PCI Relay

We've Moved!

After almost 40 years of memories and success at our Signal Hill location, PCI is expanding our operations with a move to Cypress California. Our new building located off of Katella and Valley View features ample parking, state of the art tech department and all new streamlined warehouse operations. At almost 25,000 square feet of space, we stock thousands of Intercoms, Radios, Headsets, Helmets, GPS units, Head and Neck Restraints and other safety equipment for fast shipping.

Our last day in Signal Hill is Thursday, June 21st. We will be partially closed on Friday, June 22nd for the move. We won't be able to ship any orders Friday, but our customer service department will remain open for orders and tech support. We re-open Monday, June 25th at our new home in Cypress.

PCI Race Radios
6185 Phyllis Drive
Cypress, CA 90630

SAVE THE DATE! Please join us for an open house on Friday, July 13th. Our shop will be open for tours all day and we will have a taco cart onsite from 11am - 2pm.

PCI Race Radios

A Note from the new Weatherman

The Baja 1000 is an incredible adventure. To properly prepare for it you need to have the mindset of “Expect the Unexpected.” Proper preparation means plenty of time to get to pits for chase crews. Thinking one truck can get your car from Ensenada to La Paz is unrealistic and unsafe.

 Providing relay efforts to medical resources for the tragic and avoidable accidents on Hwy 1 are a very sobering part of being the Weatherman. Pit clubs like BFGoodrich, Mag 7, Checkers, Baja Pits and others can help with your logistics and make racing in Baja manageable for the smaller team. Make good choices and understand winning is not worth putting yourself, your team or fellow racers in harm’s way.

 The Baja 1000 Peninsula run is in my opinion the greatest race of all time. However, it’s not a great race for two-way radio VHF coverage. There will be times you will be outside of Race Radio range! Mount Diablo does a great job of covering Northern Baja, but as you head South the mountains are much smaller and won’t offer that type of coverage.

 An aircraft is needed to cover the lower 2/3 of Baja. Airplanes need to stop for fuel, Baja airports need good weather, Pilots and relay crew need to break for sleep, food and the facilities. The SCORE airplane will be in the air to cover the Weatherman Relay Channel, but it is not continuous. I strongly recommend you have a secondary form of communications at this race.

 In the race vehicle you will have the Stella/Anube system is a Satellite based system. It will be able to send a message for help or medical if you have an issue. Race day is not the day to figure out how this system works. Drivers and Co-Driver’s should know how to use this before they put their helmets on.

 I strongly recommend all race vehicles and chase trucks have a Satellite phone. Don’t just hand your guys a sat phone, make sure they know how to use it and give them a list of emergency phone numbers. The SCORE Racer brief will have a list of phone numbers for SCORE ops. You can reach me directly on the mountain by text or voice call at 562-279-0700 (my regular number during the week at PCI.) You can also email me on race day at weatherman@pciraceradios.com.

 Want me to let you in on a secret of the big teams? Have a communications hub at home. A buddy, wife, girlfriend who can be your team relay and can help you with status updates from a strong internet signal. When sat phones are being used in Baja, they do reach a level of saturation and it’s harder to get a call in or out. Teach your crew how to use the email and text feature.

 For those without iMessage, WhatsApp is a helpful app that allows you to send and receive text messages with a WiFi signal. Again, don’t try to learn this on race day – download it and test it out at home.

 PCI Race Radios has a team to help me on race day and we are available via Live Steam, Chat, email, text and voice. The stream can move quickly with chat, text or email will be a better queue for me to reply to status requests. This is also an ideal way to let me know if your team is out of the race. Check out our full Baja 1000 Information page for important information about Weatherman and PCI for the race.

 Remember to Expect the Unexpected and make your communications plan with your team now. Have a safe and fun Baja, talk to you all down there!

 Scott Steinberger, Weatherman

Weatherman Celebration of Life

Thank you to all of those that joined us at the Celebration of Life on July 8th, 2017. It was a beautiful ceremony with amazing speakers and can be viewed here.

 

 

It is with great sadness that we relay to the desert racing community of the passing of Bob “Weatherman” Steinberger. Bob passed peacefully on the morning of June 21st at his home in Parker, Arizona after a long battle with cancer.
Bob found his niche within off-road in that pivotal year of 1972 when he became good friends with Bill Stroppe. Bob received an invitation from Bill to chase the Baja 1000 that year. Bob and two guys trekked to race mile 800 with a two gas cans and a truck full of adventure. Two days passed with no word from the race truck. Eventually, the truck arrived, the gas was dumped and the truck pushed on to the finish.
Bob expressed his frustration with the team, explaining they should put two-way radios in the vehicles so the two could communicate. The following year, Bob put communications in the vehicles of Stroppe, MacPherson and Walker Evans.
At the 1974 Mint 400, he sent up three weather balloons with five hundred feet of coax attached and the first successful relay from a pit was made. It is believed that it was Joe MacPherson who couldn’t remember his name, so he dubbed him “Weatherman” on the radio. The rest is history and iconic status has been reached through nearly half a century of work with the company he founded, PCI Race Radios.
Bob’s dedication to The Weatherman Relay was so important to him that in the recent weeks as he battled cancer, he asked his son Scott Steinberger to carry on the Weatherman Legacy in his name. Scott accepted the honor and responsibility and has filled in for his Dad at the last few races, as he was too ill to travel.
Bob was an avid off-road enthusiast. When not providing communication relays from the top of Mount Diablo for SCORE races, he was on the ground in the Nevada and Arizona desert providing retrieval efforts with his famous “Yellow Zebra Jeep” at BITD races. He loved rock crawling and all things off-road. Bob also enjoyed hunting and spending time on the river with his friends and family.
In 2013, Bob was inducted into the Off-Road Hall of Fame. A great honor and a fitting recognition for a man who has spent almost half a century dedicated to such an amazing culture and sport.
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