Switched from hand signals to a radio setup last week and it changed everything

Used to rely on hand signals with my spotter but with all the noise on site we kept miscommunicating. Got a decent $50 two-way radio kit and our lift times dropped like 20% already anyone else switch over?

2 comments

2 Comments

susana661mo ago

The hand signals thing is tricky for sure, but I gotta say something about that 20% number. It's probably real but not just from the radios themselves. A lot of that improvement comes from you guys being more careful and communicating better because you have a new system. When you first switch to radios you pay way more attention to every word. Give it a month when you're both comfortable and yelling over each other about lunch plans and that 20% might settle back a bit. Still way better than hand signals though especially when your spotter is squinting into the sun trying to figure out if you meant boom up or swing left.

the_jason1mo ago

Man I saw a video from some safety guy on YouTube talking about this exact thing. He was saying how radios cut down on confusion way more than people think especially in loud environments. The hand signals get mixed up when you're both tired or the sun is in your eyes. That 20% drop makes total sense because you're not wasting time repeating motions or guessing what the other person meant. Plus you can talk through the lift in real time which is huge.