Can you hear me now?

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

     I have had a number of times that I have missed races or had to scramble to get my leathers on because of not hearing the call over the P.A. system for my classes (often times there is not a speaker nearby). This has been the case at a number of different tracks and I am interested in avoiding this from happening in the future. At Road America they have that FM transmitter so you can get all the P.A. announcing over your car stereo, boombox, or Walkman (I am not aware of other facilities having this, but mabey they do?). I have also seen the personal scanners that alot of people have for listening in on the corner workers. I am wondering if you can also get the P.A. announcing over the personal scanners and also does anyone have suggestions on which scanners are good ones and which ones to avoid?
     I really like the FM transmitter idea alot because radios are abundently available and give you so many options. Some of the radio only Walkman's are so small that you can put them in your pocket or clip them to clothing and with an earbud you can easily stay on top of things and not have to carry around something the size of the scanners I have seen.
     Does anyone know if the FM transmitter has to be a local only thing or could CCS purchase one for each region and use them at each event? (actually in the MW, GL, and GP regions 1 transmitter could be used between them since there are no overlapping seperate events). I was also curious as to if this is very expensive to purchase and get the appropriate FCC license(s) to operate? If this isn't that expensive and others are running into not hearing the calls than mabey CCS could look into this option. If something like this already exists with CCS then it should be made a little more easily know to those at the track (mabey a sign saying what frequency to tune-in to located where everyone purchases their wristband).

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

I generally use a scanner to listen to Control, but I do count races when they are running. Blackhawk sure does have some dead areas for teh PA system there. Another thing is you can ask a corner worker what race is going on too.

[Nate R]

I doubt you'll see this often, given the legality issues. I'm very suprised Road America does this. I wonder how they can legally? Maybe carrier current.

Either way, most small FM broadcasters are illegal, unless they put out a ridiculously low amount of pwer. (Like, a 1/4 block radius at MOST)

[r1owner]

I know Gateway broadcasts (via FM) when you go to the drag strip for test and tune.

Not sure about race day for us lowly CCS racers though ;).  Never thought to even check.

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

Might fall under the LowPower FM regs.

[TreyBone]

They use FM at VIR as well ;D It sure does make it nicer too.

[Nate R]

Rob, did they LPFM stuff change in the past 3 years? There was talk of it, but I don't know if it ever happened. I discovered motorcycles, and thus dropped off of the pirate radio scene.

If it hasn't changed, any transmitter would have to meet Part 15 requirements, which are pretty crappy as far as range.

I wonder if some just don't buy the pre-made transmitters, assuming they're legal.

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

Havent a clue Nate. I just went to teh www.fcc.gov website and tried to find it. That was the closest thing to what was being asked I could find. Hell teh FCC rules makes teh ATF's rules seem easy. :o

[sdiver68]

FWIW, they did use the transmitter at Gateway, I remember them announcing that at the rider's meeting.

[Jeff]

I looked into this before asking CCS to do it a while back.  The unit is like $500 from radio shack and requires you have an FCC license to operate it.  It would transmit over a few miles.

The low power crappy ones which would cover 100 yards or so were $150 or so and required no licenses.

The problem was that the different tracks have different audio hook-ups so it wouldn't be very easy to guarantee that it would work at every track.

[Bam55]

Can't they buy the multi-versatile adapter in the IBM Business commercial to use at different facilities?  ;D

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

     $500 to a racing organization of this size should be like a drop in the bucket. Even if you bought 1 for every region, that's a $5000 one time investment (that's only 1.4% the cost of our new transponder system). As for the hook-up question, I think that if CCS provided the appropriate connectors to the tracks they would install them, or better yet have the track pay for the connectors and install them at their own expense (after all, we are being charged more this year by the tracks, so this would be a minimal cost to them compared to the increased fees the tracks are charging us!). This would also be alot cheaper for the tracks than adding just 1 more P.A. speaker and all it's wiring (most need alot more than just 1 added!).
     An FM broadcast system sure would help to put the whole "I didn't hear the announcer" excuse to rest, at a relatively minimal cost.