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New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby OldButNotDead » Tue Jun 13, 2017 4:18 pm

Just a short bio. Retired the last day of March and my primary mission is to ride.
Been riding since 1965 out of Martins Ferry, Ohio. Rode a Honda CL160 all over Eastern Ohio and NW WV back then. Currently riding a BMW R1200GS LC but have spent a lot of time on FJR's' and Triumph triples. Even though I ride a GS I'm not a dual sporter, I ride twisties as day trips from the WV line down to N. GA. Getting tired of riding alone and would rather ride with up to five or six. Also know how to turn a wrench and do most of my own maintenance.

I'm pretty much ready to go any day or time for day trips or even multiple day trips. Having spent way too much time being eaten by bugs and sleeping in snow, mud and temps from freezing to miserably hot, I prefer motel camping but know how to pitch a tent.

Look forward to meeting and riding with you all.
Rod
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby Bob » Tue Jun 13, 2017 4:25 pm

Hey Rod, welcome! <welc>

Sounds like you'll be assimilated quickly. You can subscribe to the upcoming rides (and other) forums so you'll be notified when theres a new post.

Hope to see you soon on a ride!
Bob
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby OldButNotDead » Tue Jun 13, 2017 5:28 pm

Ooops. Forgot to mention I've been a member of MSTA (HSTA) for something like ten or twelve years too. BMWMOA and BMWRA too but really not a died in the wool Beemer social butterfly. Also, ST.net and ST.org too. You might have guessed, I just love to ride and swap lies with other riders.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby tireatr » Tue Jun 13, 2017 6:06 pm

Welcome Rod! Lots of good roads in the SC /NC border area. Just a Hop and a skip to Rosmam where everything gets better.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby Bob » Tue Jun 13, 2017 6:29 pm

A few of us are also MSTA members. Brick is a former prez of the org, you probably know him.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby OldButNotDead » Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:11 pm

tireatr wrote:Welcome Rod! Lots of good roads in the SC /NC border area. Just a Hop and a skip to Rosmam where everything gets better.

IIRC you live around Celo or did. I think we have actually ridden together once before a long time ago. I was on a Tiger 1050. I believe you were not happy with me. <grin> I had to stop just West of Marshall and had never ridden that road before. I looked for you for an hour or so and you were looking for me too. You expected me to give you a call on my cell but dumb arse me did not. My fault, only excuse was I hardly carried a cell at that time and never even thought of it. That's OK, we have lots more rides and fun in the future.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby Bob » Tue Jun 13, 2017 7:21 pm

OldButNotDead wrote:
tireatr wrote:Welcome Rod! Lots of good roads in the SC /NC border area. Just a Hop and a skip to Rosmam where everything gets better.

IIRC you live around Celo or did. I think we have actually ridden together once before a long time ago. I was on a Tiger 1050. I believe you were not happy with me. <grin> I had to stop just West of Marshall and had never ridden that road before. I looked for you for an hour or so and you were looking for me too. You expected me to give you a call on my cell but dumb arse me did not. My fault, only excuse was I hardly carried a cell at that time and never even thought of it. That's OK, we have lots more rides and fun in the future.

Most of us use 2-way GMRS radio or Sena BT intercom, or BOTH which seems to cover all the communications bases. Nice to have when deviations to plans become necessary. And I think it adds another level of safety. Plus the other day on Old US421 towards Mtn City, Scott casually mentioned to me on the intercom (I was in lead) "hey did you see that last car flash his lights?" I grabbed the brakes and 5 seconds later there was a state trooper hiding on the right in the bushes. <dope> So yes, B2B comm is well worth it! <olfart>
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby tireatr » Wed Jun 14, 2017 7:25 am

OldButNotDead wrote:
tireatr wrote:Welcome Rod! Lots of good roads in the SC /NC border area. Just a Hop and a skip to Rosman where everything gets better.

IIRC you live around Celo or did. I think we have actually ridden together once before a long time ago. I was on a Tiger 1050. I believe you were not happy with me. <grin> I had to stop just West of Marshall and had never ridden that road before. I looked for you for an hour or so and you were looking for me too. You expected me to give you a call on my cell but dumb arse me did not. My fault, only excuse was I hardly carried a cell at that time and never even thought of it. That's OK, we have lots more rides and fun in the future.


