On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:27:11 -0500, Jeff Frank wrote:
>ll you guys who report about the great audio reports you receive on ssb
>with the Omni 6 series please tell me what microphones or microphone
hook
>ups you are using.
Ah -- you bring up a very interesting defect in the design of the Ten Tec rigs.
You can't use a "flat" mic with them, you need to use one that has a "hyped"
high end. That's what the Heil mics do. A good mic sounds really dull and
bassy on a Ten Tec radio.
I use an RE-27, which is a pretty flat mic (and a damn good one) with mine.
But to make it sound good, I had to stick a rather small cap in series with it
to drastically roll off the low end (-3 dB at roughly 2 kHz). It is absurd that
it
should be necessary to do that, but it is. This is a "band-aid," but it works.
I
even have an audio file that NY9H recorded off the air several months ago
on 20 meters from Chicago, when I was operating this rig at W6BX, a 2,000
mile path. It's this mic, the cap, and the Omni V. I could email the file if
anyone cares.
The Shure 444 and mics like it have the hyped high end that sounds pretty
good with the Omni family of radios. I bought one for that reason. BTW --
there's no good reason to spend money on a Heil mic to get that sound -- a
used 444, $30 on EBay, will sound at least as good as a Heil. For that
matter, I bought three Plantronics earsets for $5 each at a hamfest last year.
They get MUCH better reports on my 746 than a Heil does on my K2. You
can buy the Plantronics earsets (earphone plus mic) for $25 - $40 brand
new at computer stores.
Now, you say, why in the world would you use an RE-27 on a ham rig?
Simple. I'm in the pro audio biz and own a lot of very good mics, but very few
dynamic mics. Also, most dynamic mics have proximity effect, which boosts
the low end (makes them muddy) when you close-talk them). I didn't have a
dedicated ham mic, needed one to use with the Omni V I had just bought,
and the RE-27 came the closest to what should work well. It is a dynamic (I
only have three types) it has no proximity effect because it is a variable-D
cardioid, and it has a lot of output. Isn't it serious overkill? If I had to
buy it,
yes. But if I have several laying around, no.
Jim Brown K9YC
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