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From: root@ninja.dell.com (Randy Davis)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Looking for FM transmitter
Summary: Don't use combined earplug/mic for motorcycle
Message-ID: <5916@uudell.dell.com>
Date: 1 Jun 90 16:42:06 GMT
Sender: news@uudell.dell.com
Reply-To: rjd@ninja.dell.com@uudell.dell.com
Organization: Dell Computer Corp., Austin TX
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In article <61340@sgi.sgi.com> rpw3@sgi.com (Rob Warnock) writes:
|In article <27510002@hpcvia.CV.HP.COM> jayer@hpcvia.CV.HP.COM
|(Jay_Reinhart) writes:
|+---------------
|| I am looking for sources for a good wireless FM transmitter that is fairly
|| low cost. I need one that is small enough to fit inside a motorcycle helmet.
|| Or if it is cheaper I could just run the mike into the helmet and carry
|| the transmitter.
|+---------------
|
|Radio-Shack has a new version of their 49 MHz walkie-talkie that uses a
|combined earplug/mic, the kind that picks up your voice *out* through your
|ear. The actual transceiver is in a little box that mounts on a belt clip.
|The wire between is also the antenna.
|
|These things are not particularly cheap -- ~$80/pair -- but work fairly
|well at free-space ranges up to 1/4 mile. Sould be ideal for a bike.

 (They are much cheaper elsewhere - around $65/pair at Sams Wholesale as I
recall - usable, real-world range is much less than that also.)

  The consensus in rec.motorcycles seems to be that the combined mic/earphone
units are totally unusable on a motorcycle.   In addition, recent discussion
from those that use them indicate that the range on the 49MHz FM units are
totally unsuitable in motorcycle applications in general.  In particular, the
VOX (voice-activated mics) are pretty useless in the high-ambient-noise
enviroment of a motorcycle, primarily due to wind noise.  The only exception
to this sometimes is use on fully (and I mean completely) faired mototcycles
like the long-distance luxury tourers.

  As an alternative, many people have spoken highly of using simple CB units
on a motorcycle.  I am in the process of fabricating a headset to build into
my helmet, by mating a new mic and headphone arrangement to a matching mic
plug and external speaker plug on the $39 Uniden CB radios I bought at Service
Merchandise.  By the time I finish buying the parts, the antenna, etc..,
including the tank bag for my wife's bike (to mount her CB in), the cost will
have exceeded the cost of the FM units by quite a bit, yet I will have the
advantage of longer range and many more channels, plus the ability to
communicate with the more common CB radio crowd, if I so choose.

  For further opinions, perhaps a posting in rec.motorcycles would be more
appropriate, or at least cross-posted there.

Randy Davis					UUCP: rjd@ninja.dell.com
ZX-11 #00072 Pilot
DoD #00013

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