Pit to Kart communication

[Benrad]

Competing in a 24hr kart race in August (Teesside). Bought some PMR radios and helmet headsets to test during a 2 hour race this weekend...they were completely useless

Had 5W Baofeng radios recommended, but you're meant to have an Ofcom licence to use them. The other recommendation was Bluetooth motorbike intercoms. Might borrow a pit board, but that'll be tricky at night and the communication is only one way of course.

Can I benefit from anybody else's expensive mistakes? What have you tried that works/doesn't work?

P.S. Plenty other stuff to get sorted, not least my neck which fell apart after about 30 mins, need to do 100 minute stints in August!

[AdeRacing]

I used to use bluetooth motorbike headsets (Sena) when I did endurance kart racing (6 Le Mans 24's and 2 British 24's) Worked perfectly. Each driver had one and then we had one mounted to a set of ear defenders for whoever was on pit duty. They are very easy to transfer from helmet to helmet if you get more than one mounting kit if budgets are tight.

We tried radios with remote push to talk buttons etc but they were always useless. I know a lot of guys in shorter races who just use mobile phones with an open call.

[Benrad]

AdeRacing said:

I used to use bluetooth motorbike headsets (Sena) when I did endurance kart racing (6 Le Mans 24's and 2 British 24's) Worked perfectly. Each driver had one and then we had one mounted to a set of ear defenders for whoever was on pit duty. They are very easy to transfer from helmet to helmet if you get more than one mounting kit if budgets are tight.

We tried radios with remote push to talk buttons etc but they were always useless. I know a lot of guys in shorter races who just use mobile phones with an open call.

Thanks, sounds like the Bluetooth intercom works well. I'm amazed the range is good enough but as long as the range is enough it makes sense that the sound quality would be miles better

[AdeRacing]

The ones we had claimed a 300m range and were basically crystal clear as long as you could see the kart. The latest generation apparently have a range of up to 2km with the intervening ones being 900m.

[myvision]

As above I use these on the bike
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cardo-Scala-Rider-PackTal...
And they work for a good distance and are crystal clear you'll get them cheaper on EBay secondhand.

[ribiero]

I used to use these :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/V6-1200M-Bluetooth-Inte...R8AAOSw0dZcrWI5

Like sena's but cheaper. bought a few for rotating in / out / charging.

Also bought a few pairs of ear defenders + 3m double sided pads to create pitlane headsets.

Then i saved this : https://youtu.be/UL08Obn7EpE?t=204 because TO THIS DAY I can never remember how to pair them, despite using them every month.

[Benrad]

Well that's pretty unanimous! Thanks all, I'll try and remember to update this with how I find them, and of course let you know how we get on in the race, I'm sure you'll be on the edge off your seats until then