I have the latest Interphone unit on my helmet...the 5, I think. It's deficient in many respects, and the battery is on its way out after a year. However, I recently learned the BT power is substantial. I live in a very urban area by most standards; no skyscrapers, but a continual sprawl of 2/3 story building, both residential and commercial. I recently left for work after shuffling around luggage and gear. I connected with my iTunes on my iPhone as usual and went on my way. When I almost a couple kilometers from my home, the music suddenly cut out. I tried to troubleshoot this, but the unit was acting as if it were not connected to the iPhone. I pulled over and went to get the phone out of my usual pocket to see what the issue was...and was shocked to find the phone was not there. I drove back home, and it was still at my house, next to the bike parking area. I was blown away, the headpiece received the iPhone music signal for well over 1.5 kilometers...how can that be?
1,5 Km is a bit much for a BT Connection "Bluetooth 1.0 can link up to eight devices within a radius of about 33 feet with a capacity, or bandwidth, of 700Kbps. A later revision of the Bluetooth specification, Bluetooth 2.0, can transmit at up 2.1Mbps within a radius of about 100 feet. Bluetooth 3.0, adopted in 2009, increased bandwidth to 24Mbps, while the Bluetooth 4.0 specification, adopted in 2010, has a theoretical range of up to 200 feet. The Bluetooth specification stipulates a minimum range of 33 feet, but the maximum range is determined only by the output power of the device." Maybe the F5 has a built in buffer for audio playback, so it won't cut out if the BT connection has issues, and it was simply playing the audio stream that had already been buffered. Were you able to change tunes whilst on the move ? Alex
I was thinking buffer as well...it was playing for maybe 5 minutes...I can't remember if I changed any tracks in that time...
Class 1 bluetooth radio with a well-designed antenna could potentially go those kinds of distances. Wifi has done 200+ miles.
that is pretty nuts! i've been really impressed with the intercom range on my interphone f5. i'll lose sight of my buddy as i get stuck at a red light and it will sound like we are right next to each other, this was something that i never accomplished with any other headset i've used. other units i've used (sena smh10 and cardo g4) would lose connection at a shorter range or pop and crackle as the range stretched out.
