IcemanG17

I am looking for an inexpensive radio to use in my Lemons racer....I've heard good things about Midland radios...& they even make a closed face helmet kit with a PTT (push to talk) button......has anyone used these?

Opinions?

I found them at Buy.com for $68 + $32 for a helmet kit....quite inexpensive compared to the real race radio kits at $1k+

dp35

I have a very similar question, except I'm done pretending that there's a cheap short cut. My question is: where's the best place to find Sampson Racing Radios used, or the best price new?

Iceman - you'll be in the same position once you try using the cheap ones, especially at Infineon.

DAVISRILEY

We used a similar set up at Nelson's for the Lamest Day. It worked okay, except it was very hard to hear from car to pit, but pit to car was clear. I made some extensions to move the ptt to the steering wheel. We are going to try a real headset for the pit to see if that makes the difference.

SundayDriver

AFAIK, Sampson does not make any radios - they rebrand and sell. Last time I looked, they sell Motorola and TEK. I had TEK and they are fine. TEK were also sold as other labels. Sorry, I don't have a good source, but Sampson gives very good service and is a racer. In fact, he is quite famous as the drover that was hit by GhettoRacer in one of GRs first races. It was F8.

dp35

Thanks for the clarification Mark, and you are correct. Seems like RE is another company with products very similar to Sampson's "Racing Radios".

There's a big difference in price between the TEK and Motorola radio packages offerred by Sampson. There must be a reason for that. If anyone here's experienced both, I'd like to know if the more expensive Motorola's are worth it, or are the TEK's just fine for club racing?

Mahler9th

I tried the inexpensive radio route, including making my own PTT and car harness. You can source all of the pieces independently and put it together yourself, but it takes time and effort. Later I bought an antenna, car harness, PTT and helmet kit from Sampson, keeping my DIY stuff for spares. I am happy with the stuff I bought from Sampson. For radios, I just bought used Motorolas from E-Bay. Lots to choose from and not very expensive. Lots of people use these radios and so there are always lots of them for sale. I paid about $100 - 150 per radio for three pro-level Motorolas. Sampson (and others) can program the channels for a nominal fee. These things can pretty easily be resold too, with losing much, if any $$.

For a single event, I might network amongst my racing "friends," and borrow the stuff.

dp35

Motorola makes several models, but it seems the CP200 is the one to have for this use. If someone knows otherwise please share your knowledge.

kgorman

We use (and sell) the CP200. The Motorola gear is first rate.

Making your own harnesses and cables is fine, but most of the time if you don't purchase in bulk you don't save that much cash and spend lots of time. Good input about used radios on ebay, then purchase the cables/etc from a vendor and get the programming done.

Kurt R

we used a refurbished Kenwood in the car from Rapid 2 Way
They also hooked us up with some inexpensive used Motorolas for the crew. They also rent radios.

We use TeK radios in the enduro car, they came with the car, but were labeled Speedcom. Derrick from Speedcom was very helpful when we had some issues.

FWIW I still use an ancient Motorola MTS2000 as my personal radio, with a Motorola headset.

IcemanG17

I've heard excellent things about the more powerful Motorola radios......the ones that require an FCC license to run.....

However in a cost saving effort I bought the 5 watt Midlands...we'll see how they work....worst case scenario is I loose $100

Van

That's 1/5th of the Lemons budget!!

We had good luck with the regular walkie-talkie radios at Nelson Ledges. We had a pretty good electronic whiz and he rigged up ear pieces, a mic and PTT button.

krystar

....radio comms are part of the budget? i consider it a safety issue. as in "yo dood, yo ****s on fire! get out! get out!"

jakermc

I would suggest a CB radio with a big antenna on the back of the car. Certainly more in the spirit of LeMons. Go for a full Smokey and the Bandit theme.

Van

No, a radio wouldn't be part of the budget.