Topic: in-race communication

What kind of radios are anyone running with?  we have to get some sort of set-up going for the stafford race, so i just want to see how much money we are going to have to sink into this.  The real deal systems were around $1000 that i saw, which is a bit pricey.

Any ideas?

Re: in-race communication

What I have used in the past is a pair of CBs.  One in the car, microphone where it can be reached during yellow flags, etc., and one on a cart or box for the spotter.  A fully-charged standard car battery will run a CB for two race days, easy.  CBs can be had for $20 and up on Craigslist.
What does not work are FRS/GMRS radios, or at least they don't work in a car without windshield glass.  Too much wind noise.

TST, fool.

It's a Bunny.  With a pancake.  On its head.  Really, is it that tough?

Re: in-race communication

One big advantage to CBs- in addition to cheapness- is that they work well when there's no line-of-sight between transmitter and receiver (as is the case at hilly tracks like Thunderhill or Reno-Fernley). VHF and especially UHF radios don't do so well under non-line-of-sight conditions. The problem with CBs is that truckers with 500-watt CB amplifiers in the next county will step on you, which happened to the CB-using teams at Reno-Fernley.

The radio I rigged up for the V8olvo at Thunderhill was a GMRS walkie-talkie (Midland G-11) with a removable rubber-ducky antenna. I picked up a 460 MHz mobile antenna and cable on eBay and hooked it up on the roof. Then I ran the earphone output of the radio through a cheapo amplifier and some door speakers, and modified a $3 CB mic to plug into the mic jack. It worked OK most of the time- definitely audible to the driver, as well as drivers in nearby cars- but the limited number of FRS/GMRS channels means that other teams will be on your channel, and the privacy codes aren't all that effective. Also, I've since learned that it's illegal to put an external antenna on a handheld GMRS radio.

Re: in-race communication

I was going to use my Nextel at CMP last April but it turns out that Nextel was the only carrier to not have coverage at the track.  Screwed.

I kind of like the CB idea though.  Might have to look into that one.....

Mike
Lab Rats Motorsports
1988 Mitsubishi/Dodge/Fiat Colt Carpocalypse Edition

Re: in-race communication

I'd like to chime in here, we used CB's with head sets...total fail.  Actually spent as much on stupid head set adapters and cb's and antennas as a decent radio system and it is a total fail.  And now we have no budget for a better fail.

6 (edited by the head 2009-06-11 07:00 AM)

Re: in-race communication

I went to all of those race radio websites and checked out their used equipment to see what they were using (primarily Vectra VX-160 or Kenwood TK series radios) then scoured the ebay for costruction companies using the same units and picked some up, buy some headsets from cricket.com (throat mic, air core earpiece and finger mounted PTT for $40 or those spiffy racing radios ones for $80 and you are set. )

There is an auction for a lot of 25 vectras right now at under $300 on ebay with chargers (only 15 of them work currently but you could sell a few sets to other teams to recoup some of the cost as they usually sell used for $60ish a pair)

Formerly an asshole driving an Infinity
Now just another cock with a Porsche
Chief bad decision maker of Team Lowbrau

7 (edited by Tyrannosullyrex 2009-06-11 07:11 AM)

Re: in-race communication

We used something like this with GMRS radios, just velcro in the bit, plug it in and go.  Worked very well.

http://www.frys.com/product/4916291


Ours didn't have the boom mic, but the microphone velcroed onto the chin bar of the helmet.

8 (edited by Mulry 2009-06-11 07:18 AM)

Re: in-race communication

We borrowed a Motorola VHF setup for the Houston race this spring and it worked pretty well everywhere on the course except sometimes when we were back on the turn that we called "tires," the tight right-hander that was lined on both sides by tires and led to the left-hand carousel turn. Next time we plan to use a similar setup but add a cheapie quarter-wave antenna onto the roof, which should fix the problem most places we race. It wasn't cheap to get the car harness and earplugs and helmet setups but it was well worth it to us, as the earplugs are comfortable enough and we always had good comms with our spotter.

On a related note, it would be a nice thing if Lemons teams could be made aware of the race control frequency at the tracks so that we could monitor the channel for yellow and black flags. It would definitely make the race safer, as sometimes our rookie drivers in their misty-red-eyed conditions would unintentionally miss a local yellow or a black. At a track like Houston where the corner workers are way the hell back from the corners, it would be a nice thing to have.

At Nelson Ledges, this would seem to be a must-do given the overnight conditions and the reported lack of visibility out on the Carousel. Have you seen how close to the track some of those trees are? I can't wait to race that place!

