Hi Guys & Gals, I'm finally overcoming my procrastination (and ego) and am going to be getting some hearing aids. Finally the many explosions that my ears were exposed to, during my military career, from large AA guns (90 & 120 MM), experimental large ground to ground and ground to air guided missiles, to grenades, mortars and small arms fire, has caught up with me. My ears have deteriorated to where I have difficulty with hearing high frequencies, and therefore understanding many conversations, especially those at a distance.
Over the years, I've been very frustrated with all the problems and difficulties that my wife has had, with her high end devices. I realize that improvements are being made almost yearly, and new models are addressing customers' complaints, and also one must be willing to compromise. From my limited research and discussions with audiologists, there are basically two general types, In the ear and behind the ear. From a technical (and personal) standpoint I tend to favor the behind the ear versions, as I allude to the other type like putting a cork in the ear to plug up any outside sounds, and then inject totally artificially amplified sounds. I realize that this is a requirement for some types of hearing loss, however, at this time, mine is not very severe and gives me a choice of types. A very high percent of ham radio operating is listening to and trying to pull out, deep into the noise level, weak signals in the VHF/UHF and microwave bands. This I try to accomplish, somewhat successfully (WAS, VUCC & 95+ DXCC on 2M CW), using narrow IF and audio filters. I've always used headphones with large comfortable and effective earmuffs on them. The muffs aid greatly to my concentration in trying to decipher CW signals, that are many dB below the noise. Therein is my need for some advice and suggestions based on experience. I would expect that in this case that in "the ear" devices might be appropriate as the muffed earphones could not be satisfactorily used, with "behind the ear" types. Maybe the best approach, in this case, would be to remove the hearing aids and attempt to duplicate the hearing aids' response with the RX EQ adjustments in the K3, and maybe also with an additional response adjustment with an external MFJ 616 Speech Enhancer ? One disadvantage with the "behind the ear" types, is that they tend to interfere with the wearing of sun and reading glasses, also they are more likely to fall off when engaged in certain recreational activities, that I'm still quite involved in, such as downhill skiing and dirt bike and ATV riding when wearing a helmet. Since wearing of a helmet has built in audio attenuation, the safest approach is probably not to wear the "aids" during those activities. There some neat options that now exist, especially for behind the ear units. These are such things as wireless remote controls that are Bluetooth and TV adaptable, and an option for rechargeable batteries. You drop the aids into a magnetic coupled charging fixture/box every night. You now have a permanent place to store and dry them, where you know where to find them the next day ! At this time I don't think I can afford ones with all the bells and whistles and would like to stay in the 2k to 3k dollar range/pr, including the remote unit. So please sound off with your recommendations and thoughts. Thanks es 73, Chuck, W7CS ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
