Manual / Operating the radio / 3.5

Headsets and open speaker

4 min read

Every player

A radio plays in your ear only through a headset. Without one, it plays out loud, where everyone near you hears it too.

3.5.1

Get a headset

Players start with bare ears. Open an armoury crate with E and press Home for the Headsets tab (4.3).

3.5.2

Switch it on

A headset comes out of the crate switched off. Press H to switch it on.

Switched off, a headset is an ear defenderYou hear the world more muffled than with bare ears. Switch it on and it gives you the world back, while still protecting you from loud bangs.

A headset never muffles the radio, only the world around you.

3.5.3

Leads

A lead connects one radio to your headset, both channels of it. A single-comm headset has one lead, so the first radio you carry is in your ear. A dual-comm has two: one radio in each ear.

Headset	What it is	Leads
Covert earpiece	One radio, one ear. The other ear stays open	1
ComTac III	Single comm, the old set	1
ComTac V or VI, single comm	One radio, both ears	1
ComTac V or VI, dual comm	Two radios, one per ear	2
Ops-Core AMP, single comm	Best at letting the world through	1
Ops-Core AMP, dual comm	The same, two radios	2

A radio with no lead plays out loud, and says why: it names the radios holding your leads.

3.5.4

Which ear

One radio heard: both ears. Two: the first in your left ear, the second in your right. The window's Ear row changes it, and on a face it's in OPTIONS or MODE.

3.5.5

Open speaker

Use Speaker on the wheel (or AUDIO on a face). The radio plays out loud: anyone within 40 studs hears it, less far at lower volume, and walls muffle it like a voice. It needs no lead.

3.5.6

Your microphone

With no headset you talk into the radio's own microphone and sound rougher to everyone. A headset's microphone sounds clean.

3.5.7

Settings for this page

Setting	What it does	Default
HeadsetSettings.Enabled	False: no headsets; every radio you carry is heard	true
HeadsetSettings.Default	What players wear before taking one. Empty is bare ears	""
HeadsetSettings.PowerOnTake	True: a headset is switched on the moment it leaves the crate	false
HeadsetSettings.SpeakerWithoutLead	True: a radio with no lead plays out loud. False: it stays silent	true
Keybinds.ToggleHeadset	Switches the headset on and off	H
Hearing.Enabled	False: headsets stop changing how the world sounds	true
Speaker.Enabled	False: nobody else hears a radio on speaker	true
Speaker.RangeStuds	How far a speaker carries at full volume	40

Headset settings live in their own file, RadioShared / Headsets / HeadsetSettings. Delete the Headsets folder and headsets are gone from the game.

3.4Squelch 3.6 Mesh relaying