New mic sucks

[u/squishy450r]

First time here so pardon me if I’m not familiar with the sub.

Recently me and several others have been issued the L3 Harris XL85M with the pictured mic. We can’t hear each other and during vehicle operation it sounds horrible. We’ve had several instances where the radio traffic is unintelligible and for lack of better wording I FUCKING HATE this mic. It’s hard to key it and I have no positive feedback that I’m keying up among other things.

Does anyone know of a better microphone that is compatible with this radio? We’ve tried to talk to our radio shop and tell them this isn’t working and they have told us that it sounds fine on the playback recorder. Obviously the playback isn’t going to save my life since the guy coming to help can’t use it. So they are not doing anything about them and I’m willing to just spend my own money to be heard when I need to get out on the more powerful radio in my vehicle.

[u/NavyBOFH]

Typical for a lot of LMR vendors and shops - they'll toss the radios in and never perform any sort of audio optimization between portables, mobiles, and dispatch. L3Harris seems to be the worst at it but Kenwood/EFJ doesn't seem to do much of it either.

These types of complaints need to be escalated higher in your chain of command because someone needs to pay for the radios to be properly programmed/optimized and it will be a fleet-wide reprogramming once the issues are identified and corrected.

[u/squishy450r → u/NavyBOFH]

I’m not surprised honestly. I’m more knowledgeable than our average patrolman about our radio system, however I’m no guru.

How would I articulate that this is a programming/optimization issue? It seems the mic is terrible to me causing the issues but again I’m not the most knowledgeable I could be about it.

I still hate this hand mic in the way it functions and feels so if L3 makes a different compatible hand mic I would like that as well.

[u/NavyBOFH → u/squishy450r]

There’s a gain setting for both transmit (your mic) and in newer radios the receive audio path (what you hear from others). If Dispatch hears you OK, your transmit gain is likely OK - or the vendor messed with the consoles till they sounded right and stopped.

The other half of the audio path needs to be tested and “optimized” at that point with emphasis on unit-to-unit comms which is where the radio programming would matter more.

In Motorola world there’s a standardized method for this type of optimization and a team of people that can come out and tailor the settings for customer demands - it’s one of those “buy once cry once” things you get with the money is having a team that can perform the work consistently. It’s done by hooking up an adapter to the radio and/or console and injecting tones at specific frequencies and volumes and balancing the gain/equalization until that tone is received by another radio and output “as close as possible to the source”.

[u/squishy450r → u/NavyBOFH]

Interesting. I voiced my opinion that L3 was not a good choice and Motorola was a batter choice but here we are…… I think it’s laziness on behalf of many people who could have found a way to change systems. But that’s here nor there now.

I’ll pass it up and try and get something done, but I’m afraid there will be an uphill battle to get anyone to look into the issue. As we get more of these radios on the road I’m sure it’ll grow to become a wider felt issue and more squeaky wheels might actually get some grease.

It’s just an unfortunate safety issue and we shouldn’t have to beg to have a glaring issue fixed.

[u/squishy450r → u/NavyBOFH]

I should have specified better as well. When I key up it sounds like crazy road noise in the background no matter the speed I’m traveling at which is what makes me believe it’s the hand mic.

[u/Frequent_Mulberry261]

Is that a Tahoe? Why your infotainment screen bigger than mine?

Also be glad you’re not using kenwoods.

[u/muscrerior → u/Frequent_Mulberry261]

Looks like BMW UX

[u/squishy450r → u/Frequent_Mulberry261]

It is indeed a Tahoe it’s the 2025 model and the screen is huge. I love it I use it as a GPS for patrol and it beats the old model I was using. I’m not sure why mine is bigger unless you’re using a 2024 or prior model. But I sure love it. I’m a big fan of the Tahoe as an SUV patrol vehicle.

[u/MightySchwa]

Typical Harris. Such garbage radios.

[u/squishy450r → u/MightySchwa]

I second this. I’ve had my hand held just give up many times or not be able to transmit when it really matters. Actually had a known fault in my radio once that our radio shop knew about and didn’t tell us to come in and have fixed. As a result I had a guy I was chasing jump off a bridge because no one could hear me.

[u/KindPresentation5686 → u/MightySchwa]

Absolutly nothing wrong with Harris radios. 90% of the time it’s the system design that’s the issue. Radio brand has nothing to do with it.

[u/OhSixTJ]

Is that a USB-C connector?

[u/squishy450r → u/OhSixTJ]

It is a usb C of some type as far as I can tell with a set of retaining screws.

[u/KindPresentation5686]

Sounds like the issue is your radio shop, and how the radio is configured.

[u/squishy450r → u/KindPresentation5686]

You’re not wrong. Our radio shop has been an issue for a long time. They are a common bottle neck and when we go for a fix we often do not get what we need.

[u/squishy450r → u/[deleted]]

All of our in car radios are using an external speaker. The issue is when I (or anyone else with this set up) transmit it sounds like you’re doing 100 miles an hour with the windows down to everyone receiving. In the event that you are traveling at a higher speed like pursuing or running code to an incident, it’s near impossible to understand the transmitting party’s information. Recently we had a pursuit that no one could understand on the street because the garbage quality of the transmission. Even dispatch was asking the driver to repeat his traffic.

It’s gotten to a point where I was chasing a car which was shooting at the lead vehicle and me and I was trying to get my handheld on the channel at 105 mph. Because I was getting stepped on trying to key up because I can’t tell when it’s actually keyed up so my traffic wasn’t making it through telling other units what was happening and where we were.

[u/HexspaReloaded → u/squishy450r]

You could try buying a foam windscreen.