Bob, and the List: I bought, and still use, a Heil MH2 electret mic when it was offered for sale through Elecraft; then it was called the Heil MH2. That was several years ago as I recall.
The MH2 works FB with plenty of output and good-quality audio according the reports I get on the air. I'm mostly a CW user, but the little handheld MH2 seems fine for my needs, and the K2 seems happy with its output level. My relevant K2 MENU entries are : SSbA 1, and SSbC 1-1. The MH2 is physically connected to my Rigblaster interface, which then connects to the K2 8-pin Mic connector. The only reason I can see that Heil would say the HM-4 and HM-5 are only for Icom rigs might be that their mic connector pins might be wired differently than the K2 expects to see. Certainly you ought to be able to play with your RS electret replacement element without hazard to your K2. Keep us posted, es GL. 73 K0PQ Steve Banks -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Solosko, Robert B (Bob) Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 7:19 AM To: Ron D'Eau Claire; [email protected] Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Heil Handi Mic Hello All, There seems to be differing opinions about whether the Heil HM-4 and HM-5 provide enough output to properly drive the K2. Looking through the HRO catalog, I found that Heil now has several electret mikes (HM-iC, iCM, etc.) which they say gives higher output, but they also say these work only for ICOM radios... Does anyone have experience with these mikes? