Track day Teacher/Student Intercom

[zpeed]

I want to buy incar intercom, driver/passenger for track day. My friend in Thailand want one. I'll buy it here and bring it back with me on my vaca.

Something not too expensive.

[Dean]

Nady (PMC-2) is cheap. Comes with "student" headsets but the phono jack ends fail in fairly short order.

Chatterbox (HJC-50) is much better, but more expensive. Headsets not included. The "Student" headsets are the easiest to use and often cheapest.

[BillH]

+ 1 on the Chatterbox, it's what I use and what we used at the the Next Level School, they held up well.

[AlexR]

-1 on chatter box. Dean sold me a "never used or lightly used" set that had a wiring short i didn't figure out until 2 stages into my rally. it would work then all of a sudden transmit nothing

Great way to die in rally :lol:

you can get a TerraPhone intercom New and head seats for a good deal. no fricken crappy talk to activate either. which if used on track could result in some late communications.

[sperry]

-1 on chatter box. Dean sold me a "never used or lightly used" set that had a wiring short i didn't figure out until 2 stages into my rally. it would work then all of a sudden transmit nothing

Great way to die in rally :lol:

you can get a TerraPhone intercom New and head seats for a good deal. no fricken crappy talk to activate either. which if used on track could result in some late communications.
No one needs $500 worth of in-helmet wired rally comm gear for track day instruction. Not only is it excessively expensive considering it's for non-competitive use (no one dies at a track day because the comm goes out), it's impossible to easily swap a headset into a students helmet with one of those kits.

A chatterbox is a great unit. You just happened to have a bad one... everyone else I know has had great success with them. Then again, they were using them for track day and motorcycle comms, not trying to go rallying with it. I gotta think you're gonna be way harder on gear than your average track instructor.

The Nady is passable, but like Dean said, they seem to demolish headset plugs... a good affordable unit as long as you take care of the headsets, and are willing/able to rewire a plug when it shorts out.

[zpeed]

Thank you for all the info.

[AlexR]

http://admotorsports.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=866
intercom
http://admotorsports.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=867
head sets

Its only $79 and the heat sets themselves are $42 I've seen them on some websites for $150 and it comes with 2 head sets. even buying separate its about $163 WAY BETTER than chatter box (even if you get one that doesn't have a wiring issue and cuts out on you)

not sure how cheap you can get the chatter boxes for ($100 ish?) its worth the extra $60 for a real intercom.

http://www.jafrum.com/Shop-By-Brand/ChatterBox/ChatterBox-CB-50-Wired-Intercom-Standard-Kit $63
Amazon.com: ChatterBox Full-Face Headset for CB50 and FRS Unit - Full Face/--: Automotive@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31sZlyebc5L.@@AMEPARAM@@31sZlyebc5L $25

I'de buy 3 of the face head sets so when one craps out on you you have a backup. ;)

[AlexR]

If you want chatter box buy my used set for $40 and get a new headset and it should be fine. Sperry will promise you ! LOL

Just FYI my set had issues in the service area, on the public highway on route to stage 1, and on stage 1, we turned it off for the transit to stage 2, fought with it in the service area again , tried it on the next transit and gave up and turned it off for the rest of the rally.

I tried it again on several occasions (even just up in my apartment) it was just a bad headset (short you can move the wires around and get it to work/fail) had nothing to do with where i was trying to use it. it would have equally been a disaster at a track day (though it is Usually easier to shout to your passenger in a track car on a track, then a rally car on stage!)

[zpeed]

Back in the old day, my intercom broke on the 1st night. I was a nav. back then. That Rally was 2 days and 3 nights in Thailand. At the end of day 3 I did not have any voice. We did finish 1st in the class and 9 overall.

[Cody]

^Nice. :)

[sperry]

Alex, I'm not totally sure what you're going on about... I don't see how a chatterbox isn't a "real intercom"... it "really" does allow two people to talk to each other in a noisy car with helmets on.

The most important thing (besides the obvious requirement that it works to begin with) for a teacher/student setup is that the headsets be easily swapable into and out of a student's helmet and work with both open and close faced helmets, and that the unit be easily portable between cars. That TerraPhone unit you linked to must be hardwired for power into the car. The Chatterbox and Nady units are battery powered.

