Two Way Radios with VOX
 

My wife, son (4 years old), and I were biking today for a few hours. In order to keep my son's interest and hopefully build a love of cycling I try to point out fun stuff as we roll along. He also likes to co-create stories. Both of these things keep him from getting bored on long rides but it is really tough to yell back and forth. He is so soft spoken I end up craning my head around and am worried about getting in an accident. My wife wants to get some hands-free radios. I have done a little research and learned about VOX and seen some headsets on Amazon.

It would seem that with the radios I already own Motorola Talkabouts (1x T250 and 2x T6400 for what it is worth) I could just get some headsets and be good to go.

Curious if anyone has tried this and what the pitfalls might be? I can think of several (road noise messing up VOX, getting good audio, etc)

Thanks!

Yup. Road noise would definitely be a factor. Maybe things have improved on VOX since I played with it on FRS radios but I eventually gave up and used a "key up" button on a lapel type mic (like you see police use).

And I think my first FRS units with headsets --I turned off VOX, kept the headphones, and used the mic key on the unit base (clipped to my collar or chest pocket).

Reliable vox is the issue. Wind noise, heavy breathing, etc. can trip it. Wind over the mic and over the ears also interferes with audio quality. Some may know of better solutions, but PTT is what I would recommend.

I think i'll piggy back on this topic. I was on a family ride yesterday, pulling a trailer with a 2 1/2 yr old. I would love to point things out to him as we're riding along the path, especially when we're along the river route with plenty of activity for him to see. however, given his age, I would prefer something that I can mount or lay in the trailer as to not worry about him finding the talk button or keeping a headset on. any ideas would be great.

A few years back, ear piece microphones were available. I'm not sure if they're still out there or not. The ear piece functions both as a speaker and a mike. They don't trip the mike as much in vox mode, and there is little background noise transmitted and then received on the other end. May be worth a look.

We use a Cobra two way radio for baby monitor (which essentially turns it into one way radio). VOX works OK from inside the trailer but it's quite sensitive. I doubt it would work well with wind noise, traffic etc. Motorcyclists seem to use same radios with the optional "handsfree" set (earbud plus microphone) but they tend to have full face helmets, a lot less ambient noise there. Maybe just use the earbud/microphone with the manual "talk" trigger?

--J

You see pro cyclists using radios. They typically have an earphone taped in an ear and the mic with PTT is on the cord. They lift the mic near to their mouth to talk. Not very convenient, IMO.

I have a pair (actually 4) of Cardo BK-1 headsets for my family and they work GREAT! They retail for wads but I've found the pair on ebay for 180 before.

Technically, you can pair three of them on an open intercom but I've accidentally gotten all 4 working before. They're voice activated and the wind filter is fantastic. I also use the bluetooth feature to pair my phone and I've taken phone calls while riding and the wind noise is apparently quite minimal (according to my wife). Up to 20 mph and they still work well. You can also stream music from your phone if you're into that sort of thing. I prefer to save my battery.

cardo BK-1

There's a pair on fleabay right now for under 200. Cardo BK 1 Duo | eBay

They look a little dorky but my son loves them because he can chatter up a storm while we're riding. I can also give him tips and pointers while we're riding, coordinate stop signs and all that good stuff. The range is something like 500 yards.

I'm not affiliated with them in any way, shape or form but a friend of mine got some first and raved about them and I haven't regretted getting mine either.

I just saw these from Kenwood:

Kenwood - PKT-23K

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=375577

You can get them for about $145 on Amazon. They have 4 channels that are programmable and it's 1.5W of UHF so they'd be good for probably 5 miles line of sight. They are around the size of a credit card and weigh 3.9 ozs. I haven't looked into the frequencies they are pre-programmed for and I'm going to check with my radio provider to see if they can be programmed for other GMRS frequencies. I've done that with some other business band radios I have where I programmed some of the unused channels for GMRS (we have a GMRS license - anyone can get one) that we then use for skiing in the mountains.

I believe Kenwood has, or is readily available from third parties, an earbud speaker/mike. Probably could get something to work with a standard bluetooth headset.

That looks pretty attractive to me.

J.

A big plus one on the Cardo BK 1.
when my sister-in-law gave a set to my brother and I, we were not very impressed. Until about 5 minutes into our first ride with them. We can talk as if we are sitting next to each other, this is whether we are riding a pace line or several blocks away. These things are great, and they are Bluetooth so they connect to our cel phones.

another plus one for the Cardo units. We have 4 sets and couldn't imagine riding with the kids without them.

Hmm. Interesting.

Looks like Motorola Solution has a new talk about out that supports blue tooth headsets - the MU350R. You still need to push the PTT button unless you turn on VOX in the radio. I'm wondering how well that would work. The cost would be about $120 presuming you already have the headset compared to about $400 for the Cardo units. Too, it has much longer range.

J.

Ok, so I did my home work on these and bought a set on eBay for about half price (but brand new). Looks like impressive gear. While we haven't ridden them as a couple yet, the audio is superb. It's a clever concept for the speakers to "hover" over your ear - you have complete situational awareness such that it was just not something to worry about. You also can't really tell you have them attached - no pressure on anything, no pain in the ears, no noticeable increased weight on the helmet. I did about an hour and a half ride with them and listened to music and the fidelity was surprisingly good.

So, if these work as well as I think they should, this is going to be a great solution.

J.

Mine seem to be a little fussy when I first start them up, but once they're connected they really are the bomb. I think you'll be pleased.

Now I need to learn how to tell my son that if he talks less, he could probably ride faster. :lol:

Yeah, I'm pretty excited. My wife and I like to ride together, but often it becomes the two of us doing individual activities together. It's just not possible to share things we see etc... which is half the fun of riding in new places. So, I'm pretty excited about these - should make it a lot more fun. Doubly iso since our riding theme together is to try new trails and rides where when I ride by myself, it's usually a training run over one of my several well worn routes.

J.

I thought I'd add to this - weather finally cooperated and we did a ride with these this weekend (Cardo BK-1 duo). I'm really impressed with these, but more importantly, my wife is really impressed. It's possible to have a normal conversation while you're riding along. Really was helpful for making sure that we stayed together, pointing out road hazard, talking about stuff we saw on the ride etc... Both of us ride along a decent clip, so it's not particularly conducive to having a conversation without them. With these, you don't even have to talk in a loud voice, just a nice conversational tone.

You an also pair these up to your phone. If you get separated, you can call the other person. All they have to do is talk to answer the phone or just stay quiet to reject it. Works great!

I wish we'd had these years ago. Great product, and highly recommended. Really adds a lot to the ride and it makes it much more of a shared experience than it would be without them. Importantly, it does a lot for safety with traffic, route changes, hazards on the road etc...

J.