Photos, specs, and the story behind the handheld tactical radio for multiplayer games. Everything on this page may be quoted or republished. For interviews, review units, or anything missing here, email the press desk; the founder reads it himself.
TACCOM is a handheld tactical radio, real hardware with real buttons, that gives players in DCS World, Star Citizen, EVE Online, and Nuclear Option authentic push-to-talk voice comms on tunable frequencies.
One paragraph
TACCOM is a standalone push-to-talk radio built for multiplayer games. Operators claim a callsign, tune a frequency like DCS.122.5, and key the mic; everyone tuned to that channel hears the transmission, on their own radio or live on taccom.io. The device monitors up to four channels at once, supports locked private squad frequencies, and runs on its own hardware over Wi-Fi with no PC software, overlay, or install. Every radio is made to order in the USA with the buyer's colors, engraving, and callsign, built in monthly batches, starting at $199. TACCOM is made by BlueUplink and was created by a laid-off software engineer who taught himself embedded engineering to build it.
Fast facts
The numbers, checkable against the live site.
Product
TACCOM v2 Wireless, a handheld push-to-talk radio for multiplayer games
Price
From $199. Custom shell and faceplate colors, laser engraving, callsign, encoder knob, and antenna options add $5 to $20 each.
How it ships
Made to order and built in monthly batches. Orders placed by the 15th ship with the following month's batch. A live countdown to the batch cutoff runs on the configurator.
Where it's made
Designed, engineered, and assembled by hand in the USA. Currently ships to US addresses.
Games
DCS World, Star Citizen, EVE Online, Nuclear Option, plus an open Misc band. Game-agnostic by design: if your squad can hear a radio, it works.
Free tier
Anyone can claim a callsign and listen to live public frequencies in the browser at taccom.io. No hardware required.
Private frequencies
Squads can claim a locked, access-controlled frequency for $9.99 per month.
Guarantee
One year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee on every radio.
Company
BlueUplink, founded by Edward. TACCOM is its first hardware product.
The story
It started with midair collisions.
TACCOM began the way a lot of good hardware does: with a recurring, annoying problem. The founder and his friends kept colliding with other players in DCS World, because a busy virtual airfield with no air traffic control is exactly as chaotic as it sounds. Voice chat apps made it worse. Everyone talks over everyone, and the one message that mattered gets buried.
Real aviation solved this decades ago with radio discipline: short calls, one at a time, on the right frequency. So he built a real radio for it. A physical handheld with a push-to-talk button you actually press, frequencies you actually tune, and transmissions that reach exactly the people monitoring that channel. His group now runs ATC-style coordination for their flights over TACCOM, on their own private frequency.
The philosophy carried into every detail. Transmissions end with a roger beep and a squelch tail, and the static gets louder as your Wi-Fi gets weaker, so signal quality is something you hear, not an icon you squint at. Tune a DCS radio to 121.5, the real-world emergency frequency, and the radio has an opinion about that too.
How it works
Not a phone call. A radio net.
TACCOM deliberately does not stream an open mic. Holding the transmit button records a short transmission; releasing it sends the clip over Wi-Fi to the TACCOM network, which fans it out to every radio and browser tuned to that frequency, typically arriving in about a second. Like a real radio net, transmissions are discrete, one at a time, and everyone on the channel hears the same traffic.
That store-and-forward design is what makes the rest possible: a frequency has a public page with a live, replayable transmission history, a whole community can monitor a channel without a server melting down, and a squad's private frequency stays private because access is enforced by the network, not by trust.
The radio itself needs nothing but Wi-Fi. There is no companion app, no PC install, and no overlay. First-run setup happens through the radio's own hotspot and a phone.
Photos & video
Click any download link for the full-resolution original. All images may be republished for coverage of TACCOM.
Espressif ESP32-S3 dual-core microcontroller on a custom PCB
Connectivity
2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. Transmissions push to radios in near real time, with first-run setup through the radio's own hotspot. The radio remembers up to five networks and joins the strongest.
