Let me apologise to Arthur and give you all a chance to delete this
before I teeter on the brink of the off-topic cliff-face. . . . . . .
>I'd be interested in knowing what most of you fellow listees use
>for radio-comm from vehicle to vehicle, that is, say, when you
>hve a group of friends together...
>
The UK is not as liberal as the US for radio comms, France maybe a bit
easier owing to its size. The allocations here are tightly controlled
and policed by the Radiocommunications Agency of the DTI, the
commercially available spectrum is small and along the south coast
allocations are co-ordinated with the French authorities to minimise
mutual interference.
You are officially not permitted any transmitting equipment without a
licence and the equipment has to meet a severe type approval spec, the
amateur radio licence or a reciprocal permit is a handy cover. The law
allows on the spot seizure of the equipment and its _power supply_, this
is yet untested in law but would therefore include the vehicle as
appropriate. The RA (DTI) field officers are beginning to take a
serious interest in MV events owing to the radios in vehicles and on the
tables.
>With my core of fellow Military Harley riders, we use these
>small MAXON HX two-way voice-activated radios, but their ranges
>is very limited (1/4 mile tops, less in urban environment); they
>work in FM (I think) 49Mhz...they have 5 channels and their
>positive use for us bike riders is that you can install the
>headset and the boom mike on a WWII tanker's helmet
>
These are used here under a licence exempt condition (MPT 1336) owing to
the tiny transmit power but also this area, on and around 49MHz, has all
the cordless phones, baby alarms, intercoms and other sources of
annoying crud, as you have found they are largely useless.
The UK has a short range business radio service using three UHF channels
with sub-audible signalling and limited to hand portables with 1/2 watt
ERP, this is very effective giving a good mile range or more but is to
be withdrawn in two years and replaced with an EEC wide allocation that
has just been released, also on UHF (Euro 446) and entirely similar,
these radios are new production and expensive therefore.
Please also be aware that there are strict crash helmet laws in Europe
generally, both that its mandatory on the road and that the helmet has
to be an approved type.
The only motorbike fit that works is a commercial intercom box that has
accurately tailored speech filtering, noise cancelling, auto volume and
the interface to one of these professional standard radios, its
exceedingly expensive as I've done it.
What you can get away with is up to the individual, personally we use
the Euro 446 equipment but then all I have to do is take some out of my
company stock as the time not spent struggling with the mechanical
nightmare called a FV623 is used designing, specifying, supplying and
installing two-way radio systems here. . . . . . . . . .
Richard
(Southampton UK)
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