Pat Mulry, TARP Racing #67

Mandatory disclaimer: all opinions expressed are mine alone & not those of 24HOL, its mgmt, sponsors, etc.

Re: in-race communication

I've been to Nelson and it does get hairy.  Watch out as dusk!  Lots of critters suddenly decide they want to cross the track when the sun goes down.  I whacked what might have been a beaver while doing a buck twenty-five right before the kink.  It ripped off the splitter and sheared off the oil filter and radiator tank.  Suddenly, I had all my oil and coolant on my rear tires in a high speed turn.  It wasn't pretty, but I kept two wheels on the track and I never spun.

Cool track, but not much run-off before you become a lumberjack.

BRE Datsun (Broke Racing Effluence) formerly Dawn of the Zed Racing
'74 260Z
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/editpicture.php … 2559430584

Re: in-race communication

MurileeMartin wrote:

Also, I've since learned that it's illegal to put an external antenna on a handheld GMRS radio.

So is that Illegal in Lemons rules or just Illegal with them "radio hounds". I would hate to "step" or "drive" on anyone's toes:)

Team: V-Ram/Altamont Team: Knights of the Round Track/Reno/Buttonwillow/Thunderhill Team: Death Mobile/Sears 2010/Thunderhill/ChumpCar  Spokane/ MSR Houston/Buttonwillow/Sears. MRolla Project /Reno
http://stickfigureracing.blogspot.com/

Re: in-race communication

Bender/StickFigureRacing wrote:
MurileeMartin wrote:

Also, I've since learned that it's illegal to put an external antenna on a handheld GMRS radio.

So is that Illegal in Lemons rules or just Illegal with them "radio hounds". I would hate to "step" or "drive" on anyone's toes:)

Just the radio hounds. What happens between you and the FCC and/or gangs of roving ham radio freaks is not our concern.

Re: in-race communication

Since it's way more important for the spotter to talk to the driver than the other way around, one-way communication might be good enough. A 1-watt FM transmitter (readily obtained on eBay), a crappy homemade dipole antenna, and a junkyard radio in the car would get the job done.

Re: in-race communication

I was thinking of using a in car repeater like this one:
http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2005/04/21/1/antenna-car-1-lrg.JPG

Team: V-Ram/Altamont Team: Knights of the Round Track/Reno/Buttonwillow/Thunderhill Team: Death Mobile/Sears 2010/Thunderhill/ChumpCar  Spokane/ MSR Houston/Buttonwillow/Sears. MRolla Project /Reno
http://stickfigureracing.blogspot.com/

Re: in-race communication

MurileeMartin wrote:
Bender/StickFigureRacing wrote:
MurileeMartin wrote:

Also, I've since learned that it's illegal to put an external antenna on a handheld GMRS radio.

So is that Illegal in Lemons rules or just Illegal with them "radio hounds". I would hate to "step" or "drive" on anyone's toes:)

Just the radio hounds. What happens between you and the FCC and/or gangs of roving ham radio freaks is not our concern.

At the risk of having my metal fillings start humming the Star Spangled Banner, there's nothing dorkier than a convention of ham radio freaks. They're worse than the subset of Klingon-speaking Star Trek conventioneers who continue to insist that the best way to communicate on the Intarweb is via IRC on a Commodore Amiga, which, they will tell you, was underappreciated even in its own era. Hard core radio guys make Lemons guys look perfectly well adjusted.

Pat Mulry, TARP Racing #67

Mandatory disclaimer: all opinions expressed are mine alone & not those of 24HOL, its mgmt, sponsors, etc.

Re: in-race communication

Mulry wrote:

Hard core radio guys make Lemons guys look perfectly well adjusted.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news_images/2008-5-27-wife_lowres.jpg

Re: in-race communication

FreeRange wrote:
Mulry wrote:

Hard core radio guys make Lemons guys look perfectly well adjusted.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news_images/20 … lowres.jpg

Is that Pat?:)

Team: V-Ram/Altamont Team: Knights of the Round Track/Reno/Buttonwillow/Thunderhill Team: Death Mobile/Sears 2010/Thunderhill/ChumpCar  Spokane/ MSR Houston/Buttonwillow/Sears. MRolla Project /Reno
http://stickfigureracing.blogspot.com/

Re: in-race communication

Bender/StickFigureRacing wrote:

I was thinking of using a in car repeater like this one:
http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2005/ … -1-lrg.JPG

The benefit of a setup like that is you can microwave some food in the car while racing.......