I do remember that day. It was a few years ago. We met from the Carolina riders forum. I used to have a cabin in Celo, now the ex wife does <banghd>

Glad to have you aboard.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby OldButNotDead » Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:17 pm

Bob wrote:Most of us use 2-way GMRS radio or Sena BT intercom, or BOTH which seems to cover all the communications bases. Nice to have when deviations to plans become necessary. And I think it adds another level of safety. Plus the other day on Old US421 towards Mtn City, Scott casually mentioned to me on the intercom (I was in lead) "hey did you see that last car flash his lights?" I grabbed the brakes and 5 seconds later there was a state trooper hiding on the right in the bushes. <dope> So yes, B2B comm is well worth it! <olfart>


I may take a look at something beyond my Sena 20s. IMO, and something left over from my HAM days, the GMRS solution seems to be a more dependable link than BT. I used GMRS back in 07 or 08 with an AudioVox. That did not work out all that well. Lots of things weren't standardized. At that time you spent way too much good riding time trying to set up comms. I'm sure you remember those days. Might not be able to get on the road for a week to 10 days, but when I do I will be I will picking some brains on comm.
Rod
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby LeeDavis » Wed Jun 14, 2017 4:04 pm

Welcome aboard!

Many of us run a combination that can be used as stand-alone BT with the 20S or GMRS by pairing the 20S to a BT GMRS radio (Motorola MU350R) or Sena Hub (SR10) wired to any GMRS radio. Either of those setups is easy to get going and reliable.

If there're up to 3 of us in the group we go with BT (despite Sena claims, more pairings isn't practical), more than 3 riders then GMRS.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby Bob » Wed Jun 14, 2017 7:43 pm

OldButNotDead wrote: I may take a look at something beyond my Sena 20s. IMO, and something left over from my HAM days, the GMRS solution seems to be a more dependable link than BT. I used GMRS back in 07 or 08 with an AudioVox. That did not work out all that well. Lots of things weren't standardized. At that time you spent way too much good riding time trying to set up comms. I'm sure you remember those days. Might not be able to get on the road for a week to 10 days, but when I do I will be I will picking some brains on comm.
Rod


GMRS today "just works" mostly, no real pre-ride setup required, just tune it to the right channel. If you were talking about trying to make the "vox" feature work on 2-way radios, yeah that was a big waste of time. There was no "right" setting, it was dependent on background noise, which of course is always changing. We just use push-to-talk buttons and disable the vox feature. Works pretty well.

The Bluetooth intercom is what often delays the start of a ride, while we all do the BT dance, which looks sorta like this-->> <bana>

Once we're paired up, the BT audio is clearer than the GMRS, but the downside is loosing the connection while hearing continuous static, and wind noise that gets broadcast to everyone in the loop. Seems that everything is a trade-off.

Having both, for me anyway, is the answer. But yeah, we'll have plenty of opinions for ya. And you know what they say about opinions.... <olfart>
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby OldButNotDead » Mon Jun 19, 2017 3:09 pm

LeeDavis wrote:Welcome aboard!

Many of us run a combination that can be used as stand-alone BT with the 20S or GMRS by pairing the 20S to a BT GMRS radio (Motorola MU350R) or Sena Hub (SR10) wired to any GMRS radio. Either of those setups is easy to get going and reliable.

If there're up to 3 of us in the group we go with BT (despite Sena claims, more pairings isn't practical), more than 3 riders then GMRS.

Got an MU350R and BT PTT inbound. I definitely know about Sena claims about pairing LOL.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby OldButNotDead » Mon Jun 19, 2017 3:20 pm

Bob wrote:GMRS today "just works" mostly, no real pre-ride setup required, just tune it to the right channel. If you were talking about trying to make the "vox" feature work on 2-way radios, yeah that was a big waste of time. There was no "right" setting, it was dependent on background noise, which of course is always changing. We just use push-to-talk buttons and disable the vox feature. Works pretty well.

The Bluetooth intercom is what often delays the start of a ride, while we all do the BT dance, which looks sorta like this-->> <bana>

Once we're paired up, the BT audio is clearer than the GMRS, but the downside is loosing the connection while hearing continuous static, and wind noise that gets broadcast to everyone in the loop. Seems that everything is a trade-off.

Having both, for me anyway, is the answer. But yeah, we'll have plenty of opinions for ya. And you know what they say about opinions.... <olfart>

I agree and will shortly be able to have the best of both worlds to.
When the first FRS/GMRS came out you could even have problems on freq's between manufacturers. I was pretty sure that had been sorted out. I think the BT on headsets is just getting kinda sorta sorted out too; but really the Sena, Cardo, etc B2B stuff is way beyond what BT was originally designed for. That's why I leaned toward GMRS. Besides setting up groups or remembering who has a Sena 10 or 20, or Brand X is kind of a pain.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby Bob » Mon Jun 19, 2017 3:33 pm

Great!! And we are riding Weds. if you can make it.-->> viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1027
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby OldButNotDead » Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:31 pm

Bob wrote:Great!! And we are riding Weds. if you can make it.-->> viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1027

Is that the Gate gas station in Morganton, NC? If that's it I'll be there. Will be on just my Sena 20S, my MU350R arrives sometime on Wed. I'll ride in radio silence mode which is where I have lived for most of my life anyhow LOL.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby Bob » Mon Jun 19, 2017 7:34 pm

OldButNotDead wrote:
Bob wrote:Great!! And we are riding Weds. if you can make it.-->> viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1027

Is that the Gate gas station in Morganton, NC? If that's it I'll be there. Will be on just my Sena 20S, my MU350R arrives sometime on Wed. I'll ride in radio silence mode which is where I have lived for most of my life anyhow LOL.


