headset comms for helm to foredeck

We are finally giving up on hand signals from the helm to the foredeck while anchoring or docking. What's everybody using? I assume some are better than others, especially in windy conditions.Usually I handle the anchor and my wife runs the boat, so it will be nice to talk her through the motions rather than using vague hand signs.Thanks in advance.

Eartec Ultralites

After reading lots of online discussions and talking with a friend who had them, I bought a set of Eartec Ultralites. After a couple of trips using them, I am happy with the choice.

The communication improvement is tremendous. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have an ongoing conversation with everyone involved (I have 4 headsets) with no yelling or hand waving. Anchoring and docking are much easier with conversation instead of hand signals.

One comment on the Ultralites is that they use a push button on/off switch and its not as easy as it could be to know if its off or on. We have had a couple times when the user pushed the button and thought it was off, but actually was still on and ran the battery down while sitting on the shelf. Just takes awareness and overall it was an excellent purchase.

UltraLITE PG 1

woodscrew said:

We are finally giving up on hand signals from the helm to the foredeck while anchoring or docking. What's everybody using? I assume some are better than others, especially in windy conditions.Usually I handle the anchor and my wife runs the boat, so it will be nice to talk her through the motions rather than using vague hand signs.Thanks in advance.

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Wood,

I use the Eartec Ultralight ones and they are great. If I were buying again, I might consider the other ones (forget the name), also with a good reputation, just because they wrap around the back of the neck and might be less likely to fall off.

But mine have not fallen off... yet.

Eartech UltraLITE


https://www.amazon.com/Eartec-UltraLITE-Wireless-Microphone-Headsets/dp/B01LOKU8KQ


As a side story. We were anchored out a couple of weeks ago and we had the head sets on. My wife was at the bow watching the anchor chain and she started to give me the usual had signals for the direction of the chain and how much more the anchor had to come up. I looked at her thru the windshield and said into the mic "You know you can talk to me".
Old habits die hard.


Todd

We bought the Sena SPH10 headsets and like others, they completely improved (calmed down) communication when docking, locking or anchoring. They go around the back of your neck which is a big advantage when you look down to grab lines, adjust fenders or set an anchor but unlike the Eartec you can't easily "pause" them so they are always on. 90% of the time this is fine but when you talk to guests on deck or are chatting with others in a lock, or dockhands it can be distracting - sometimes embarrassing

More than once I've said to my wife "You know I can hear you right?"

We have used the Sena SPH10 headsets as well. Great performance. I can't imagine anything working any better.

We purchased a set of Sena Expand headsets last year and the difference is phenomenal. You hardly even know they are on your head and can talk whenever you want with no buttons to push or radios on your belt. Love them.

We have the Sena SPH10 and they are great. I don't know who they compare to the Eartecs. In addition to all the other uses, we use them to communicate between the boat and dink when we stern tie. Very helpful.

dhays said:

We have used the Sena SPH10 headsets as well. Great performance. I can't imagine anything working any better.

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Same here!

LaBomba said:

We purchased a set of Sena Expand headsets last year and the difference is phenomenal. You hardly even know they are on your head and can talk whenever you want with no buttons to push or radios on your belt. Love them.

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Difference between Expand and SPH10?

SENA SPH10. So far, so good.

-Chris

Bought a set of Eartec.


First response from the wife - "I look like an air traffic controller, I am not going to wear those".


She tried them once for docking, now she will not be without them. Her comment #1 boating accessory.


This past week I was moving the boat from Charleston to south FL. Wife had commitments, she couldn't go.


Grabbed a friend go with me who is retired. Life long working in marine industry. A solid "old Salt" who chuckled and cajoled me about "headsets".


First day about to leave the dock, I convinced him to try it. After that - he was the first to go grab the headsets when we were close to coming in.


They really make it nice.

Sena SPH10..I like that I can use them to Bluetooth to my phone for tech support calls, and listen to music while working in the engine room. The microphones unplug if you don't need it.
We lost an Eartec headset radio piece over the side, and had a constant battle keeping batteries working in them.

We have the Eartech units. We call them "marriage savers". When cruising alone, we often wear them all day. You can have a normal conversation with your partner when either of you is anywhere on the boat. We like that. If one of you goes up the dock, it can get a bit weird. If you lift the boom mic over your head, it cuts off, so that is one way to maintain some privacy. One problem is that my wife has a rather small head. She has trouble on occasion when handling lines or the anchor with the headset falling off. Me not so much, since my head is rather larger. I guess that means I have to do the lines while she drives the boat. We also have 2 sets of batteries, one in the headsets and one in the charger. If one of the headsets gets sporadic, change both. How did people actually go places on boats without high tech and computers?

Sena SPH10 - first thing we bought after closing the deal on the boat. A little fiddly to get paired up at first but they really do the job.

Aquabelle said:

Difference between Expand and SPH10?

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Not a whole lot from what I could gather. The Sph10 comes with 2 mics and has an aux in port for importing music from other devices and not what we wanted them for.

We love our Eartecs, but I'm sure the Senas are great, too, from all the comments. I doubt you'll be disappointed with either of them.

Sorry if absurd; but I've always thought we'd use walkie-talkies with handsfree earbuds and mics. Sure is a lot cheaper and can't beat the range -voice activated too.
Am I missing something?

