Two way radio

Hi,

I'm going to be riding with one other person from Seattle to Vancouver and
want to be able to talk along the way. Has anyone used a two-way radio to
talk with from bike to bike. I would prefer a setup that is full-duplex
(both parties can talk at the same time).

Any suggestions or experiences with two way radio's would be greatly
appreciated!

Thanks,
Mitch

Mitch Berg wrote:
Hi,

I'm going to be riding with one other person from Seattle to
Vancouver and want to be able to talk along the way. Has anyone used
a two-way radio to talk with from bike to bike. I would prefer a
setup that is full-duplex (both parties can talk at the same time).

Any suggestions or experiences with two way radio's would be greatly
appreciated!

I've mountain biked with people who've used them (not sure about the
simultaneous talking part, however), and they seemed to work pretty well.
No reason to think road riding would be any different.

If you wear a Camelbak or similar hydration system, it gives you a
convenient place to clip the unit. Maybe they make arm-band-type deals like
runners use for radios or .mp3 players? I'd think having them handy would
be important, so the rear jersey pocket not such a good carrying place.
(Might be dangerous fumbling for it while careening down the road!)

Enjoy the ride -- should be beautiful scenery up there.

Sorno

"Bill Sornson" wrote in message
...
Mitch Berg wrote:
Hi,

I'm going to be riding with one other person from Seattle to
Vancouver and want to be able to talk along the way. Has anyone used
a two-way radio to talk with from bike to bike. I would prefer a
setup that is full-duplex (both parties can talk at the same time).

Any suggestions or experiences with two way radio's would be greatly
appreciated!

I've mountain biked with people who've used them (not sure about the
simultaneous talking part, however), and they seemed to work pretty well.
No reason to think road riding would be any different.

If you wear a Camelbak or similar hydration system, it gives you a
convenient place to clip the unit. Maybe they make arm-band-type deals
like runners use for radios or .mp3 players? I'd think having them handy
would be important, so the rear jersey pocket not such a good carrying
place. (Might be dangerous fumbling for it while careening down the road!)

Enjoy the ride -- should be beautiful scenery up there.

Sorno


There is an entire group on Yahoo for Bicycle Mobile amateur radio
operators, too. Getting a ham license is not hard since 2000.

Charles of Schaumburg

n5hsr wrote:
[snip]
There is an entire group on Yahoo for Bicycle Mobile amateur radio
operators, too. Getting a ham license is not hard since 2000.

Charles of Schaumburg

i bet some of the hams even do qrp HF on bicycle trips. guess you'd
need a tuner to do it, and a rig, toss a wire up into a tree, lay out
some radials. i wonder what kind of bicycle based eletrical generator
they use to charge up batteries for that kind of thing, because you
know you wouldn't be able to put a ham on/in any kind of vehicle
without them figuring out how to use it to generate electricity to
power their rigs lol.

n5hsr wrote:
"Bill Sornson" wrote in message
...
Mitch Berg wrote:
Hi,

I'm going to be riding with one other person from Seattle to
Vancouver and want to be able to talk along the way. Has anyone used
a two-way radio to talk with from bike to bike. I would prefer a
setup that is full-duplex (both parties can talk at the same time).

Any suggestions or experiences with two way radio's would be greatly
appreciated!
I've mountain biked with people who've used them (not sure about the
simultaneous talking part, however), and they seemed to work pretty well.
No reason to think road riding would be any different.

If you wear a Camelbak or similar hydration system, it gives you a
convenient place to clip the unit. Maybe they make arm-band-type deals
like runners use for radios or .mp3 players? I'd think having them handy
would be important, so the rear jersey pocket not such a good carrying
place. (Might be dangerous fumbling for it while careening down the road!)

Enjoy the ride -- should be beautiful scenery up there.

Sorno


There is an entire group on Yahoo for Bicycle Mobile amateur radio
operators, too. Getting a ham license is not hard since 2000.

Charles of Schaumburg


Ahh,
Not to stick my nose in (again) but those kinds of radios have been
around for about 30 years and made popular by the motorcycling scene.
Even a large group of Harley riders usually has someone (wife or ??)
driving a van with facilities to repair or if needed, haul a bike, and
they all keep in touch with a voice activated 2 way radio. I don't know
how many people they can handle but my wife and I had some from, aaah,
Radio Shack and they were good up to about a half mile direct line of
sight. If anything got in the way it was less than a block.
Bill Baka
High high tech you go depends on your $$$$ willingness to spend.

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:21:32 -0700, "Mitch Berg"
wrote:

Hi,

I'm going to be riding with one other person from Seattle to Vancouver and
want to be able to talk along the way. Has anyone used a two-way radio to
talk with from bike to bike. I would prefer a setup that is full-duplex
(both parties can talk at the same time).

Any suggestions or experiences with two way radio's would be greatly
appreciated!

In most cases, a pair of FRS radios with VOX capability, rechargeable
batteries, and headsets, will provide just what you're looking for.
Get the little foam blobs for the microphone tubes, though, or wind
noise will have them trying to transmit too often. I like Motorola's
units, but I've used several brands with pretty much equivalent
results. Some of them can use the same kind of headset as the common
types of cell phone, which is handy since it allows the same device to
serve two purposes.


