Alpine KCA-100BT
Alpine's KCT-100BT Bluetooth module, when combined with an Alpine car stereo head unit and a Bluetooth-capable phone, offers hands-free calling.
Wayne Cunningham Managing Editor / Roadshow
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
Alpine's KCT-100BT Bluetooth module, when combined with an Alpine car stereo head unit and a Bluetooth-capable phone, offers hands-free calling. The KCT-100BT works with any Alpine car stereo head unit equipped with AI-Net. The module consists of a square plastic unit, plus a separate microphone and wired remote. Although somewhat awkward for a well-integrated installation, the module does support A2DP, allowing streaming music from a cell phone or a Bluetooth-capable MP3 player. Hands-free service is somewhat limited, as the unit acts only as a speaker phone, without including any voice command or dialing help. Initiating calls requires the user to either dial using the phone or to use the phone's voice tagging, if any. When a call is made or received, the unit automatically pauses the car stereo. See our review of the Alpine CDA-9857 as it performs when combined with the KCT-100BT.