School me on pro radios

We are a startup non-profit track day organization in our second year, and renting radios from each track we operate at has worked in our favor so far... But with rental fees going up, we're looking to purchase our own units.

One track rented us Bearcom units that I know nothing about (UHF?), but they seemed to work great. No range issues, no battery life issues. One track loaned us a box of Motorola GMRS radios - the kind you can get at Walmart. They "worked", but sound/speaker quality was poor making it difficult to hear when trackside. Not to mention battery life was poor on the consumer radios. Yet another time we were given Motorola pro models with headsets, but we had multiple issues with the headsets not making a good connection, and some units constant-broadcasting.

In short, where do I start? What bands, licensing issues to think about, etc?

 

Thanks Mongo. So VHF then if you're using the free bands? I'm assuming you have no range issues if wera is using them.

 

Headsets are always a problem. The Nascar-style ones are rugged, but they suck to wear all day, especially in the heat. The lightweight ones are easier to damage. You can buy tougher ones, but they are really expensive and still not that tough to break.
I agree with Mongo on the radio choice; Motorolas are good and they have affordable models that will do everything you need.
My favorite personal setup was to use a radio and a small scanner with an earphone in one ear. The scanner was locked to the frequency in use. This allowed me to keep the radio in my hand so I could speak directly into it when needed.
The advantages were:
1. I wouldn't cause an open-mic with my radio/headset, something that happens too often with headsets due to sticky buttons, rain, etc.
2. I could hear my own transmissions, which let me know if I was transmitting clearly or if I had been stepped on (and sometimes, if I had stepped on someone else).
3. I had one ear to listen to the radio and one to listen for things like the sound of a bike sliding in my direction or to understand what the person with me was saying.
4. No dangling wires to catch on things.
5. The radio was less likely to get dropped if it was in my hand than clipped to my belt.
6. In the rain, the scanner and wire/earpiece is under your raingear while the radio can be put in a Ziploc bag and completely sealed. Wet radios are a bad thing.

 

VHF/UHF decision.

For most tracks, UHF is fine.
There are no legal "free" frequencies that allow enough transmission power for the job. The "free" (unlicensed) frequencies are all limited to 1/2 watt, which won't do the trick in any kind of terrain blocking situation. The cheap GMRS radios are not appropriate for this use. PMRS radios, which do require a license may be good, but are subject to interference from other nearby users, as they are not frequency and location coordinated.

IG (commercial frequency pool) radios on licensed frequencies allow more power (pretty much whatever is calculated to be necessary to insure reliable communications), repeaters, and are extremely reliable.
Licensed frequencies need to be coordinated for each location to limit interference, and coordinated licensed frequencies also provide some protection from channel loading (others in the same area using the same frequencies). There is an "itinerant" UHF frequency pair that can be licensed for use across the USA, and you can license a repeater with that frequency pair, but you may run into other users on the channel, as there is no coordination of transmitter location across users.

Regular IG pool frequencies are coordinated and licensed for service in a specific area (county, town, or an X KM radius around a Lat/Long).

Tone or digital squelch codes make it so your radios do not respond to other users' transmissions on the channel, but do not help with interference from another nearby user of the same frequency/channel. Interference will cause transmissions to be covered, garbled, or missed altogether.

On hand-held radios, transmit power is a straight trade-off to battery life. At most tracks, a 2W transmitter is probably sufficient, and with a 10W repeater on the scoring building, probably good for any track.

Your best bet is to hook up with a local commercial two-way communications company, bring them your problem, and have them work up a solution. They will handle the Frequency coordination for each location, recommend frequencies, power levels, radio models, whether a given location requires a repeater, etc.

(I used to work for a two-way communications company a long time ago.)

 

Thanks for the tips guys.
The BPR40s look like they come in a 5W VHF Li-ion model that might be the ticket. Some cursory reading indicates that VHF has freqs available that don't require a license.
Looks like Bearcom is local to us, but they're about 50% more expensive for the BPR40s than a place out of Miami. C'mon, we're a non-profit here!!

 

But you will get support and service from a local dealer.

No license free VHF 5W frequencies I can see in the FCC regs. Check that out carefully.

 

try this place for the surveillance type earpieces

reasonable enough to outfit the individual official with a personal rig

http://tapaulkcommunications.com/index.html

i use them for many events per year

 

True, they only get involved if someone complains, as enforcement $ has been restricted heavily in the last 20 years. But if they do get involved, they now really do fine you, rather than give you a slap on the wrist and tell you to get your paperwork done.

Also, for anything involving potential life-safety matters, I wouldn't want to have unexpected interference cause problems. Better to do the paperwork and get the things licensed. It's not that hard.

 

I don't want to start an argument, but it takes only a few hours to collect the data to apply for licenses at a number of tracks. With tools like google maps & Garmin terrain maps, coordinates are easy to come by. You no longer need to convert coordinates from WGS84 to NAD27. FCC ULS database makes it easy to identify open frequencies in an area. The form 600 allows you to apply for multiple operational areas, with multiple frequencies if necessary. Licenses last 10 years and are $60 to renew, regardless of how many locations or frequencies there are.
The upfront cost is probably a thou or two for the frequency coordinator (usually ~$200/first freq at a location, $60 for each addl), but that's a one-time thing.

If you want to get legal, and can wait until I have the time, I'll be happy to do the app paperwork and research, and coordinate with the frequency coordinator. Let me know.

Fine can range from $0 to $10K/day/transmitter if they get that far.

Don't know if you are running UHF radios, but they are now required to be narrowband, and radios older than around 2004-2005 can't easily be changed over.

 

Jared, I'm betting The Ridge will require a repeater since you can't see 70% of the track from S/F.

 

Just checked. http://www.fcc.gov/document/waiver-narrowbanding-deadlines-t-band-470-512-mhz-licensees

Narrow Band Requirements are now on hold for UHF (470-512) Business Pool frequencies, as a result of last falls budget/tax bill that mandates the selling off of parts of the T-Band (470-512MHz) UHF spectrum (shared by TV Channels 14 to 20 and Business Pool licenses).

The VHF narrowband rules are still in place for new equipment and new licenses, but there is no requirement to stop using existing VHF wideband radios just yet.

So don't bother going out and getting new radios just yet. Things are going to change again, and in the meantime the older wideband UHF radios are still OK.

With the compacting of the spectrum to make room for more cellular data, this will continue to get interestinger and interestinger.

I replaced my business radios about two weeks before this order came out.

 

The Ridge has a massive 150-200 tall hill that flanks a large partition of the front straight.

When I first pulled up to the place a couple of years ago my initial thought was, "It looks like a ski resort". Course it being 32 degrees didn't help.

 

We've had several events there already, and the FRS radios we used there once actually worked fine from a range/deadspot perspective. The other times we rented the "pro" radios which are probably pretty similar to the BPR40s Mongo mentioned - they worked fine too w/o a repeater.

Surprisingly enough, I've heard Pacific is more challenging with T3 being in a canyon.