And this is the nicest thing about the Nady units:

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/72-125-003-01.jpg

It's a single speaker and boom mic that just velcros to the inside to the helmet. The only drawback is that the plug ends seem fragile and tend to short out, so you have to be willing to rewire them after a student hops out of the car without remembering to unplug first and yanks on the cord.

As far as setups for myself... I don't have my own intercom. My helmet is wired for radio with an IMSA style plug, and I've got adapters for NASCAR, Chatterbox, and Nady plugs. So I can just plug into pretty much whatever's available. My car has a FRS band radio that I use for pit comms, but no intercom. When I've instructed, I've just been borrowing one of Dean's Nady intercoms, which work great as long as you don't have a bad plug anywhere, and make it easy to toss the above headset into the student's helmet.

The nice feature of the TerraTrip units is that you can interface them to a radio, but you have to go with the pro version it seems. But again, it's nice for installation into a rally car, not so much for a portable solution for an instructor to use in a student's car. I certainly would consider one for my car... but I'd want to make sure I can still use a Nady headset in the students helmet with it so I can use a Nady intercom in the student's car without having to switch out the student's headset.

[AlexR]

Does the naddy set have a "speak to transmit" that the chatter box has?

so with the chatterbox CB50 if you say "Break here at the cones" your student would hear "here at the cones" The few stages we kept trying to use it, Wendy would have to say "note R5 into L4" and i would hear "R5 into L4"

In the few cases where you can't afford the loss of 1 second telling your student some instruction i'm assuming you would be yelling and it wouldn't be an issue. and again the delay to transmit isn't really a deal breaker when you have some time in between corners, and the ease of changing helmets is so great.

My intercom could be easily easily made to be swapable into other helmets if a clip was glued onto the mic part as the speakers have lil velcrows on them that hold them to your helmet.

but its the whole "talk to activate transmit" that i don't really consider a real intercom (if you're wondering why i wrote that)

But from a technical standpoint , yes its an intercom (then again so is 2 cans and a string ... which in my personal experience would have been just as effective for rally usage)


wow Zspeed that's fricken Awesome :) reno has our very own international rally star!

[AlexR]

oh how far could a pits style radio possible transmit ? my crew chief has some interest in trying to setup something that we can use (maybe at least a 5 mile range) would be useful :) useful but probably not realistic unless i put a HAM setup on the car...

[BillH]

Alex, I'm not totally sure what you're going on about... I don't see how a chatterbox isn't a "real intercom"... it "really" does allow two people to talk to each other in a noisy car with helmets on.

The most important thing (besides the obvious requirement that it works to begin with) for a teacher/student setup is that the headsets be easily swapable into and out of a student's helmet and work with both open and close faced helmets, and that the unit be easily portable between cars. That TerraPhone unit you linked to must be hardwired for power into the car. The Chatterbox and Nady units are battery powered.

And this is the nicest thing about the Nady units:

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/72-125-003-01.jpg

.

Chatterbox has the same headset available, I have 2 of them. They're called the student/instructor headset. The hesdset in the first pic is for permanent mounting in a fullface.

[Dean]

Does the naddy set have a "speak to transmit" that the chatter box has?

so with the chatterbox CB50 if you say "Break here at the cones" your student would hear "here at the cones" The few stages we kept trying to use it, Wendy would have to say "note R5 into L4" and i would hear "R5 into L4" The chatterbox does not function as you describe. They are full duplex always on systems for intercom features. The FRS/GMRS versions have a PTT button for radio transmit function.

The most common problem with the chatterboxes is people cranking the volume up inducing clipping in the amp section. That is most likely what you are describing. The Nady's start at zero volume every time you turn them on and in some situations may not be load enough.

As Bill said, the "student" earpiece/boom mic units are available for the chatterboxes as well.

[sperry]

The chatterbox does not function as you describe. They are full duplex always on systems for intercom features. The FRS/GMRS versions have a PTT button for radio transmit function.

The most common problem with the chatterboxes is people cranking the volume up inducing clipping in the amp section. That is most likely what you are describing. The Nady's start at zero volume every time you turn them on and in some situations may not be load enough.

As Bill said, the "student" earpiece/boom mic units are available for the chatterboxes as well.
For reference, the Nady is also full duplex.

[zpeed]

AlexR you got a PM.