Waterproof headset & microphone combo -- does it exist?
June 27, 2018 10:18 AM   Subscribe

I'd like to buy a pair of headset + mike combos for communicating between two people wirelessly, at a bit of a distance. It has to be completely waterproof. Does such a thing exist?

My daughter races a small sailboat, and her coach and I would like to be able to communicate with her directly while she's racing,* from the speed boat, without shouting. She's never very far from the speedboat, but isn't right next to it either. Capsizing happens, and sometimes when she's hiking out really far she can get really wet, so these would need to be 100% waterproof, not just resistant.

I don't even know what to search for on Amazon. I found something close to what I want for motorcycle riders, but the ear pieces glue into the helmet, and we don't wear helmets on the water. If I could get that device but with earbuds of some kind, that would be amazing.

Any ideas?


* Not while in an official race, as that would be cheating. Only during practice races.
posted by Capri to Technology (4 answers total)
 
I wonder if it might be helpful to look into radios for this task. I just bought this set recently, although I haven't tested the waterproofness- looks like it just claims splash resistance. This one comes with an earpiece and has a voice-activated setting so you don't have to push a button to transmit. You would have to clip the radio to your belt or tuck it in your pocket. I'm sure there are much fancier FRS radios and matching headsets out there that are 100% waterproof.
posted by Secretariat at 11:19 AM on June 27, 2018


are you using a marine VHF radio?
posted by Dr. Twist at 1:56 PM on June 27, 2018


Response by poster: We have VHF radios, but she can't hold one or push to talk when she's racing as she's using both hands pretty actively.

The FRS radios might do the trick. I'm looking into them.
posted by Capri at 3:12 PM on June 27, 2018


OK, wanted to know what she was plugging into.

FWIW most "waterproof" radios aren't waterproof if you have external mikes plugged into them.
Yaesu (standard horizon) marine VHF and ham radios use a special threaded connector for external mikes that maintains water proofing, but I don't think any headset mikes that fit it are also waterproof, but the speaker mikes are (which don't work on VOX, to my knowledge).
posted by Dr. Twist at 3:49 PM on June 27, 2018


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