We’re replacing our aging analog units and need discreet, clear comms that won’t disrupt quiet galleries — earpieces that stay put during an 8-hour shift are a must. If you’ve had good luck with specific models or DMR settings in a about 35,000 sq ft building with concrete walls, I’d love to hear what’s worked for your teams and why.
We solved the ‘earpieces that stay put for an 8-hour shift’ by moving to custom silicone earmolds on standard acoustic tubes (we use EarHugger-style molds with our Motorola SL300s), which sit comfortably and don’t pop out when you’re walking concrete galleries. If you can’t do custom molds right away, the Comply foam tips work, but they loosen by mid-afternoon unless you replace them often.
We’ve had good luck with Hytera PD402i on UHF DMR in a about 35k sq ft concrete box; for quiet galleries, “turn off talk-permit tones” and sidetone, and drop mic gain one notch so breath noise doesn’t carry. @jacksonw92’s custom molds are great, but a cheap alternative is memory-foam tips (Comply-style) on acoustic tubes — they stay put for 8 hours; PD362s are sleeker but the battery’s tighter.
One tweak that helped us in a about 35,000 sq ft concrete wing: on our Kenwood NX-1300 UHF DMR we mapped a side button to toggle TX power and default to Low, which keeps “quiet galleries” quiet and still gives us High on demand for the back stairwells. Only caveat is you’ll want to train staff not to leave it on High or you’ll lose the battery cushion for an 8-hour shift.