Intercom

[weeed]

Hi all, Looking for a bike to bike intercom for a trip to Scotland in a few weeks, only looking to spend ?100. As long as we can say "stop for fuel" it will do, no need for bells & whistles. Can anyone confirm if the BT ones in this cheap price range are any good or a waste of money or am I better off with a radio? Been looking at the "Binatone Action 1000 Kit HM-500 radio" on Amazon ?80??

Thanks Weed

 

[Jammie]

Hi Weeed

Thought i would add my 2pence worth to help you out.
I have no experience of the BT ones you mention, but having looked up the Binatone one, they look like the kind of thing that will do the trick.

I got my current setup from Maplin about 2-3years ago and have been pretty pleased for a fairly simple & easy to use setup.

My radio is a DORO WT96(no longer available), and then I added a simple helmet speaker / mic kit also from Maplin and still available at ?15.
Helmet kit is easy to fit and fairly robust, radio has been very reliable with pretty good range on it, around town and heavily built areas of course the range drops, but for motorways especially its really handy for the
''need fuel / piss stop'' shout.
My radio specs state it has a range up to 14km

Having looked on Maplin briefly, you can get a pretty good twin radio set & 2 helmet kits for around the ?80-100 and split between two of you thats pretty cheap i think..

On another note, when and where are you off to around Scotland, as a mate and I (both BIRD riders) are both off up there too at the end of June into July, planning a week or so to attempt to circumnavigate.

 

[DoubleXX]

Hi all, Looking for a bike to bike intercom for a trip to Scotland in a few weeks, only looking to spend ?100. As long as we can say "stop for fuel" it will do, no need for bells & whistles. Can anyone confirm if the BT ones in this cheap price range are any good or a waste of money or am I better off with a radio? Been looking at the "Binatone Action 1000 Kit HM-500 radio" on Amazon ?80??

Thanks Weed

Hi got pair of BT ones and they r rubbish after 40 Mph I couldn't licente my partner properly pay more and get a proper kit
Enjoy your trip I'm going next month from lands end to John O'Groats and comeback to Midlands

 

[weeed]

Hi Jammie, Thanks for the reply, I've bit the bullet & ordered the Binatone off Amazon, hopefully they'll do the trick for not much outlay. Were gona set off next Thursday for a long weekend, after work from Bristol, get a good 5-6hrs in & see how far we get, Friday try & push on to jog then 3 days to make our way back. I'll let you know how we get on, or if it turns into an epic fail!!

Cheers Weed

 

[Jammie]

Hi Jammie, Thanks for the reply, I've bit the bullet & ordered the Binatone off Amazon, hopefully they'll do the trick for not much outlay. Were gona set off next Thursday for a long weekend, after work from Bristol, get a good 5-6hrs in & see how far we get, Friday try & push on to jog then 3 days to make our way back. I'll let you know how we get on, or if it turns into an epic fail!!

Cheers Weed

Well Weeed, hope fully the Binatone set will do the trick for ya, dont see why not.
Good luck and do let us know how you get on, you got a fair distance to do in those few days.
Forutnately I have a bit more time at my disposal so have 7 days to go from Portsmouth, do a circle of Scotland taking in as much as possilble then back again.
Here's hoping for the weather!!
Good luck

 

[weeed]

Hi Jamie, Had an excellent trip, left Bristol at 4pm on Thurs reached Lock Lomand about 10pm (418M), we camped a mile or so away from the lock just to get away from the midges, horrible things, one ended up inside my pin lock!! Friday we cracked on to Thurso, Dunnet Head (Most Northely point) & John O Groats then back down to Inverness for the night (410M). We took our time the rest of the trip coming back via Edinburgh, down through the lake district then over to Bangor Sunday night, yesterday we came through Wales via Snowdonia, Welshpool, Newtown, Abergavenny (Stunning roads on a sunny Monday with no traffic). 1594 miles in all, though I think next time we'll do it over a week.

As for the radios, well the handsets work very well, good quality for the price, distance was fine & the battery life better than expected. In complete contrast the headsets were, putting bluntly, CRAP. Anything over 55mph & you could not hear a thing due to the wind noise, one fitted to my mates Arai the other to my Schuberth S2. In reality this was not to much of a problem as we could communicate in towns & villages. Saturday however they packed up, intermittent faults with the MIC & PTT, nothing obvious, all the connections looked fine, but in the end it was to much hassle so we removed them. Rather than sending them back I've given them to a mate who is a comms guy in the forces so he can test & upgrade them, maybe change the speaker pads to buds to reduce noise.

 

[Jammie]

Hi Jamie, Had an excellent trip, left Bristol at 4pm on Thurs reached Lock Lomand about 10pm (418M), we camped a mile or so away from the lock just to get away from the midges, horrible things, one ended up inside my pin lock!! Friday we cracked on to Thurso, Dunnet Head (Most Northely point) & John O Groats then back down to Inverness for the night (410M). We took our time the rest of the trip coming back via Edinburgh, down through the lake district then over to Bangor Sunday night, yesterday we came through Wales via Snowdonia, Welshpool, Newtown, Abergavenny (Stunning roads on a sunny Monday with no traffic). 1594 miles in all, though I think next time we'll do it over a week.

As for the radios, well the handsets work very well, good quality for the price, distance was fine & the battery life better than expected. In complete contrast the headsets were, putting bluntly, CRAP. Anything over 55mph & you could not hear a thing due to the wind noise, one fitted to my mates Arai the other to my Schuberth S2. In reality this was not to much of a problem as we could communicate in towns & villages. Saturday however they packed up, intermittent faults with the MIC & PTT, nothing obvious, all the connections looked fine, but in the end it was to much hassle so we removed them. Rather than sending them back I've given them to a mate who is a comms guy in the forces so he can test & upgrade them, maybe change the speaker pads to buds to reduce noise.View attachment 39599

WOW!!
Picture is awesome mate.

You certainly covered some distance, reading through i'm glad i'm gonna have a week to cover the 1800ish miles.

Glad the radio's worked for a bit, shame about the mic / PTT setup.

 

[ChazUFO]

Just to add to the thread. I bought a pair of Cobra Radios with 2xheadsets for ?60 on eBay about a month ago for my Spain/France trip. I also saw someone selling just a headset on eBay and wish I'd bought it as a spare....
Range was ok for 2 bikes travelling together. Much above 70/80mph and it was impossible to hear each other. Otherwise it was bloody brilliant for keeping in touch. When my headset packed in half way through we were really pissed. Even an electronics guru staying at out half way point couldn't make sense of it,, even after carving it all up and using an ammeter to trace all teh lines he couldn't make it work.
You get what you pay for i guess. the cheaper sets are fine for a small group which sticks together. Taking a spare headset and PTT switch I now know to be a good idea.

 

[Jaws]

Another 2 pen'oth

All the 446 radios sold in the UK ( LEGALLY ) are the same spec.. They must conform to MPT 1302 regs..

As a by the by Jammie, it might well say range UP TO 14km, but if you get more than 3km you are doing amazingly well !!
The units are .5w output mate....
Yes, I spose in mountain top to mountain top 14km could be achieved but, to misquote Scotty, 'ya kanna change the laws of physics' g0551p ;-0))

Basically what I am saying is that one radio is gonna be as good as the next unless you opt for something illegal such as a pucka Icom or Kenwood that has about 5w output, so do not get too hung up on make etc

Although officially no longer too involved in 'things radio' I do still occasionally get called upon to either repair, modify or on occasion do detailed testing and reporting on some units