Re: in-race communication

sergio wrote:
Bender/StickFigureRacing wrote:

I was thinking of using a in car repeater like this one:
http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2005/ … -1-lrg.JPG

The benefit of a setup like that is you can microwave some food in the car while racing.......

I would love to nuke a burrito and have a cold one while racing.

http://www.ducttapemotorsports.com/
http://www.teamdfl.com
"I can see it now, a pile of nickels and all the glory of being a real race car driver."
Prepping the Red wReck for the 24 Hours of Lemons

Re: in-race communication

I used I -Com race radios from my buddies desert racetruck .permanent in car and portable out of car .

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Re: in-race communication

We're thinking about getting a pair of Motorola Talkabout radios (with a PTT helmet kit), but saw some awful reviews for the newer higher end models that we thought would be good.

For anyone that's used something like this, what kind of 2-way radio did you go with, and did it work well?

21 (edited by Mulry 2009-06-15 12:36 PM)

Re: in-race communication

Going back to the old Yahoo group, the consensus was that generally, FRS/GMRS radios fare poorly in this application. Some teams have made them work, but most are dissatisfied with the results. I think it has something to do with these cars being too fast for the slow radio waves the FRS/GMRS radios put out.

Ok, I made up that last part. But the first part is true.

If you look around your local area, there are often two-way radio vendors that have daily, weekend, and multi-day two-way radio rental packages using VHF or UHF systems. Those tend to do better at these events.

BTW, you might not want to tell them that you're going to be using their radios in your crapped out Lemons race car or they might decide not to rent to you. I'm not saying you should lie or anything, but you might want to think about how much voluntary information you want to give out...

Pat Mulry, TARP Racing #67

Mandatory disclaimer: all opinions expressed are mine alone & not those of 24HOL, its mgmt, sponsors, etc.

Re: in-race communication

trlstanc wrote:

We're thinking about getting a pair of Motorola Talkabout radios (with a PTT helmet kit), but saw some awful reviews for the newer higher end models that we thought would be good.

For anyone that's used something like this, what kind of 2-way radio did you go with, and did it work well?

We had problems with our Motorola T8530R and EM1000R handsets at Reno-Fernley on the driver's end. We purchased a boom mic headset at the last minute and the thinking was that we could use the iVOX feature on the highest setting and that would eliminate the need for a PTT button. To say that our thinking was flawed would be an understatement.

First, the noise in our cockpit was so loud that at random times the driver mic would begin transmitting. Another point about the noise, unless you have an in ear headphone the driver cannot understand much of what you are saying beyond a couple of words (they are understandably preoccupied). Also, while I tend to be very close lipped when watching my life flash before my eyes when the Sharks 4 wheel slide past you, but if you have a "talker" on your team when they eventually pit you'll be able to bust their chops the rest of the weekend.

Luckily we also had a mono headset which we gave to the driver and when we wanted them to pit we would just press the notify button which would transmit a series of tones. Other than that we just kept a spotter around the track and left the driver to do the driving.

Stuntman Mike
I Wanna Roc

Re: in-race communication

Mulry wrote:

Hard core radio guys make Lemons guys look perfectly well adjusted.

One of my drivers is a ///BMW nut (although he doesn't take himself too seriously - he was the one that came up with our theme) and a HAM geek. His HAM call sign is N2BMW. Really.

http://photos.linquist.net/photos/420609822_RLpug-L.jpg

The Homer: Powerful like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a Nerf ball.

24 (edited by Tajracing45 2009-06-19 09:38 AM)

Re: in-race communication

We used Midland 2 way radios and they worked great.  We'd double back tape the mic with the PTT on the helmet with the earpiece attached the driver could send and receive fine.  The only drawback (if you even call it one) was that there was another team on our frequency and by the time we heard it it was too late.  Again, no big deal but we did have to say the drivers name just so our guy knew we wanted to talk to him. 
As for mounting, we had the radio in the car secured in a box over the drivers left shoulder so plugging / unplugging would be quick and easy during driver changes.

Travis
www.TAJRacing.com

10th Kershaw in 2008
13th Kershaw #1 in 2009

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We are the people your parents warned you about.

Re: in-race communication

since we've already ordered ours, i think that this company makes a good solution to the problem.

http://www.rap4.com/paintball/os/throat … -2799.html

$165.00


two hand sets
two throat mics
two chargers

is win?

No Budget Racing
Chief Instigator
1991 Ponticrap OnFirebird
Racing a Camaro/Firebird at Lemons is a box full of fail, thats why we do it.