Just kidding. Sorry for rather long disappearing act. There were just too many things but yada-yada, we know its not an excuse. I'll cut the crap short and get to this blog entry, literally.
We started off with very small budget, so small that we had to diy our own helmet with motorbike intercom. And as we progressed, we got SOL sponsorship for these excellent looking helmet. We equipped these helmets with Sparco Intercom club spec which served us well for 2 seasons in Malaysian Rally Championship. As our speed increases, we found that it's getting more difficult to concentrate on the pace notes call, and at times, more dangerous. Don't get us wrong, they worked really well. It just takes a tad more concentration to listen as it picked up more noise for not having noise cancellation function.
And so, we bought these (a pair) off from a good friend of ours. They are Sabelt Trophy. They share identical, if not the same construction with Peltor G77/G78 as they rolled out of the same factory, Matex.
Apart from being a proper rally helmet, they look cool. How can one not fall for these?! The adjustable sun visor, mic boom with swing arm and better sound insulated ear phone. Best of all, they're certified to British Standard BS6658-85 which is still good for the next few years to come. One other thing that it excel over our ol' Sparco club spec intercom is the connector. The nipple look alike connector, pardon my language, makes it so much easier to plug in when you're already buckled in the full bucket seat and the narrow rally car. I wish I could tell you what these type of connectors are called but I can't remember. On the Sparco, there is only one way to plug the connectors as both the female/male connectors has to be aligned before the male pin can penetrate *cough* the female. Its not a problem if you have all the time in the world, but not when rushing at the time control.
Since I'm in the mood to blog, I'll share one more cool feature of the Sabelt Trophy helmet, the noise cancellation mic. What do you don't see inside the drum-like mic boom are actually 2 microphones. When the voice is spoken thru this mic boom, the signal on 1 side is always stronger than the other and this is interpreted as the call. THIS is what we want to hear.
Noises come from anywhere and everywhere in the car, from the exhaust, or from the gravels hitting the undercarriage. These noises will be captured on both sides of the mic at the same time since they don't come from a single direction. The sound wave look something like this in scenario I. When you cancel both the sound wave, the result is nil.
Now what happens when you talk through the mic when there are noises around? Just as in scenario II, just cancel out the noises and you are left with the clean and crispy clear voice from your co-driver calling out,
"ONE FIFTY SIX LEFT INTO TRIPLE CAUTION VERY NARROW TWO LEFT!"
Note: Next we'll show you how to install Hans post/anchor.