How do you set up your pit radio

[wrightracing.net]

A few years back I was down in baja pitting for team Honda and the guys Showed up with the radio screwed to a piece of plywood. Needless to say, after bouncing around in a pit truck for several hours making our way to our pit past Bahia de Los Angeles the radio
given to our pit captain did not work. We were running late getting to our pit and now we don' has communications Honda relay and
don't know how far out our 1st rider is. For that race, just for the heck of it I decided to bring out a proto type pit box that carried a
Kenwood 110 watt race radio. I brought it our just to show some friends my idea. The radio had not even been programmed yet.
So I pulled it out of the truck, hooked it up, programmed it with a old laptop that I use in the field to program radios and GPS units.
we just got it tunning and we got the call that our rider was in first place and is coming in for gas. Fortunately I had put a antenna is
tuner in the radio pit box so we did not have to worry that I the antenna was matched to the new radio.
All went perfect, 13 seconds later gas it full
Rider gets a drink, bike checked, clean goggles and away he went.
Once again Honda dominated Baja.

Since then I have made a half dozen of those pit radio box setups
And they always keep the radio safe. I even came up with a 50 foot extension cord
that plugs into my trucks winch connectors onthe the front and back bumpers so it worked out great.

What are you using in your pit?
you can see pictures of it on my web page.

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[loufish]

Most of my chasing in Baja has been for Class 30/40 guys using my truck....which has the radio secured in the cab to stay out of trouble along with an 20 ft external ft speaker.....I would never let my radio (or somebody else's) bounce and bang around...

[wrightracing.net]

Most of my chasing in Baja has been for Class 30/40 guys using my truck....which has the radio secured in the cab to stay out of trouble along with an 20 ft external ft speaker.....I would never let my radio (or somebody else's) bounce and bang around...

We use to do the pits with our truck radios but when you are doing rider updates, and have a person on the radio for several hours it is nice to have a radio
at a table under a ez-up. When you get older laying under the shade of you trucks tailgate just doesn't do it. That is what is so nice about the travel case it is easy to strap down
and it sets up right on the table. Here are some pictures or the last one I made.

We also run a 30ft mast with a commercial fiberglass antenna.

What ever happened to the days of loading the truck with my Dirt Bke, a cooler of soda and a pack of cold hotdogs.

[loufish]

We use to do the pits with our truck radios but when you are doing rider updates, and have a person on the radio for several hours it is nice to have a radio
at a table under a ez-up. When you get older laying under the shade of you trucks tailgate just doesn't do it. That is what is so nice about the travel case it is easy to strap down
and it sets up right on the table. Here are some pictures or the last one I made.

We also run a 30ft mast with a commercial fiberglass antenna.

What ever happened to the days of loading the truck with my Dirt Bke, a cooler of soda and a pack of cold hotdogs

Agreed....I was just mostly worried about one rider at a time....I can pull my radio out of my center console and plug it into an external power port already in the bed of my truck....

[wrightracing.net]

I don't know about the power port on your truck but most oem power ports don't let enough power through to run the radio to its full power. On my F350 I put winch plugs on the front and rear. I also run 6 guage wire to them directly to the battery. Then I have a 50ft extention cord that has 12/3 wires, I put the positive and common together to make a 6 guage wire and the ground as the negative, all for a 12v line. I put winch connectors on the extention cord and have never had a issue with power.

I just another one of these pit box radio setups to a team from Utah. I put one of my refurbished Kenwood TK730H
110 watt radios and a antenna tuner with a power meter and SWR meter. its a great setup.

One week until the Baja 500!!!! Why do so many people wait until the week before a race to order radios?

[loufish]

I don't know about the power port on your truck but most oem power ports don't let enough power through to run the radio to its full power.

Chasing bikes that have smaller low watt radios allows me to get away with a 50 watt radio, which doesn't tax my 20 amp circuit much...

[wrightracing.net]

Thanks guys that wanted refurbished 110 watt radios. The pit box setup takes about two weeks to get parts but I can meet you in Tijauna if you just want a radio.

[Finch]

use a CB style speaker that is used in the cab, at the pit site, i rest it on the driver or passanger side mirror. the mike is on a 10 ft retractable cord. only use one mic/speaker

[pjc]

Agreed....I was just mostly worried about one rider at a time....I can pull my radio out of my center console and plug it into an external power port already in the bed of my truck....

I like that!! Who made the panel that fits the console?

[dan200]

I like that!! Who made the panel that fits the console?

im betting he did... lou if you sell the titan I have dibs on that