Parenting is not a sport for wimps. From the moment you hear that first cry of life to the moment you cry as your little one takes off as an adult, you will sacrifice personal sleep, sweat, and tears to take care of your little one. While you may feel you are alone at some points of your journey, you will always have the support of electronics designed to make parenting easy. The first such electronic device you may make use of are mobile baby monitors.
What are Mobile Baby Monitors?
A mobile baby monitor is a radio transmitter that picks up noise and transmits it to a receiver. Some systems have multiple receivers. The mobile monitors come with receivers that do not plug into the wall, so they can easily be carried from one room to another.
Noises created by your baby are picked up and transferred to the receiver using a set frequency band that produces a frequency modulation (FM) signal. Typically, mobile baby monitors will send signals between 49,830 MHz and 49,890 MHz. Monitors usually need to be placed within 10 feet of the baby to pick up all sounds efficiently.
Advantages of Using a Mobile Baby Monitors
Mobile baby monitors allow parents to hear what is happening in the baby’s nursery while moving through other areas of the home. This means you can get the dishes done or take a much-needed nap without worrying about your baby in the next room. As long as your receiver remains close enough to the baby’s room to pick up those noise transfers, you will never lose track of your baby.
Your radio unit will plug into the wall in the baby’s room to remain charged, but you may need to purchase batteries to keep all receivers in the house charged and ready to go. This is an extra expense that comes with a mobile unit, but it is a small price for the convenience of taking one receiver anywhere in your home.
Disadvantages of Using a Mobile Baby Monitors
The construction of some homes can interfere with the transfer of signals between a radio unit and receiver. The most problems come with homes made of thick concrete walls, but it may also come up if you have aluminum siding. The larger your home, the more likely one system will not reach throughout all rooms. The signals simply are not strong enough to pass through thick concrete and aluminum siding, or to circulate throughout a larger home.
If your neighbors are using wireless devices on the same frequency your monitor is using, you may be able to hear what is happening in their home and vice versa at times. This is called interference, and it can also cause loud noises and screeches caused by cross connections with cordless phones. These noises also block out legitimate sound from the baby’s room, which can be a problem if it happens too frequently.
Using monitors and phones that can be turned to different channels or frequencies is a way to solve the problem of interference. If you have a wireless router, you may be more prone to this type of interruption than homes without routers.
Price is typically not a hindrance for those interested in using mobile baby monitors, since they can be purchased for less than $50 if you go with an analog system. Digital baby monitor systems that feature video monitoring can run upwards of $300, so they are only an option for parents with more extensive budgets.
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