Question from Canada - Silicon Chip Oct and Nov 1989

I've been thinking about this for some time now, and wanted something more reasonably priced.

A friend bought a whiz-bang noise cancelling wired unit, but for big bucks. Performance was impressive enough, pity price wasn't.

My idea was to use simple headphone amps (I'm sure there are some suitable kits around for that) and the throat mics from Jaycar.

I already have moulded ear headphones (the only way to travel on a bike IMO) and the throat mics will lose the wind noise problem.

Involves some DIY, but compared to the work you have to put in routing cables and such, it's not bad. The most expensive part of this exercise would be the waterproof connectors.

I have some of the bits, but, due to the fact that I carry a pillion once every six months or so (for short trips) it seems hardly worthwhile.

Another option that involves little or no effort (ok, no effort) is to use the jaycar throat mics as-is (comes with one earbud earphone), with a 40 channel UHF radio in VOX mode, along with your pillion who has the same, and bingo. Aside from the occasional yobbo on that channel telling you to get stuffed, it would probably be the cheapest and by far the _easiest_ way to do it. Best of all, bike-bike communication is effectively a built-in feature.

Of course you need a rocket-scientist degree to work out the cryptic menus to use the radios, but hey, it's cheap and easy.

GET AWAY

I don't want to pay "because it is probably outdated technology by now".

What are you talking about "outdated"? It's a bleedin' transistor amplifier for crying out loud.

What developments have been made that make it "outdated"? Has something better that silicon been devised? Has the design changed enough to warrant the increase in cost and performance where you can't tell the difference within a motorcycle helmet anyway?

What he *might* mean, is _features_. And in any case, rest assured that ANY features he sees today in these boxes have already been invented many years ago. And I don't even think that, because he mentioned Silicon Chip Magazine, he's probably looking at the cheaper end of the range anyway - so the real fancy features are irrelevant.

They will try anything for "free"

you work it out, you start building it from scratch with trail & error it would cost a hella lot more that $26 Why should we screw Silicon Chip they need the money to keep the magazine alive, otherwise everyone will get nothing to read

What are you talking about "outdated"? It's a bleedin' transistor amplifier for crying out loud.

What developments have been made that make it "outdated"? Has something better that silicon been devised? Has the design changed enough to warrant the increase in cost and performance where you can't tell the difference within a motorcycle helmet anyway?

What he *might* mean, is _features_. And in any case, rest assured that ANY features he sees today in these boxes have already been invented many years ago. And I don't even think that, because he mentioned Silicon Chip Magazine, he's probably looking at the cheaper end of the range anyway - so the real fancy features are irrelevant.

-- Linux Registered User # 302622

Why build, you can buy one for $30+postage on eBay.

Dave.

"David L. Jones" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@q5g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Yes I've seen that but the reviews say they are quite noisy. I was hoping to have something to start with and design a bandpass filter to get some of the noise out or leave just enough speech to be understandable.

Thanks for the idea.