Re: Off Topic - Bike to Bike Communication

[Blake Sobiloff <sobiloff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David McCarthy wrote:

> Begging for help from anyone with any experience using bike to bike comms!

I briefly used a Chatterbox (49 MHz version), but happily sold it to one 
of my riding buddies when I moved. It worked OK at low to moderate 
speeds as long as I was pretty close to the other riders. The 
transmission quality dropped off pretty quickly with distance, however; 
if you've lost someone off the back of the group you probably aren't 
going to be able to talk with them to find out where they got lost. 
Also, I wasn't too keen on the idea of having something attached to my 
helmet should I decide to road test my gear.

This past weekend I tried the Autocom at the International Motorcycle 
Show. I'd been impressed by all the marketing claims, but was pretty 
reluctant to drop that much money on something that I hadn't tried. 
Also, it's so configurable that it can be a bit confusing as to exactly 
what you need to buy to support all the options you want.

After demo'ing it with Paul Master and the sales guy, all I can say is "
Wow!" I still can't vouch for the sound quality at speed, but they use 
microphones and signal processing that is more sophisticated than what 
you'll find in aircraft mics. Their VOX operation is excellent; it picks 
up extremely early, so you don't have to preface your statements with 
"uhm". All three of us talked simultaneously with very good clarity, and 
the music that was playing into they system would reduce in volume to 
let everyone talk without having to shout over the music. When folks 
finished talking, the system would increase the music volume again after 
a few seconds.

All their transmission is done via external transmitters, so you can 
pick the best one for your needs and legal requirements. Here in the US 
we can use 2 watt UHF, which gives an effective range of approximately 
two miles.

As with most things in life, it seems that you get what you pay for. I 
know what's on my Christmas list. <grin>

- -- 
Blake "Dawgbert" Sobiloff <sobiloff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Burlingame, CA, USA


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