I have three Heil boom/mic sets. One is an early BM-10 that my friend in LA
made me some cushions that are far better than the original Heil
that have to be replaced every so often. This has the HC-4 element. The
second is a BM-10 that I bought from KR4DA when he was moving to Florida in
the 1990's. I use this with an older Icom and I use it through a Nel-Tec
voice keyer that has a pre-amp. This one has the HC-5 element. Neither of
these fully cover the ear which was a requirement of Rich K7SZ. The final
and newest Heil is a Pro micro which has better ear coverage. I bought this
one with the Yaesu connections from HRO about 10 years ago. This too has
the HC-4 element.
I used a Telex ProCom 200 (its on the shelf) that does have full ear
coverage. Its wired for the Icom and is an electro tet that requires an N
battery in the inline pre-amp. Worked fine but has lower output that the
Heil BM-10.
My best headphone is an old Telex Twin set that came from a Gray Audiograph
from my Dad's office. It has a miniture speaker in the plug (regular 1/4"
plug) and audio is piped to the ears via plastic tubes. The tips fit into
your ear and are a little uncomfortable at first then you forget you are
using headphones. I first used these in the 1958 ARRL SS phone (AM phone
that is) and used them until I got the Heil. A couple of times I forgot I
had them on and nearly pulled my ears off HI. These really worked great
with my Drake R4B on 160.
I have always had a noisy ham shack and you learn to have tunable ears to
ignore back ground noise. Blowers do bother me but if you are working
stations all you hear are the callers.
And please no speakers. I only use a speaker if I have a guest in the ham
shack.
73 Dave K4JRB
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