Is communication radio a thing in karting? Im looking a comms for me to speak to my racer. For practice only, bcs they dont allow comms on race week?
It can be for races that allow it but those tend to be longer endurance races. I don’t ever see comms in regular sprint kart races.
me and my coach use airpods with zello app on the phone… i bring phone with me in my suit and coach speaks to me… like a walkie talkie, i have a button on my wheel wired to my phone that activates the talk button but my mic is not so good bc its in my ear
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The phone system seems to be popular. I tried some of the baofeng inexpensive walkie talkie units with helmet mics and ear piece. It didn’t pan out but we were having bad weather and weren’t in a position to spend time trying to get it to work.
How do your wear earbuds in a helmet? Wouldn’t they be hard to put in with a helmet?
I have been curious if anyone has tried AirPods for this… I just read up on the Zello app and that sounds cool, but I think if I have to have yet another subscription in my life, I may lose my mind.
We were talking about doing this, but just making a phone call. The downside is the mic would always be hot, so they’d hear me panting like a dog, grunting in the corners and cussing like a sailor… Small price to pay for good data though!
My wife has joked around about getting a setup like that just to hear my commentary, haha. I don’t normally use foul language, and I have a very calm demeanor, but what gets said in the helmet should stay in the helmet
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In my case there’s a lot of muffled whimpering. Elias Shirley seems to start every session by threatening the racing surface.
I use it for free… 20 char
That would be like streaming. It’s very easy to forget you are live and embarrass yourself. I’m all in favor of experimenting with the little ones, however. I’d love to hear a 7 year olds internal dialogue while karting:
Daddy, I almost hit a tree! (Not even close!)
You can also consider a motorcycle BT comm system. Kart to kart works perfect, you can also pair it with a radio or phone to have kart to pit too. Noise reduction works wonders
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I would probably be banned in like 9 countries if my race comms were ever leaked.
Motorcycle bluetooth comms are great and easy to use. I have a more “racing” specific version by Trac-Com. The big benefit to Trac-Com is that if you already have a Stilo or integrated comms in your helmet, you can adapt to the existing IMSA cable or Stilo plug. They do sell student boom mics and helmet speakers/mic retrofit that could work well too. The problems that I did not think about until owning them or any Bluetooth receiver for that matter is that you both need good cell service for it to all work without dropping the call while on track. The phone must also be on you. And because the comm is being transmitted through a phone call, there is a small .5 sec delay from talking to hearing. So for those reasons, I mainly use it for talking to my buddies if cell service allows for it. Coaching with the slight delay is manageable and not as bad as it may seem, but it’s certainly a lot easier to chat and explain while on track than hand signals and discussing off track.
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Yep, thats it. I have it adapted to my Stilo GT and I have a student boom for my friends to use.
I tried using a Baufeng set a buddy of mine gave me from his MX days. They worked great except for when we tried them out in my daughter’s helmet. The Ear Pieces where like old Walkman style speaks with velcro on the back to stick to the inside of the helmet ear well. The engine was too loud for her to hear me most of the time. Tried using earbuds, but they would not stay in her small ears. Last thought was to try something with loops that would hang off her ears hold the speaker close enough for her to hear me over the engine. Sadly she has not been back in the kart since and probably out grown the chassis anyway.
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A few members at our local club use a two-way system from Rugged Radio to coach their kids in practice. Their products are built for racing, pricing is reasonable and they’re local to us/ USA Company.
Contact them, they’re good about talking through their options and getting you setup.
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Awesome. Lemme look it up.