Albin Owners Group

I'm deaf as a door nail,is there anything available with bluetooth or wi-fi that my VHF radio can transmit & receive to a wireless headset.I have tried external speakers which don't help enough.I can hear while sitting or at idle but underway it is pretty much impossible for me to process the words.I use headphones for the TV at home and it helps a lot.
P.S. don't suggest getting hearing aids I already have a couple grand of them and like most people that have them they are buried in a dresser drawer.

ADMIN Note - Copying this post to a new thread to carry on the "headset" conversation separately from the AIS discussion. See - "Headsets / Hearing"

amber jj wrote:I'm deaf as a door nail, is there anything available with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi that my VHF radio can transmit & receive to a wireless headset. I have tried external speakers which don't help enough. I can hear while sitting or at idle but underway it is pretty much impossible for me to process the words. I use headphones for the TV at home and it helps a lot.
P.S. don't suggest getting hearing aids I already have a couple grand of them and like most people that have them they are buried in a dresser drawer.

Amber JJ - consider plugging a Bluetooth transmitter into your VHF external speaker jack. http://www.amazon.com/Miccus-Mini-jack- ... B002HHLOWC You may need to get a plug adapter but they are easy to find at Radio Shack. Then get yourself a nice set of Bluetooth noise canceling headphones.

Hi Amber JJ,

Realized after seeing DV's post that I had totally missed the point of your question, which was much more about hearing communications than it was AIS. So I've copied the relevant posts here to start a new thread.

I've had challenges hearing my radio while underway as well and have been seriously considering some sort of headset, similar to those worn by pilots. I'll look for some additional links, but you could start here:

http://www.planetheadset.com/icom-radio-accessories.php

Just scroll down towards the bottom. These are focused on Icom radios, but I've found others as well, and you can almost certainly put a system together. A little pricy, but in the world of boats, not that bad.

There's also the Standard Horizon GX5500S with built in bluetooth and an optional headset.

http://www.starmarinedepot.com/standard ... 7AodH2cAvA

The headset is here -www.starmarinedepot.com/standard-horizo ... h-kit.html

If you want to go "Whole Hog" you can look at David Clark. One of the possible setups is a gateway that connects to your fixed mount VHF, and then the headset talks to that. So you can wander the boat wirelessly while being connected to your large VHF. Cool, but I'm guessing it's a LOT of $$.

http://www.davidclark.com/Wireless/file ... ochure.pdf

I would guess that 99% of my VHF use is listening. I'm not sure the mic function would be that great on the lower priced headsets.

Amber jj - There is something out there for your needs. As Doug said it depends on the cost. Sometimes it is better to start cheap and simple. You have wasted money in your drawer already.

Thanks for the suggestions.I knew I could not have been the only one out there with this problem.I would have thought it would have been a little simpler to find a remedy for this problem.At least now I have a few more ideas to look into.