Recently I purchased a set of Midland GXT1030G walkie-talkies for communicating with my wife while bike riding and camping. The primary feature I was looking for was a good VOX walkie-talkie. Unfortunately, after receiving the set we could not communicate reliably with the VOX feature. Communication was very spotty at best. Is there a good set of walkie-talkies that are also great at VOX communication you would recommend? The radios I received seem like great walkie-talkies, but the VOX feature is really lacking.
Welcome to the forum!
It’s kind of a loaded question tbh, because VOX is not that cut and dry. While it depends somewhat on the type and model of radio you are using, there are other factors that determine its sensitivity and performance as well, so just swapping radios isn’t necessarily going to improve VOX operation.
Fortunately you’ve come to the right place. We’ve covered VOX in the forum and on our site, so we have resources that will help you understand the feature better and perhaps help you maximize VOX performance and capability on your existing radios. In fact, not long ago I wrote an article on our blog about it that answers your question.
Here is a short video that sums up VOX
Radio 101 - Using VOX on two way radios
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With most of the VOX radios I’ve had over the years, we always start the conversation with “do da do da”
to get things going. 
I tried the vox route for riding bikes also and gave up. Mostly because the radios would key on every sound.
I searched on motorcycle head sets. There are quite a few out there where you can add speakers and a mike to the bike helmet. They have a wired PTT button that is then velcro’d to the handlebar with a quick disconnect.
Maybe an option if you decide to go another route.
Enjoy
Hi I’m new and have the same question, but I’ll specify a bit:
I’m an electrician, working primarily in old, 3-storey homes. I’d like something I can use for relatively short distance, but thorough plaster and wood; like me in the basement and my helper on the 3rd floor. Sometimes we can use our phones, but not always.
However, most importantly: I’d like something I can clip to the front collar of my T-shirt, crawl/snake my way across a dinky piece of wobbly plywood in the unfinished attic crawl-space and not worry about knocking a headset off my head because the roof is 2" above me. There are times when it’s literally easier to lie down with my head facing sideways to slip into a narrow space and squiggle along like the invertebrate that I am. Once in place, I want to have my hands free -so I definitely want voice activation.
Beyond grunts and curses, the environment is relatively quiet and so my helper and I are both willing to tolerate picking up some external noise if it means we can communicate better.
Unfortunately, my helper is Mennonite …which means he is a really nice guy and a hard worker, but doesn’t know how to yell loud. 
We don’t do this often so I’m hoping to spend $150-$200 and I don’t want to get any kind of ham operator’s license.
So, in short:
Easy vox
Decent range
Plaster and wood obstructions
No headset
Any suggestions?
TIA!
-Greg
Lots of the bubble pack radios will do the job and have vox. Oddly, the last thing you want is ham radio. Specifically that cannot be used for business - and is simply controlled hobby radio. Your licence free radios will do the trick, but I suggest contacting the forum owners for suggestions that will work for you - they have somne good solid products.
I’d never heard (being a Brit) of Mennonites - interesting reading.
You have lots of options. As Paul says, most FRS radios have VOX capability. There is a wide range of quality/price points in FRS but if you want the radios to last for years and survive a few drops to a concrete floor, the Wouxun FRS is a great radio.
If you live in the U.S., then MURS radios are also an option. They are less crowded than FRS radios because so many kids, businesses and drive-throughs in a 4-block radius will all be potentially interfering on the 22 FRS channels. MURS uses public licence-free frequencies in the U.S. but far fewer users mean the five MURS channels are fine for most people.
Just look for VOX capability on the radio descriptions.
As for headsets, a good surveillance headset will work. The speaker is at the end of a tube that sits in your ear, and the microphone can clip to the collar of your shirt.
If you explore headsets, the single most common failure point on consumer-grade FRS radios is the headset socket. They often use a single pin connector and that puts a lot of strain on the radio. The Wouxun, being more business-grade, uses the common Kenwood two-pin connector and there are hundreds of good, professional-grade headsets avaialble.
If you like the idea of surveillance headsets then here are the best pieces of advice I can give you from having spent 30 years of 14-hour days with a radio on my belt and a headset in my ear.
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Buy GOOD surveillance headsets, with replaceable parts. If you wear them every day, you will be replacing the plastic tube every few months.
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Throw away the ear plug that comes with the headset and get ear molds sized to your ear. They are cheap, and they don’t block off ambient noise.
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Avoid any headsets that come with noise-cancelling microphones. In quiet environments, you don’t need them and the mic must be moved much closer to your Menno friend’s mouth.
VOX is not always 100% reliable, so it helps to have a surveillance mic clipped to your collar with a PTT handy for when VOX fails.
Also, read and listen to all the information our forum hosts on buytwowayradios have assembled for you.
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