I was walking through the aisles at Modern Day Marine when I ran across the Quantico Tactical booth. It was like a mini trade show in itself, but one thing I wanted to get out right away was this Bluetooth Module for tactical comms headsets from Tactical Command Industries. It was set up as a component on a rig like you see below and was so unobtrusive I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it if Retired TACP Jim Price hadn’t pointed it out to me.
I picked it up to check it out. It’s super simple, connecting to the switch via a pigtail with just a few buttons to conncet your Bluetooth enabled device to the rest of your comms. The hardened three button design is standard with many commercially available Bluetooth headsets and earpieces and the buttons are large enough to be used with gloves on. It is rechargeable via mini USB.
Think about how often you use a cell phone. Now, you can integrate it into your gear, when needed. For some, it will be your primary comms. Others will fit it into the PACE structure somewhere. Shoot, some guys will connect their cell just so they can listen to music through their headphones.
Granted, this isn’t the first deployment of a means to integrate cell service. But this was designed by TCI to work specifically with their widely deployed dual communications architecture found in the later R.3 and the new R.4 dual push-to-talk systems. TCI’s dual communications system is specifically designed to separate the two audio channels so there is no shared connections and no physical or electronic way for audio from one channel to bleed into the transmission on the other. Additionally, their PTT’s incorporate a lock out feature that disables the opposite PTT switch from the one that is in use. Because of these features, a cellular device, which requires no PTT as the microphone is active once a call is placed/accepted, has its audio in mute mode while the other channel is in active use. This prevents radio traffic, either received or transmitted, from being heard on the cell phone. This feature keeps radio transmissions, which may be encrypted, off of the cell phone audio. That would be a major problem, enabling threats to work to undermine our encryption. This system is by far more secure than the common practice of using a cell phone by lifting up an earcup to talk on it. This may actually expose the phone to radio traffic that is not cleared for cell phone transmission resulting in inadvertant disclosure.
Finally, the module is impedance agnostic. It will work with both high and low impedance headsets. There is no need for an extra cable or impedance matching hardware to be incorporated.
The Blue Tooth Adapter from Tactical Command Industries is available for unit and agency purchase through Quantico Tactical.
