Directional mikes in the pit lane?

[raymondu999]

Hey folks. I just had one of the weird brainwaves that often pass your head when you're thinking rubbish. Generally speaking, in the pit lane, your direct competition will be around you (i.e. they'll be just about the same people you're competing with last year; and finished near you in the WCC). Given that (I believe) most team radios just go to the FIA; and only a select few are actually broadcasted (which, in turn, everyone in the world can hear; including the teams) then what is stopping teams from bringing directional mike gear and aiming it at the opponent's pit wall booths?

[andylaurence]

The practical limitations of listening to it all allied to separating the background noise?

[mep]

You have never been close to a F1 car.

[Lycoming]

well they all speak in code. does mclaren know what theyre talking about when rocky asks vettel to change 3 clicks on his t dial?

[raymondu999]

mep; andy - Isn't the point of a directional mike that there is very little ambient noise around, as the mike is very line of sight?

[timbo]

mep; andy - Isn't the point of a directional mike that there is very little ambient noise around, as the mike is very line of sight?

The practical reality is that attenuation is far from perfect.
Definitely not enough for F1 engine vs human voice.

[marekk]

mep; andy - Isn't the point of a directional mike that there is very little ambient noise around, as the mike is very line of sight?

The practical reality is that attenuation is far from perfect.
Definitely not enough for F1 engine vs human voice.

Don't think it's a problem anymore. Active digital noise cancelation systems are very effective those days, and it's relatively easy to filter out noise sources of known characteristics in digital doamin.

[beelsebob]

mep; andy - Isn't the point of a directional mike that there is very little ambient noise around, as the mike is very line of sight?

Doesn't change the fact that there will be cars at high revs in that direction pretty regularly.

[feynman]

[timbo]

Don't think it's a problem anymore. Active digital noise cancelation systems are very effective those days, and it's relatively easy to filter out noise sources of known characteristics in digital doamin.

Depends on so many factors!
It'd be much easier to put a bug around the seats somewhere.

[Tim.Wright]

then what is stopping teams from bringing directional mike gear and aiming it at the opponent's pit wall booths?

The fact that there is a personnel limit at the races and there are already enough things to worry about other than trying to wire up and camouflage a microphone.

Tim

[volarchico]

Frequency scanners are pretty cheap too, unless each signal is encrypted. Maybe they are...

[mep]

mep; andy - Isn't the point of a directional mike that there is very little ambient noise around, as the mike is very line of sight?

You can't even hear a guy screaming right into your ear when there is a F1 car close by. Might be better to read from there lips.

[spinmastermic]

Its has been done. Especially during testing. I heard of transcripts of pitlane conversations floating around. You don't think teams just hired photographers to spy on ech other.

[andylaurence]

then what is stopping teams from bringing directional mike gear and aiming it at the opponent's pit wall booths?

The fact that there is a personnel limit at the races and there are already enough things to worry about other than trying to wire up and camouflage a microphone.

Tim

This is the practical limitation I was referring to. Admittedly, active noise cancellation technology, directional mics and speech recognition software would result in a parsable transcript that could do some textual matching to alert teams to interesting information.