homemade 2-way intercom for race scanner?

[mole351]

i have 2 motorola talkabouts, 2 sets of noise reducing headphones, and an SC230 scanner. does anybody know of a way to or what equipment i would need to rig up a 2-way intercom system i could use at the races with these talkabouts in addition to my scanner?*


*for the electronically challenged

 

[mole351]

anybody know where i can find out or point me in the right direction? i've been searching the net for days with no luck. it's gotta be somewhere!

 

[SAR923]

I don't even understand what you're asking about. You have two FRS radios. Are the noise reducing headphones for them or the scanner? If they are for the FRS radios, are you asking about a way to listen to the scanner and FRS radio at the same time through the headphones? Or what? Maybe you can rephrase your question so it makes a little more sense.

 

[Forts]

I think what he wants to do is be able to listen to the race on the scanner, but also communicate via the FRS's at the same time (and hear them in the same headphones). It should be pretty easy to patch the scanner and the FRS radio's headphone jacks together, but likely the biggest problem would be talking over the car noise when trying to transmit with the FRS.

 

[mole351]

i want to be able to talk to my wife during a race while listening to the scanner. i don't want to buy one of those $400+ two-way intercom systems because i believe there may be a way to rig it through my talkabouts (ie- buying a headset mic or headset w/a mic and running it through the talkabouts). i thought i had read something about this awhile back, but now can't find anything.

basically just trying to turn my scanner w/2 headsets into a setup where i can talk to the other person without having to remove he headset from my ears and without having to buy the expensive system.

make more sense?

 

[MacombMonitor]

i want to be able to talk to my wife during a race while listening to the scanner. i don't want to buy one of those $400+ two-way intercom systems because i believe there may be a way to rig it through my talkabouts (ie- buying a headset mic or headset w/a mic and running it through the talkabouts). i thought i had read something about this awhile back, but now can't find anything.

basically just trying to turn my scanner w/2 headsets into a setup where i can talk to the other person without having to remove he headset from my ears and without having to buy the expensive system.

make more sense?

What if you program your scanner to scan the "Race" frequency, and the FRS channel? When you don't talk, you'll only hear the race, when you talk, you should hear each other, provided it's not stopped on the race frequency. You could even set one, or the other, as a priority channel, then it would leave the active frequency, and jump to the priority channel, when it became active. Should work. :?

 

[mole351]

It should be pretty easy to patch the scanner and the FRS radio's headphone jacks together, but likely the biggest problem would be talking over the car noise when trying to transmit with the FRS.

Yes, that's what I'd like to do. Was wondering if there's a way (probably not?) to rig up a mic to the headphones that would be connected to the talkabouts that we could talk into instead of the actual speaker on the radio, therefore reducing track noise?

 

[mole351]

macomb, that may work....

but what i'm more concerned w/right now (as mentioned in the post above this one) is the ability to attach a mic to the headset and talk into that thru the talkabout...therefore reducing (hopefully) the track noise.

it may be more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Pro-95]

Hmm, program the scanner for the FRS freqs, course you'll hear everyone else with FRS as well. Then use throat mics on the FRS radios.

You *could* buy the race headphone setup with built in two-way comms but at 200+ it's a little spendy for occasional use but well worth it for the avid race fan.

 

[flyingwolf]

May I suggest a standar headset with mic (the kind the crew cheifs use) with a splitter?
One side of the headset is playing your scanner. The otherside is hooked up to your FRS radio with VOX enabled and it should work out fine.

 

[MacombMonitor]

It should be pretty easy to patch the scanner and the FRS radio's headphone jacks together, but likely the biggest problem would be talking over the car noise when trying to transmit with the FRS.

Yes, that's what I'd like to do. Was wondering if there's a way (probably not?) to rig up a mic to the headphones that would be connected to the talkabouts that we could talk into instead of the actual speaker on the radio, therefore reducing track noise?

Turn the volume down on the FRS radios, and listen to them through your scanner. Put the headphones on the scanner.

 

[MacombMonitor]

Hmm, program the scanner for the FRS freqs, course you'll hear everyone else with FRS as well. Then use throat mics on the FRS radios.

You *could* buy the race headphone setup with built in two-way comms but at 200+ it's a little spendy for occasional use but well worth it for the avid race fan.

If he had a scanner that did CTCSS, he could narrow down a lot of the riff-raff...but he doesn't. :?

 

[mole351]

Hmm, program the scanner for the FRS freqs, course you'll hear everyone else with FRS as well. Then use throat mics on the FRS radios.

You *could* buy the race headphone setup with built in two-way comms but at 200+ it's a little spendy for occasional use but well worth it for the avid race fan.

If he had a scanner that did CTCSS, he could narrow down a lot of the riff-raff...but he doesn't. :?

i believe it does? I'm just learning how to use the damn thing and haven't gotten to that part yet, but this is one of the features:

DCS/CTCSS Rapid Decode - Instantly Detects and Displays the Subaudible Tone So You Can Quickly Determine the System Settings.

not the same thing?

 

[MacombMonitor]

Ok, if your scanner has CTCSS, then program your FRS radios to use CTCSS, pick a random code, then when you program the FRS frequency into your scanner, include the CTCSS code for the FRS radios, and your scanner will only hear FRS radios on that frequency, with that tone code. That might eliminate a lot of your fellow race fans from transmitting into your headphones.