Radio's

Lately, I have been helping out as a pit crew member for a limited late model stock car. I know, I know what the heck am I doing but anyways we use radios between our driver and pit crew members. I performed a search through our 2009 rule regulations and could not find much on this topic. Since I don't want to interfere with official track communications how do we determine what frequencies can be used.
Additionally who sells a reliable and cost effective system that's easy to use and is track proven by some of our members?

Ask your local race clubs 'who' provides radios for their races. Most if not all should be forthcoming with their frequencies. Buy a cheap scanner and 'search' the UHF band, mark all freqs being used, pick one or more not being used. Another aspect to consider is licensing, If you don't use the GMRS license free channels then you need a license. You have to apply to the FCC thru a license co-ordinator who will 'assign' freqs.
As far as radios Icom and Vertex both make quality radios that work well, for around $200 for just the radio. For around $300 you can get the motorola CP200. You want at least a 4 channel, if not a 16. You might not 'need' all those channels but you can always fill them with different clubs channels. I don't know any dealers in Portland but can reccomend some in the Seattle-Tacoma area. Hope this helps.

There are no rules regarding competitor's use of radios in the Comp Regs.

For what it's worth to your concern, many club racers will intentionally program one of their radio channels to the race com frequency to be able to monitor that traffic, one just needs to be diligent to not transmit team communications on that radio channel.

As far as packages go, there are abundant used packages on various motorsports related classifieds sections or sites for considerably less than new. racingjunk.com is one good example. Just be careful about the vintage and do some research before you buy used if that's the route you go, to ensure you can get compatible wiring harnesses for the car.

The one recommendation I will make new or used is to look for a package with a 5 watt rating minimum, or you will have a limited range. The majority of the racer packages out there are oriented towards the short track racer, and typically have a 3 watt rating, which works fine when you can see the backstretch, but will have trouble with greater distances or geographic obstacles.

Regarding licensing, as Kerry stated it is required. He obviously knows a thing or two about radios. Now, I'm not trying to be contradictory for it's own sake, nor do I have anything against Kerry, but the reality is almost nobody does it, for what that's worth. One exception may be teams that install mobile units in the cars that typically have around a 40 watt rating. The reach of these is such that someone that matters may hear your coms, so it's probably prudent to follow through on the licensing at that point.

IRDC also runs VHF freqs. And a side note, UHF is much more resistance to ignition interference than VHF.

The Alfa Club just bought some 5 Watt 16 Ch. Vertex radios from Rugged Race Products - San Luis Obispo. The guys there were very nice to deal with. They have headsets, car kits, helmet kits and the works.

I believe you can set up any channel to receive a frequency and not transmit. So you could be on the same channel as the track and not interfere. But as they mentioned above the 2 tracks close use VHF and most new sets are UHF.

An addendum to licensing: if you stick to the GMRS channels it's a simple 'fill out' and send in your money application. Much safer than a $5000. (per incident) fine from 'Uncle Charlie' if you don't have a license. And no, it's not likely they will check unless you cause interference or get turned in.