Yep, Gate is at 823 North Green St--Morganton. See you there.
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby OldButNotDead » Tue Jun 20, 2017 10:48 am

The following is a summary on my status with B2B comms. I'm a tinkerer so I'll be playing with this as a "new toy." Don't be surprised if I made some incorrect assumptions or statements. Please correct me if I do. My skin is made of tungsten carbide, and I can't learn without correction.

My background in radio started with CB's, then HAM radio, and worded with communications and radio intercepts in the military. I lost interest in radios when I got into computers.
I first started trying B2B back in 2007? at an HSTA event out of Sparta. I had a couple different GMRS radios that I tried to hook up through an AudioVox system which was the rage at the time. Sam Phillips and Gary Christianson were part of that. It took almost an hour for anyone to talk. Part of the problem was the GMRS channelization was not the same in different makes of GMRS. One thing I did learn was VOX wasn't worth spending time messing with. I stopped playing with that for a while because even though we did talk, there was way too much jibberish that was distracting.
When I got my Sena 20S I got it primarily to listen to map directions from my GPS. It took me a while to get that straight because I found that Zumo's were the only GPS's that implemented BT efficiently. I had a Nuvi but It would not pair with anything without modifications or problems. Later I found that Gamin made marketing decisions so that only Zumo's had decent BT versions installed. The 20S worked fine from the start on my Navigator V and a Zumo 660LM. The Nuvi2797lmt was a great unit and I have two for the cars, but to get it to work right I would have to open it and solder in an external audio jack.
The reason I started having questions is that I am riding with some guys that have 10s's. In looking at YouTub the 10s will pair up to four units to talk to each other but without simultaneous two way conversations. I'm not sure if the 10s will do two way at all. If everyone had a 20s I would not be asking you questions. I know how to pair units and to set up groups. I also know the 10s can pair to the 20s. What I don't know is if the 10s will be part of a group. If the 10 can pair to a group is it capable of participating in a conversation with multiple units?
I see most of the GMRS guys do it with an SR10 which is a nice pice of gear and gives you things like adding radar detectors and other "stuff." I believe the main reason for that is that up until recently GMRS radios did not have BT and you had to have something like the SR10. The Motorola MU350R can pair directly to the 20s and has a BT PTT swich. That means I can put the radio anywhere (practical) on the bike wirelessly. The MU350R says 35 mile range but I would not count on more than 5 to 10. The GMRS will break into the S20 when a call is received but only one member can clearly talk at a time but that is OK by me. Not sure if you can simultaneouly use a BT group and GMRS.
Thanks,
Rod
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby Bob » Tue Jun 20, 2017 11:00 am

Not sure if you can simultaneouly use a BT group and GMRS.


Yes! I do it all the time. I get 20S BT intercom paired up with the other riders while having my GMRS running thru my SR10 into my 20S, simultaneousy. I can push the PTT to talk wth someone who has GMRS but not BT (sometimes happens), if the BT runs out of range we can comm with the GMRS as needed, if others are using it.

And I see no reason why you can't pair the Motorola GMRS with your 20S at the same time as being paired up with other riders using 20S BT. Lee Davis has done this I think....?
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Re: New Member Near Spartanbug

Unread postby LeeDavis » Tue Jun 20, 2017 11:11 am

Bob wrote:
Not sure if you can simultaneouly use a BT group and GMRS.


And I see no reason why you can't pair the Motorola GMRS with your 20S at the same time as being paired up with other riders using 20S BT. Lee Davis has done this I think....?


Yeah, I had Brick on BT, the group on GMRS. It wasn't simultaneous, GMRS would interrupt the BT intercom.

SMH10 and 20s can have 2 way intercom either mixed or separate.

In my experience, I've never had any luck pairing more than 3 Senas for group intercom - SMH10 or 20S. A 4th will pair but when it happens one of the prior 3 gets kicked off. Maybe I'm not holding my tongue right and maybe others can get better results, but not me...

BT and GMRS ranges are basically line-of-sight with GMRS a little better than BT. The best line of sight GMRS range I've gotten is around a mile.
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