Hello, me and my friend are gonna be doing a couple of endurance races, we got about 4 or 5 we registered for across our country. What would be the best com system for us? And no, boards dont work because im near blind and the track is a bit too fast to see the board. Also night time wont help. Does anyone know any alternative ways for radio kits? Because im not willing to spend 400 euros yet for one. Thanks. Also excuse my English.
I tried iPhone with earbuds and not very practical.
I tried cheapo wireless coms and didn’t have much success.
I suspect that proper motorcycle helmet with built in comms would work. Trying to make it work in kart helmet was more trouble than it’s worth.
My pal @nikspeeds found big #s that he could hold up that were effective.
Yeah they were cheap on Amazon and work really good. I thought about painting them.
We usually use them to mean number of laps remaining in your stint so you can get ready to pit i.e. “3 2 1 0”, but if you see 0 at any given time you just pit (team might have a surprise strategy that involves coming in early).
We also have the driver give a thumbs up to acknowledge so we know they saw us.
Since we have 10 numbers, we thought about trying to assign different meanings to the remaining numbers (e.g. “6” for “on your 6” if someone’s closing behind you 
) but never really felt the need to go that in depth.
Link to signs are in the description:
Before this we’d just hold up number of fingers to indicate laps remaining.
We tried airpods too, but usually more trouble than it’s worth. If you’re going that route, definitely wear a headsock to prevent them from falling out and getting away.
1 Like
get a cheap GMRS radio like a UV-5G for like $20 and add a push-to-talk system with earpiece for like $25.
You cant hear it with 2-stroke engine . I tried with helmet speakers and mic in front of my mouth. All you can hear is engine screaming at 12-16K.
Maybe it can be used with 4-stroke.
even with rentals I spent most of my time screaming in frustration at Ethan as he couldnt hear anything I was saying over the background roar. The noise canceling wasn’t effective enough. (iPhone earbuds).
Not exactly cheap, but for ~$100 the oval guys use a Raceiver for 1-way communication, pit-to-driver. Driver can acknowledge with hand signal if needed. I’ve used these in 24-hour team kart races with no issues.
Cost more than $100 by the time you add a radio and maybe headset for the pit side of the loop.
We did something similar before getting a communication system: papers with the kart number that we raised at the pitlane exit so that the driver would know to pit the next lap. It worked well at first but at some point we needed a proper communication system.
I wonder if bone-conduction headphones would work well. Definitely cheaper than proper communication systems
Zeronoise system, made for karting
1 Like
I use a Baofeng radio from Ali, you can find them for around €15 when there is a promotion. They use a K-type (Kenwood) connector, so plenty options on type and quality of headphones u want to use. Works well at the track with 4 stroke rental. Have not yet tried it with Tag.
Before i used a Cardo Bluetooth communicator, works verry well in close range (10-20m). But for pit to track communication was verry poor, kept losing connection.
That is part of what the local college kids use for the on-campus road endurance race the university hosts.
They had sign lit up with a Milwaukee battery for power. It said PIT IN with black letters, and a spot where they could slide the numbers for the 2 different teams. They also had a raceiver system for the 2 teams and would communicate 1-way with driver hand signals to confirm. Worked pretty well.
DO you have experience using it on 2-stroke kart? Can you hear it with engine at 12-15K?
Our plan is to use it for kids in our club. We hope that live coaching (on track) will help them progress faster.
I already tried with Baofeng radio and helmet speakers but it I couldnt hear it while engine is screaming.
