4 Sure Fire Ways To Kill A Power Megaphone, And How To Make Sure They Don’t Happen To You
May 25, 2010 by Mike
Filed under The Equipment, videos
One thing I am really good at, I mean really really good at, is breaking power megaphones.
Heck, I don’t break them—I kill them.
And I suspect a bunch of you do also.
In this 5 minute video post, I discuss the top four ways I kill megaphones, and steps we’ve taken to reduce the deaths.
What about you? Have a good megaphone story you would like to share in the comment section below?
[I've been asked what megaphones we use, and we typical use Radio Shack's 25 watt model. However, we have had a hard time getting those of late. Here is a similar model from Amazon, that seems to be the exact same make. 25 Watt Piezo Dynamic Megaphone with Detachable Coil Cord Mic
Like the idea of the PVC pipe. My megaphone had a near death experience just yesterday when it rolled of the seat and into the water filled bilge. Got it out just before the water was about to slosh over the mic., but the mic mount did break.
A good save. That pvc has saved me about a dozen megaphones . . .
Great source for cheap megaphones… some of us started using megaphones from harbor freight tools…The middle sized one is under 10bucks!! and the full size one is only 25 or so…..
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result/?category=&q=megaphone
Sure thing! When session over, remove batteries, wipe it down, put in bag. Store of discard batteries.
We have the PVC pipe here at Navy. Works great. When I first started coaching here I thought it was for my coffee cup!
Neat stuff, Mike – but you really need to enlist a spare rower to hold the camera while you do your talking!
I highly recommend the Thunder megaphone from Galls Police supply (Galls.com) – high power and has 4 sirens for attention getting. Also, about $75 and 2 versions, hand held and extended mike to the megaphone.
Thanks Randy. I’ll check those out . . .
Got to great tips out of this. First the PVC pipe and the good deal on a megaphone from Harbor Freight to put on my new PVC pipe. And yeah,I’m sure it will be only a matter of time before someone finds another use for my pvc pipe, like for a fishing pole.
Thanks Mike…One of our colleges keeps a 5 gal plastic bucket in their launch, and set the megaphone in it. The bucket prevents it from rolling around.
To extend the life of the batteries, I take them completely out after every practice. When left in, they drain in a few weeks. Out, they last several months.
I’ve found that a NYT bag fits over a megaphone perfectly with a rubber band to secure it. Then I just punch a hole in the bag for the handle.
I buy the cheap megaphones from Harbour freight take’m apart and spray the pcb with conformal coating. They last a lot longer that way. The O ring seals are just for show.