Audio
16-bit voice transmissions, up to 10 seconds per keying. Class-D amplifier and speaker, electret microphone with automatic gain.
Display
128 x 64 OLED showing callsign, rank, channel, and who spoke last. Nine selectable live audio visualizer styles, including spectrum modes rendered with an on-device FFT. A tenth style is hidden behind a secret code.
Controls
Machined aluminum push-to-talk, broadcast, and power buttons, plus a rotary dial for tuning and volume
Channels
Tunable frequencies per game domain, in the form DCS.122.5. Monitor up to four channels at once, each with its own remembered volume. The broadcast button transmits to every monitored channel simultaneously.
Storage
microSD transmission queue; no audio is kept on the device after playback
Power
Internal rechargeable lithium battery, USB-C charging, runs indefinitely on USB power
Body
Customizable shell and faceplate in 7 shell and 10 faceplate colors, 8 laser-engraved panel patterns, custom image printing, and callsign engraving. Configured in a live 3D customizer at taccom.io/create.
Feedback
Radio-authentic sound design: key-up and key-down tones, incoming-transmission chirp, and a roger beep with a squelch tail whose static scales with Wi-Fi signal strength
The founder
One laid-off engineer, one soldering iron.
Edward spent his career as a software engineer before a layoff handed him an unplanned sabbatical. Instead of grinding out job applications, he used it to hone his embedded engineering skills. TACCOM is the result. He designed the circuit boards, wrote the firmware, built the web platform, and assembles every radio by hand in the USA under his company, BlueUplink.
He is available for interviews about the product, the build process, indie hardware, and going from laid-off software engineer to shipping a physical product. Email Press@taccom.io.
Details worth a paragraph
The small stuff that shows how the sausage is made.
Signal you can hear. Every received transmission ends with a roger beep and a burst of static, and the static gets longer and louder as the Wi-Fi gets weaker. The radio's signal meter is diegetic.
Guard frequency. Tune a DCS radio to 121.5, the real-world aviation emergency frequency, and you get a full-screen GUARD warning with a two-tone warble. There is no gameplay reason for this. It is simply correct.
A hidden visualizer. The OLED offers nine receive visualizer styles, and a tenth, ORBIT, unlocks only with a secret code entered on the radio. A factory reset locks it again, so the next owner has to earn it too.
Rank on the hardware. Operators earn XP for getting on the air, and their rank renders on the radio's screen under their callsign.
Burn-in drift. The whole OLED layout quietly orbits a couple of pixels to prevent burn-in. The manual explains it twice so nobody files a warranty claim over physics.
An honest configurator. The 3D customizer at /create renders your build live, engraving and all, under a permanent disclaimer that reads: "This is a poorly rendered concept preview. Final product may differ."
Journalist FAQ
The questions we get first.
Can I get a review unit?
Yes. Email Press@taccom.io with your outlet and mailing address. Loans and keeps are both fine, and we will set you up with frequencies and a second unit if your review format needs a conversation partner.
What does it cost and when does it ship?
Radios start at $199 and are built to order in monthly batches: order by the 15th and your radio ships with the following month's batch. Customization options add $5 to $20 each.
Do I need the hardware to try it?
No. A free account at taccom.io gets you a callsign and live browser listening on public frequencies, and the 3D customizer is open to everyone. The hardware is the full experience, but you can hear real traffic today.
Is player voice public?
Public frequencies are public, like real radio, and their traffic is replayable on taccom.io. Operators can restrict their transmissions to radio owners only, and squads can lock a private frequency so only their access list can hear it, on the device and on the web.
Which games does it work with?
TACCOM has dedicated frequency bands for DCS World, Star Citizen, EVE Online, and Nuclear Option, plus an open Misc band. It runs alongside any game rather than integrating with game clients, so there is nothing to install and nothing for an anti-cheat to object to.