Dubnuh said:

Sorry if absurd; but I've always thought we'd use walkie-talkies with handsfree earbuds and mics. Sure is a lot cheaper and can't beat the range -voice activated too.
Am I missing something?

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To each his own. We didn't want a radio on our belt or any wires as well the Senas voice does not activate, you can both talk at the same time, like a normal conversation. No comparison but if $ motivate you that's a personal choice.

We use Eartech Ultralights and love them.

Cruising Solutions sells these which are behind the head.

https://www.cruisingsolutions.com/collections/communication/products/my-team-talks

We've used these for several years and wish we knew of them sooner.

Hearing aids not an issue.

Have worn them for most of a day and were comfortable.

We drive from the bridge and they work all over the boat, even in the engine room while mate on bridge. Great for safety as 1 of us moves about the boat while underway, the other can communicate. Cuts down duplicate trips up & down galley to bridge.

Strongly recommend them.

We use a pair of Sena SPH10 on Play d'eau. Well made and so good to use - at first.

BUT, after one season they refuse to hold a reasonable charge. 5 minutes just isn't enough. So for us they are a nightmare.

I've tried and tried to find info on the batteries but with zero results. SENA refuses to divulge this info, won't sell them to you, and keep saying they are impossible to change. I'm then told I'm the only one with this battery life problem. Really?

Hence, we're throwing them away.

Dubnuh said:

Sorry if absurd; but I've always thought we'd use walkie-talkies with handsfree earbuds and mics. Sure is a lot cheaper and can't beat the range -voice activated too.
Am I missing something?

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We gave that a try for a while. Good family radios, but the VOX-activated mics suffered from a built-in delay when you first start speaking... so we had to adopt the habit of conversations like "One Two Three Four Blah Blah Blah..."

Where the numbers were fillers so the recipient would know when the real conversation started.

It worked but it was seriously distracting, especially in circumstances where the next instruction needed to be fast.

-Chris

We Purchased the SPH10 Units rom a Harley dealer about 5 years ago, best thing we ever purchased, keeps everything calm when docking and anchoring, my wife can calmly tell me what's going on and I can let her know what I am thinking, no wind issues, and the ones we bought are designed for use with a hat, or helmet, Also called the Marriage savers

After trial and error of several brands We purchased the Sena’s 2 years ago and absolutely love them.

For those that like to save a buck and enjoy mcgyvering, reviews on many of the under $100/pair motorcycle sets are good.
BTS2 is one, some say a Sena killer
Would be a simple task to fit them to a $10 set of earmuffs and essentially have the same result with enough coin leftover for several bottles of a nice, isle Islay whiskey.

Sena s10 are over $500 in Oz

https://m.banggood.com/1000m-Motorc...1ufQIhI3PzGmBmvUdklnQVi7L0GYvPDsaAtVhEALw_wcB

Eartech works!

We lived aboard for 6 years here in Seattle on 60' DeFever, and tried cheap walkie talkies that were ok on ski slopes, but worthless on a boat, expensive Motorola VOX walkie talkies that barely functioned with big Detroit diesel noise aft, then last Spring finally ponied up for Eartech Ultralights from Amazon. These arrived quickly, work perfectly, filter out engine noise, no problem with my hearing aids, and easily mute by flipping up the mike boom whenever one of us wanted to talk to a guest or dockhand. Must make sure to turn off between docking events (easiest to simply take out batteries to be sure) or dead headset battery after anchoring overnight in Andrews Bay.


Sadly, my wife of 38 years was killed in August by a drunk driver as she walked our two small dogs near our marina. A dock neighbor recently used the Eartech while helping me go get my fuel tanks filled for winter heating, and the crystal clear communication made each docking really easy and impressed him too.

Simi, Uniden`s UH507SX-2NB radios come in a pair with Vox headsets for around $100, but the headsets are crap,as was Uniden support when I sought replacements. I found aftermarket replacement headsets for under $30 delivered (yes, Ebay). The actual radios are excellent, incl. the battery performance

gmasciana said:

We lived aboard for 6 years here in Seattle on 60' DeFever, and tried cheap walkie talkies that were ok on ski slopes, but worthless on a boat, expensive Motorola VOX walkie talkies that barely functioned with big Detroit diesel noise aft, then last Spring finally ponied up for Eartech Ultralights from Amazon. These arrived quickly, work perfectly, filter out engine noise, no problem with my hearing aids, and easily mute by flipping up the mike boom whenever one of us wanted to talk to a guest or dockhand. Must make sure to turn off between docking events (easiest to simply take out batteries to be sure) or dead headset battery after anchoring overnight in Andrews Bay.


Sadly, my wife of 38 years was killed in August by a drunk driver as she walked our two small dogs near our marina. A dock neighbor recently used the Eartech while helping me go get my fuel tanks filled for winter heating, and the crystal clear communication made each docking really easy and impressed him too.

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Very sorry for your loss.

I know this is an older thread but having done some research I am now using my Apple wireless earbuds and the Apple Com app. This system works perfectly if you have the apple earbuds already. All you need to do is access the Apple Home app already on your phone to set up. I have the Apple Airbuds Pro and they are excellent with noise cancelling for wind etc.