How does your club communicate on tours?

David in San Antonio

David in San Antonio

Well-known member
When touring in a group how does your club communicate?
I can’t even hear my cellphone when The Wretched Roadster is under way.
Cell signals can sometimes be spotty in the Texas Hill Country, too.

The last advice on this forum looks to be 5 years old.
Besides cell phones, other methods mentioned:
Family Radio Service (FRS) units, but they’re handheld.
Walkie Talkie phone apps like Zello, with or without a Bluetooth push-to-talk (PTT) microphone/speaker.
Citizen’s Band (CB) radio.
Someone even suggested Morse code headlight signals as a joke.

What do you use?
 
FRS radios are dirt cheap and have good range, and I can't get the club to try them. However, our club did something unexpected and made a "touring roster" that has all the members' names and just their cellphone numbers listed. It is very small and easily fits in the Model A door pockets. Not perfect, but better than nothing. They are even starting to use text!

The way to use group text for touring - At the start of the tour, someone texts all the participants at once with a group text. Then, whenever one of the participants replies, everyone in the group gets it. For drivers who are touring solo, this isn't a good idea. However, with a cellphone on vibrate, and an alert passenger in charge of the phone, the group text seems to work better than anything else.
 
We used walkie talkies on the tour I ran last weekend. It was my first experience using them and they worked pretty well. They can be hard to hear sometimes, but a boon overall. Group texts can work, but looking at a phone while driving may not be convenient. Individual phone numbers help, too.
 
For those who own iPhones, you can use AirPod Pros to prompt Siri to read incoming texts aloud and respond to them. If you don't want to go the earbud route, you can get similar results by pairing a Bluetooth speaker to the phone. Those are usually loud enough to make speech comprehensible even in an open car. Then set the phone to be continuously listening for voice commands while you're on the tour; this allows you to dictate to Siri without picking up the phone.
 
David in San Antonio said:
When touring in a group how does your club communicate?
Click to expand...


There are many options.We have tried several over the years.
First, you have to ask, how bad do you want to talk to others in the tour?
Hand held radios of any type are a poor choice for mobile service. They do have one big advantage for model A people in that they require NO attachment to the car so this works around the positive ground and 6 volt problem.
If the attachment of an outside mobile type antenna can be tolerated the connection of a handheld to the outside antenna will greatly improve coverage.

1- Most people nowdays have a cell phone but using it as a mobile 2 way radio
has many shortcomings. They work very poorly in high ambient noise
environments. They are illegal to use in hand while driving.
2 - Some are very expensive.
3 - If you drop it, it is almost always broken and then expensive to fix.

A full mobile radio installation is usually the best choice.
They will have the best coverage due to antenna efficiency, power output and in car readability due to high quality audio and speaker placement.
They are legal to use while driving. If you drop the mic, if will NOT break.

There are several services available for the general public.
FRS (family radio service). Easy and cheap to acquire. Can be had in hand held or mobile type. Very low power and sometimes won't reach the last car in the tour.

Class D CB (citizen band). Better coverage than FRS. Fairly reliable. Highly prone to busy channel interference.

Class E uhf CB. Slightly more expensive than class D but can have the advantage of repeater wide area coverage and minimal busy channel interference.

Commercial service. Probably the best but most expensive. Any type service is available from local car to car up to world wide coverage.

Amateur radio. Same as commercial coverage and equipment availability.
Relatively cheap due to used commercial equipment availability.
Private channels available.
Requires each user to have a license.

As mentioned before, Morse code by blinking car lights.
Requires proficiency in Morse code. Requires relaying messages up or down the line which in a long line could delay message up to 30 minutes first to last car.
 
Have used CB radios for many years. Not everyone has one but generally there are enough that nobody gets left unaccounted for.
 
Those with 6 v are stuck with mobile phones which are next to useless when reception is non existent so much of the time even if you could hear them. Those on 12v sometimes use CB (hand held CBs don't have much range). So, given that not all drivers are part of the "communication network", we usually don't bother.
On the shorter, more formal runs, we have a navigation sheet that gives turn by turn instructions with distances between turns. For the longer runs, everybody is told where the next meeting place is (often where there is fuel) and we are expected to get there at or near a certain time. Paper maps are the only reliable navigation aid - they don't care if there is no reception, they don't care if the car is 6 or 12 volts and they don't care if you can't hear them. Universal!
We find that if everybody keeps the car behind them in sight, no one gets lost and although we are a bit spread out (a good thing in modern traffic), there is no need for car to car contact.
 
