Is anyone using in-car radios to listen
to race control? Is it a good idea?
How much would it cost to setup?

Thanks
Sid

PS. Just passed comp school at gateway and
made it through 3 races. More fun and
intense than I imagined!

I use really cheap basic motorola GPRS family radios. The cheap kind you get for $45 a pair. I use an ear bud to hear. Talking to the my radio guy is nearly impossible due to the ambient noise. Still it is cheap.

There are other set-up that work better, but will cost more than $45.

Omn3d0n wrote:



I've been meaning to do this for while, but haven't had time to really make it happen. You just need an old scanner and to know the frequency they're using. I have a Realistic Pro-42 scanner from about 15 years ago that I plan to use. Should be able to find something similar on eBay for cheap; just make sure it covers the frequency band that you need.

I was thinking I'd run a splitter on the audio jack, with one output going to an earpiece, and another going to the audio channel on one of my video recorders. It could make for neat video if something interesting happens during the race, and it would give me a heads up on a yellow or whatnot on the other side of the track.

Sid, I have a radio set-up in my car, you can see it at the next race. I've never tuned in on race control, I think they use a on-standard frequency to limit interference. I use the radio when my wife is there - keeps her involved, and helps me out with yellow flags, split times, etc. I got mine from Sampson racing - they make nice kits, and are very reliable.

Hmmm... Nobody use race control to get a head up on
flag and incidents on track?

Thanks
Sid

Omn3d0n wrote:


A driver listening directly to race control is too distracting. You would quickly 'tune out' the chatter. It's too noisy an environment. You'd miss the important stuff and the distraction would pull you away from what you need to watch - out the windshield!

I have worked a lot with a couple of drivers with radio com. Yes, it can be very very useful. Both tactically and strategically. Not always just to go fast; also when to let someone else through. Who's coming up behind maybe from a completely different run group. Or when to lay off cause the next car is impossibly far out. And of course heads up on yellow cautions etc.

But as Joe indicated the inexpensive radios are limited. It's a very noisy environment. We did not find reliable com around all track using the inexpensive radios. Using UHF or VHF we had to install an external antenna to get solid com around all the tracks we run. The crew needs noise canceling headsets (which cost more than the radios!) At least for us by the time we got something we could really use it was a lot more than $45!!