For a number of years now my wife and I have been using a radio intercom system to communicate to each other whilst touring. They have caused some interest, as on several occasions we have been stopped by people asking us about them and where they could get them. The most notable was in Finland, miles from anywhere, when we were stopped and interviewed by a Japanese TV crew! We have had a few strange looks and a few 'Mickey' takes, but they have been very useful for the following reasons:

1. I tend to be a little bit faster than my wife and therefore I'm always a little way ahead. My wife was always worrying that she might lose me if I got too far away (I usually have the maps!) and with the radios she can easily tell me to slow down or stop if she has lost sight of me.
2. Many a time we would see something and wish to make a comment, but had to wait until we stopped. By then you had either forgotten what it was or the bird had flown away! With the radios you can chat about the scenery, point things out and generally be sociable.
3. Useful for giving directions especially in towns and cities.
4. Useful for warnings! - "Stopped at traffic lights, wait for me", "Watch out for the mad driver, potholes, loose sand coming up" etc.

The one thing you must remember with radios, don't rely on them as an absolute means of communication! It is very easy to get out of range with each other! The PMR radios that we use have a range of about 2km and this range can be considerably reduced by being in a built up or hilly area and when the batteries start to get low.

The radios we use are PMR446 radios (Personal Mobile Radios) working on 8 Frequencies around 446MHz. These are licence free and can be used in most Europeans countries with some exceptions, you can get a full list of the countries that you can use them in on the European Radiocommunications Office web site, you will need to search for 'PMR446'. They have a range of about 5 - 2km and are 'Press to Talk' or VOX operated. As long as you are all operating on the same frequency then you can have as many sets communicating with each other in a group as you like.

We used to use the VOX (voice activation system) on our radios, until a new 'Press to Talk' headset was introduced. There are advantages and Disadvantages to both operating systems:

VOX

Advantages

1. It is convenient to use, you just speak into the microphone to transmit, no buttons to press.
2. Radio is carried in your pocket, when you get off your bike the radio and you are together.
3. No wires to disconnect that connect you to the bike.

Disadvantages

1. In heavy traffic the VOX system was constantly being switched on by the noise of passing cars. This got to be a bit irritating at times, as you can't transmit while a car is passing the other person. If you want to use VOX it is best to try and get a radio with variable 'mic' sensitivity, although setting the sensitivity is still a compromise. Do you decrease the sensitivity to get rid of the car noise and then have to shout to activate the VOX or do you increase the sensitivity to be more discrete and then put up with some traffic noise.
2. If it was hilly terrain often one of us would start panting and all the other one heard was heavy breathing!
3. Due to the VOX, the radios were transmitting a lot of the time when we didn't want them to, this meant that we got through a lot of batteries. Since we have moved to the 'Press to Talk' headsets the batteries are lasting much longer.

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