Synchro909 said:
Those with 6 v are stuck with mobile phones which are next to useless when reception is non existent so much of the time even if you could hear them. Those on 12v sometimes use CB (hand held CBs don't have much range). So, given that not all drivers are part of the "communication network", we usually don't bother.
On the shorter, more formal runs, we have a navigation sheet that gives turn by turn instructions with distances between turns. For the longer runs, everybody is told where the next meeting place is (often where there is fuel) and we are expected to get there at or near a certain time. Paper maps are the only reliable navigation aid - they don't care if there is no reception, they don't care if the car is 6 or 12 volts and they don't care if you can't hear them. Universal!
We find that if everybody keeps the car behind them in sight, no one gets lost and although we are a bit spread out (a good thing in modern traffic), there is no need for car to car contact.
Click to expand...

You have the most reliable form of communicating.
Stone tablets and eyeball talk.
It has been working for thousands of years.
 
walkie talkies...work fine (as long as you are on the same channel} also have decent range.


TOB
 
Verbal communication is good as long as it is not abused (too much unnecessary chatter can cause problems).
The most important items for a safe successful tour is do the following:
1. Have a tour leader and a chase car at the end.
2. Provide a map showing the location of rest/fuel stops, lunch stop, and the end point.
3. Divide the tour group into groups of 5-7 cars and leave a few minutes of separation. Doing this prevents problems at stop lights and traffic situations.
 
On longer tours, we have a little pow-wow before hand so everyone knows the route and what to expect in terms of road conditions, etc. We use walkie talkies - two or more pairs all on the same channel and cell phones and regroup periodically to make sure we are all there. We also try to have one of the experienced drivers in terms of both Model A and in terms of the area to bring up the rear. New people go behind the lead car. Everyone keep an eye on the one behind you. Out on the highway, if only two lane, we space out enough so faster traffic can pass.
 
Most people sound like Charlie Brown's teacher over walkie talkies. Hand held cell phones while driving are illegal in many states. What we used to do before we were poisoned by technology was that you were responsible for the car that was directly behind you in line. If that car pulled over or got caught at a red light, you pulled over too. And if you pulled over, the car in front of you pulled over, etc. The car at the very end of the caravan could stop the whole line if everyone did their job. We'd all get out to see what the problem was, like "my car is running poorly" or "I need a potty break" or some other important item. You didn't want to stop the whole line to communicate something silly, like "ooh, look Piggly Wiggly has chopped chuck on sale for $5.00/lbs."
 
P.S. said:
FRS radios are dirt cheap and have good range, and I can't get the club to try them. However, our club did something unexpected and made a "touring roster" that has all the members' names and just their cellphone numbers listed. It is very small and easily fits in the Model A door pockets. Not perfect, but better than nothing. They are even starting to use text!

The way to use group text for touring - At the start of the tour, someone texts all the participants at once with a group text. Then, whenever one of the participants replies, everyone in the group gets it. For drivers who are touring solo, this isn't a good idea. However, with a cellphone on vibrate, and an alert passenger in charge of the phone, the group text seems to work better than anything else.
Click to expand...


Text messages work for our club as well.

Also, if there is urgent information that needs to be communicated, the passenger answers the incoming phone call.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
We have a hard enough time getting everyone going in the same direction to a destination much less trying to communicate. I think I am about done leading the pack after our last tour.

And you can forget all about the group staying together on the way home.

Like trying to herd a bunch of ferrel cats...
 
That thing where everyone just scatters when you get close to home town was brought up by one of the guys in our local chapter (that has passed-away now) but nothing happened. In my case at the last stop I try to find a buddy for when we get close to home.
 
Gene F said:
That thing where everyone just scatters when you get close to home town was brought up by one of the guys in our local chapter (that has passed-away now) but nothing happened. In my case at the last stop I try to find a buddy for when we get close to home.
Click to expand...

Good idea Gene. Me and another member try to determine if anyone's car is struggling and stay with them and just let everyone else go.
 
Text messages usually get thru eventually when reception is spotty.
You could try an app called "Signal", might be handy if people are well spread out and can report where they are.
 
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