I work for a company that provides all the communications gear for 98% of Division 1 college football. We have opened a new division that is moving into comms for heavy equipment operators. The hardware tech is portable and self contained. The key thing they do is outside sound suppression over the comm channels. Mic design and some software based acoustic filtration pushes background noise out of the signal. It’s a hands free always on signal that is more like a conference call than a 2 way or cb. It’s not voice activated so no cut in/cut out. It’s an always open channel but the mic can be muted by a button or on some headsets by pushing the boom mic up over your eyes. Range With the small belt pack antenna is about 1800 feet but that propagation is lowered by obstruction. I was told range from inside one Caterpillar cab to another is more like 600-700 feet but remember that is going out through one heavy steel cab and then penetrating into another. They also have an exterior rooftop mountable antenna that gets the range back out to 1000 or so feet with obstructions like hills and trees between users. 900mhz signal The system they offer to John Q. Public will support up to 10 talkers. Just wanted to see if anyone is interested in this as a comm application for group rides or club events. Keep in mind this stuff is based on the stuff I sell to guys like Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney and such who do their business in very loud environments. Trust me when I say that these guys are really hard to please. The sound quality is damn near crystal clear even in 90,000 seat venues with my stuff and I have been told it’s approaching that with the industrial stuff too. There are guys using the industrial equipment operating open cab heavy equipment and running chain saws and such using really lite in ear speaker/mic combos so it’s not always about those big headsets you see on football coaches. They run about a grand a user so not a cheap option at all. But they are very portable as the only parts are a belt pack which is about the size of a double thick iPhone and the headset of which there are several to choose from. No idea if this is interesting to anyone here but thought I would toss it out to see. I don’t make a dime on these things as it’s in another division of the company from me so not really looking to solicit business and honestly I stay plenty busy on the football side anyway. But I saw a sight demo today and thought they were cool. Now, this is a total luxury item that won’t take the place of 2 way or CB. It’s not really meant for longer range comms. But inside 1000 feet it is unreal sound quality that is battery powered and can be used without any mounting to your rig and the always open hands free operation is pretty slick. Thoughts?
