Hailer and VHF for a committee boat

I am asking about something that other sailing clubs must have faced and
solved. Right now the Race Officer has to juggle two microphones, one for
the hailer and one for the VHF for races. It just doesn't work on a a busy
committee boat. Is there a way of using one microphone to activate both the
hailer and a radio, for race announcements?


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Michael Hobbs
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Michael Hobbs wrote:

 > I am asking about something that other sailing clubs must have faced and
 > solved. Right now the Race Officer has to juggle two microphones, one for
 > the hailer and one for the VHF for races. It just doesn't work on a a busy
 > committee boat. Is there a way of using one microphone to activate both the
 > hailer and a radio, for race announcements?
 >
 >

Many Standard VHF radios (including many of the handhelds like my
HX350S) have a speaker/microphone jack. You might try something like
the Standard 201SW external speaker (about $50). Google on Standard 201W
or go to <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.standardhorizon.com/" target="_blank">http://www.standardhorizon.com/</a> Or check 220SW or 240SW PA horns.

Recommend that you test at the boat store to make sure that it's loud
enough & also that the connectors mate properly -- I've not actually
connected a 201SW to a HX350S.

I also recommend that you use caution when using the radio & hailing at
the same time -- you're likely to get other race and non-race
transmissions/broadcasts over the channel(s), and having the radio
connected to a hailer/speaker could cause confusion to the racing fleet,
not to mention some embarrasing broadcasts not intended for the fleet...

You might also try asking the question over at the rec.boats.electronics
newsgroup (nntp://rec.boats.electronics)<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->