--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

On Tue, 18 Jul 2006 08:22:56 GMT, Werehatrack
wrote:

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:21:32 -0700, "Mitch Berg"
wrote:

Hi,

I'm going to be riding with one other person from Seattle to Vancouver and
want to be able to talk along the way. Has anyone used a two-way radio to
talk with from bike to bike. I would prefer a setup that is full-duplex
(both parties can talk at the same time).

Any suggestions or experiences with two way radio's would be greatly
appreciated!

In most cases, a pair of FRS radios with VOX capability, rechargeable
batteries, and headsets, will provide just what you're looking for.
Get the little foam blobs for the microphone tubes, though, or wind
noise will have them trying to transmit too often. I like Motorola's
units, but I've used several brands with pretty much equivalent
results. Some of them can use the same kind of headset as the common
types of cell phone, which is handy since it allows the same device to
serve two purposes.

Addendum: Full-duplex isn't supportd by FRS; most cell phones don't
support it, either. I'm not aware of a consumer-grade no-license
radio setup that provides this functionality, though one may exist.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

"Bill" wrote in message
.com...
n5hsr wrote:
"Bill Sornson" wrote in message
...
Mitch Berg wrote:
Hi,

I'm going to be riding with one other person from Seattle to
Vancouver and want to be able to talk along the way. Has anyone used
a two-way radio to talk with from bike to bike. I would prefer a
setup that is full-duplex (both parties can talk at the same time).

Any suggestions or experiences with two way radio's would be greatly
appreciated!
I've mountain biked with people who've used them (not sure about the
simultaneous talking part, however), and they seemed to work pretty
well. No reason to think road riding would be any different.

If you wear a Camelbak or similar hydration system, it gives you a
convenient place to clip the unit. Maybe they make arm-band-type deals
like runners use for radios or .mp3 players? I'd think having them
handy would be important, so the rear jersey pocket not such a good
carrying place. (Might be dangerous fumbling for it while careening down
the road!)

Enjoy the ride -- should be beautiful scenery up there.

Sorno


There is an entire group on Yahoo for Bicycle Mobile amateur radio
operators, too. Getting a ham license is not hard since 2000.

Charles of Schaumburg
Ahh,
Not to stick my nose in (again) but those kinds of radios have been around
for about 30 years and made popular by the motorcycling scene.
Even a large group of Harley riders usually has someone (wife or ??)
driving a van with facilities to repair or if needed, haul a bike, and
they all keep in touch with a voice activated 2 way radio. I don't know
how many people they can handle but my wife and I had some from, aaah,
Radio Shack and they were good up to about a half mile direct line of
sight. If anything got in the way it was less than a block.
Bill Baka
High high tech you go depends on your $$$$ willingness to spend.

Yes, I know. I have a friend that's been running bicycle mobile on 2 meters
for almost 2 decades now. You're talking about the family radio setup that
doesn't require a license.

Charles of Schaumburg

"purple_stars" wrote in message
ups.com...

n5hsr wrote:
[snip]
There is an entire group on Yahoo for Bicycle Mobile amateur radio
operators, too. Getting a ham license is not hard since 2000.

Charles of Schaumburg

i bet some of the hams even do qrp HF on bicycle trips. guess you'd
need a tuner to do it, and a rig, toss a wire up into a tree, lay out
some radials. i wonder what kind of bicycle based eletrical generator
they use to charge up batteries for that kind of thing, because you
know you wouldn't be able to put a ham on/in any kind of vehicle
without them figuring out how to use it to generate electricity to
power their rigs lol.


Actually there are smaller antennas that can be used for mobile HF rigs,
they can theoretically run HF while riding. . . .

Charles of Schaumburg

n5hsr wrote:
"purple_stars" wrote in message
ups.com...
n5hsr wrote:
[snip]
There is an entire group on Yahoo for Bicycle Mobile amateur radio
operators, too. Getting a ham license is not hard since 2000.

Charles of Schaumburg
i bet some of the hams even do qrp HF on bicycle trips. guess you'd
need a tuner to do it, and a rig, toss a wire up into a tree, lay out
some radials. i wonder what kind of bicycle based eletrical generator
they use to charge up batteries for that kind of thing, because you
know you wouldn't be able to put a ham on/in any kind of vehicle
without them figuring out how to use it to generate electricity to
power their rigs lol.


Actually there are smaller antennas that can be used for mobile HF rigs,
they can theoretically run HF while riding. . . .

Charles of Schaumburg


Charles,
If you are in
Schaumburg then you know of the Motorola presence in Illinois but they
might not be into communicators. I find the HF reference interesting
since I used to do HF 2.805 MHz installations for boater back in the
70's and that took a long wire antenna and some fancy ground=ding to get
it to work. Once it did I had a nice chat with a bloke sailing around
Australia and it was quite nice for world wide communications. I don't
see the use for short range.
Please explain
The 2 meters I can believe since I had a set from Radio Shack and they
were good to a half mile line of sight, and I mean looking at the other
person. We tried them in a U-haul truck and I couldn't even talk to my
wife one car being me due to the truck box being metal.
Bill Baka