Can you hear me now?

An interim posting … one of the things we discovered early on was that as we drove down the road in Timmber Wolf we often could not hear each other very well. Road noise, engine noise, and some hearing loss in certain ranges for Geoff made for communication problems between driver and navigator … not a good thing.

Pretty quickly we eliminated using our cellphones or walkie talkies or that sort of thing as a possibility. Those generally require pushing the right buttons to say something and lead to hands off the wheel and distracted driving and in the case of walkie talkies when they are too close they tend to just squeal at each other sometimes. I mentioned this communication issue briefly in the second installment, PecanPark, and a couple of you mentioned sources and equipment used by law enforcement, a good thought but frightfully expensive and probably overkill.

What we needed we realized was something more like what motorcyclists use to talk to each other or to their pillion rider. We researched it online and ended up ordering the SharkBluetooth Intercom wireless hands free communication setup from Amazon. Although expandable to 6 riders, it comes with the pieces/parts for two unlike many of these sets where you have to buy each one individually.

We first tried setting this up using the earpiece things people plug into their phones like a headset but we couldn’t seem to either get the two units paired or something else was wrong. Our frustration limit reached we set it aside and made the Pensacola trip without it. Fortunately being a straight shot without a lot of confusing traffic areas I didn’t lose my voice on that trip … we had enough other problems to keep us entertained!

When we got back we decided to get the setup working as it came, using the speakers and microphones that arrived with it. Apparently the alternatives we were using just were not compatible because we had no trouble getting the communication going but now how to actually use it since it is designed to be attached to helmets. Since we have and use ballcaps on the road like sunshades they were a natural first thought and certainly the units themselves can be clipped to them but the speakers and mikes are designed to be stuck with Velcro to the inside of the helmet just opposite the ears and ball caps don’t reach that far!

Time again to set things aside and let them stew in the back of the brain … maybe we could use some sort of headband like the sweatbands athletes etc. use? The next day we had some time to kill in a shopping center waiting on picking up my sister at nearby Jacksonville International Airport and of course people like us have to go wander around in Gander Mountain. When we went in we asked the girls at the cashier desk if they had exercise headbands or anything and they didn’t think so and were sort of clueless about what we wanted but a customer nearby (might have been there to flirt with the girls?) suggested we look at the buffs they had in the fishing department.

Now in case you haven’t a clue what a buff is they are those cloth head thingies popularized on the Survivor show and are similar to the do-rags worn by motorcyclists. They are quite versatile in how they can be worn on the head.

I chose one very like the one here which is UV resistant and treated as an insect shield which will be nice since I can’t put those repellants on my skin. They are from Buff USA. Anyway they can be worn in many ways including like a headband and since getting it I have already tested that they hold the speaker and microphone in position. If it turns out there is any slippage a little ingenuity with the velcro and/or needle and thread should cure it. I think the unit will also clip onto it as well although a ball cap will go over it as an alternative. Geoff chose a plainer version but the principle is the same.

With any luck at all these will resolve the communications issues including working with one of us in and one of us out of Timmber Wolf for coordinating backing up, hooking up and unhooking!