Sparco GSM pit to car - Anyone tried it?

Sparco GSM pit to car - Anyone tried it?

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andye30m3

Original Poster:

3,453 posts

255 months

Sunday 3rd December 2023
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Looking at options for pit to car comms for next year and noticed that the sparco GSM can be had fror under £300 at the moment.

Looks like it's just a case of a box with a mobile sim card that can connect into headphones in the helmet, which on the face of it seems like a sensible and simple idea.

I can't find any online reviews, has any one tried one or know anyone who has? and would you recommend it?

blueacid

447 posts

142 months

Wednesday 3rd April
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andye30m3 said:
Looking at options for pit to car comms for next year and noticed that the sparco GSM can be had fror under £300 at the moment.

Looks like it's just a case of a box with a mobile sim card that can connect into headphones in the helmet, which on the face of it seems like a sensible and simple idea.

I can't find any online reviews, has any one tried one or know anyone who has? and would you recommend it?
A very slow reply - considerations need to be given to:
1) Whether there's good signal all around the track
2) How busy that'll be; at a meet with lots of spectators the mobile network might be overwhelmed - if your call can't get through, what are you going to do?
3) Whether it supports the latest mobile phone tech. The product details page goes on about GSM; that's 2G. If it doesn't support VoLTE (voice over 4G) then it's using a soon-deprecated tech, While 2G's still available today (Apr 2024) from Vodafone, o2, and EE; the plan is to deprecate it by 2033. Keep an eye out for announcements; some networks might well start to shut down 2G sooner. If the helmet sim-card is going to be from another provider than those three then you'll need to see which parent network it uses. Anything using Three (iD, Superdrug, Smarty, 3 themselves) won't work if the Sparco GSM is 2G only. Check also which parent network your sim uses if you're using a MVNO (e.g. Giffgaff, Tesco, and Sky use o2, Voxi uses Vodafone, etc)
4) err
5) That's it.

andrewcliffe

967 posts

225 months

Wednesday 3rd April
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Q 11.3 and Q 11.3.1 ?