Walkie-talkie for coaching
A3aan
A new season is starting for a coach and his eight! I want to invest
in a walkie-talkie set and a NK-connector plug to be able to talk
their heads off more efficiently this year. Does anybody use such a
setup? Is it any good? What type of walkie-talkie do you use, which
properties/constraints should I be aware of?
I was considering for example the Motorola XTR 446 which costs around
100 EURO.
cheers,
A3aan.
Walter Martindale
We have some of the connectors but the radios are currently held by
people who are on vacation overseas. The biggest two problems I see
are:
1. Coach Verbal Diarrhea - I can talk to them all the time now, so I
just won't shut up, ever. At least - not until the coxswain or one of
the crew get fed up and turn off their radio.
2. Other Radios on the Same Band - from idiots yelling "stroke,
stroke, stroke" into public band radios to mess up your coaching, to
cross-talk, to other coaches "poaching" your "precious secret coaching
methods"... You may need to search around for an obscure channel to
use, and you may need to buy radios that have a paid-for private
frequency - depending on the situation.
I can see an advantage to these in a heavily populated area - you
won't be using a megaphone across water at 5:30 in the morning and
waking up all the neighbours...
W
coach
This has a number of advantages.
1) The coach can hear what the cox is saying and thus can coach the
cox.
2) Instructions to the crew can be relayed via the cox. This maintains
the authority of the cox and makes him or her part of the coaching
process.
3) By being able to draw the coxes attention to faults within the crew
during training, the cox will learn what to look out for during
racing, when no coaching input is allowed from outside the boat.
4) As most rowers leave a large part of their brain on the bank when
they get into the boat, having just one voice, the cox, to respond to
eases the level of thinking required.#
Henning Lippke
> We have some of the connectors but the radios are currently held by
> people who are on vacation overseas.
Can you describe the connectors in more detail - ie what they consist of?
> 2. Other Radios on the Same Band - from idiots yelling "stroke,
> stroke, stroke" into public band radios to mess up your coaching, to
> cross-talk, to other coaches "poaching" your "precious secret coaching
> methods"... You may need to search around for an obscure channel to
> use, and you may need to buy radios that have a paid-for private
> frequency - depending on the situation.
That does happen indeed, I find that most disturbances come from people
who just happen to be on the same channel and you just pick up something
they say.
Some radios have an option to set up a pilot tone or scrambler to
cut-off the noise from others (the channel still beeing busy but your
radios won't release their noise-gates when your pilot tone is not
present) or to even kind of 'encrypt' the content.
Walter Martindale
Oh dear... I've seen them and thought - yep, those are for walkie-
talkies - but haven't had a real good look at them.
I THINK that they're a BNC connector to go into the cox box microphone
connector - a male end and a female end, so you can plug the connector
directly to the cox box, and then plug the coxswain's microphone to
the other end of it - and then there's a small stereo (could be mono)
jack very much like computer speaker jacks on the end of a small wire
that goes to the headphone plug-in on the radio. I've only glanced at
them. Will pop into the office on the way to coaching, grab a cox box
(for practice) and look at the connectors.
HTH
Walter
Terry
You think that case of radio interference is embarrassing.
Just as we came to the end of commentary duty at the World U23s at
Strathclyde I was approached by a member of 'ra local Constabulary'
demanding to know why we were broadcasrting our thoughts on rowing
technique, without a licence, and interfering with assorted plods/
fireman Sams/local taxis and pizza delivery men
It appears the FISA-imported technology from the land of cuckoo clox
was not totally compliant with UK legislation. Oops!
Muttered something about 'well. we've just finished, so I hope you
won't drag us off to the nick' - but I never did have the heart to
tell Dr T-J. I guess he'll know if he reads this.
Terry McCommentator
Walter Martindale
Right. Well, I had a look - it's a BNC "T" joint with a small
headphone jack soldered and then sealed (heat-shrink) onto one side of
the T joint...
The headphone jack goes into an appropriate plug in the radio, and the
coxswain's microphone goes to the other side of the T joint.
W
Walter Martindale
Hmm.
Shows to go you that you need to check the local regs...
We're mainly talking about the little sets of radios that don't need
licenses. AFAIK the licence requirements for things like these were
removed in Canada and US about 20 y ago, and here in NZ about 10-15 y
ago. If you get a "licensed" frequency, you pay for the privacy,
but... since they're short range line-o-sight FM radios, taking it to
a different country might have you stepping on someone else's
licence. If it's a short wave or maritime set, you probably do need a
license..
W
Robert Treharne Jones
In fact I was made aware of this incident at the time. Since we used
the same kit without difficulties at Eton 2006, and numerous venues
since, I suspect it was the Scottish legislation which was somewhat at
variance with the rest of Europe (so no change there then!)
Robert
AdamH
If you have the budget, I recommend the <a href="http://
www.commusa.com/products/category/MOTOTRBO.aspx">Motorola Mototrbo</a>
radio series. The biggest advantage is that they are water-proof,
which would come in HUGE for rowing.
rwoffenham
A local radio ham type eventually found his way to the commentary
tower, where with an air of triumphalism he confronted Christophe.
Suddenly Christophe did not speak very good English, and as the only
native (admittedly from south of the border), I beat a hasty retreat.
Shame because the FISA radios generally work better than those we are
allowed to use in the UK
Robin