually held in place by a friction fit, assisted by a light tacky glue. The steps are:

identify exactly where the speakers hould be mounted. (This may need to be a compromise depending on where the strap passes through the helmet lining)
remove the appropriate pieces of the helmet.
loosen the fabric liner on the helmet pieces - this is usually held in place with nothing more exotic than adhesive tape.
cut away some of the comfort padding, so that the speakers will sit just below the fabric lining.
if necessary, carefully remove some of the styrofoam - just enough to allow the speaker to fit below the lining fabric.
fit the speakers, and re-attach the fabric liner to the pieces
re-assemble the helmet

Will modifying my helmet make it dangerous?
No. It is important that you remove as little material as possible. The comfort padding is simply for that - your comfort, and has no bearing at all on the helmets performance -it's not even tested. All helmet standard tests including AS 1698 and the highly respected Snell M2000 only apply impact tests above the eye line. The lower half of the helmet is not impact tested. Suprisingly no tests at all are applied to the chin piece of full face helmets. Making minor changes below the eye line will not affect the safety of the helmet, provided you are gentle and use a minimalist approach.

Are the units noticable when mounted to helmets?
No. The Chatterbox Multisport+, for example, weighs less than 300gm including the headset. You will not notice it is there. Because it is mounted on the left side of the helmet people wonder if it causes extra windage, dragging your head to the left. Again this is not noticable. We know of a rider who reports no such problems at 190K on a naked bike.

Be aware of one problem. These units are obvious to passers-by, so if you are in the habit of locking your helmet to the bike and walking away, its probably a good idea to slip the intercom unit off first, and put it in your pocket. The headset mounted in the helmet will not be visible to opportunistic thieves. If this is a real worry for you, consider our bike alarm.

Why should I buy from Fox-Com - they are cheaper overseas?
We get this one all the time. Read the fine print carefully. What can seem an attractive price on a web-site can quickly turn into a nightmare. Let's do a quick comparison. This was done in March 2003 and may not reflect current prices or exchange rates. You will need to do the sums yourself, but the example is instructive. We take the popular HJC-50 for our example.

HJC-50. $US 75 (gee, that's cheap!)
Headsets - $US 60 (what - they weren't included?)
Extension cord - $US 20 (or that?)
Audio cord - $US 10 (or that either?)
Ah well, that still only comes to $A 295. We must be in front - until

Freight - DHL $A 75 (we kid you not)
Customs duty - $A 20 (did nobody mention that?)
GST - $A 39 (yes, you still have to pay it!)
Australian spec 240V, 50Hz charger, sourced locally $A 30 (oh yeah - the 110V charger is useless here)
All this now adds up to $A 459, while the locally sourced product is $A 425. This is an expensive way to save money! Now, in the unlikely event that you had a warranty claim take another look at the shipping. You are faced with the cost of shipping it back, and home again, because your warranty must be honoured by the supplier. Suddenly the already expensive bargain is looking sick.

The problem gets worse with the radio units. You can purchase anything we sell overseas, but they will operate in frequency bands approved locally, and not approved for use in Australia! Our radio units are already tuned to the correct frequency bands, so unlicenced operation is OK.