In car communicators for instruction

Many years ago I bought what seemed to be the de-facto instructor communicator, the Chatterbox HJC-50. It was never really great but worked. This past year I found that it was really not working well, my student and I couldn't really hear each other while the car was in motion and the sound was quite distorted. I also now have a helmet with built in radio wiring (because endurance racing), and it might be nice to use that.

Rather than just keep my current Chatterbox and buy an adapter for my helmet (Chatterbox 5 pin to Nascar, sold by HMS motors), and another new boom mic and speaker for my student, is there anything better out there now? I'm looking for something that doesn't cost $300, is easily portable for each student, sounds decent, and ideally would have a way to plug into the Nascar plug wiring on my helmet.

Give a call to HMS, they have a new one they just came out with, but I can't remember the name of it and I don't see it on their website. It seemed to be better built than the chatterbox standing next to it when I was up at their Boston store last month. It seemed like a solid choice.

I've used a Chatterbox Tandem Pro 2 for 4-5 years now and it has never failed me. I have an Arai with helmet speakers and mic and use an IMSA to 1/8" DIN adapter for the Chatterbox TP2. I can hear them breathing (or when they're holding their breath) and never had any issues with them reading me 5/5.

The TP2 is cheap and unless there is something else wireless (and as reliable) then I can't see a need to upgrade.

The real crime is the cost of IMSA and NASCAR adapters.'

Edit: Just looked at TP2 reviews and they aren't good. Maybe QC issues? Mine has been great.

Thanks for the suggestion for HMS, I'm going to give their Trac-Com a try. It is a bit pricey, but seems like a much more durable and quality option than regularly replacing chatterboxes, and it will plug right into my helmet.

I'm gonna bump this thread rather than start a new one. I got one of them fancy Black Armor helmets with the IMSA mod-pod, only to find out that it won't work with Chatterboxen, even with an IMSA adapter. I read somewhere a while ago that the Trac-Com unit would work, but I'm ready to buy and I can't confirm whether that's true or not. Does anyone have experience with this specific combo?

Mine worked well with the NASCAR plug setup I have on my helmet, worked fine right from the start, and the whole thing seems much better quality than the chatterbox ever did. I wish it were a bit louder, but it is fine. No experience with the IMSA plugs, sorry, though I'm also interested as a black armor is likely to be my next helmet.

Glad to hear it's working out well. Are you using it with normal earbuds, or do you use the "good" stuff with the hearing aid transducers?

Normal earbuds and some with custom molded inserts around the earbud.

I know they're a bit spendy, but my communication life significantly improved when I bought the hearing aid transducer ones (embedded in the orange ear plugs). Everyone on my team found them worth the $75 or whatever it cost over the ipod version.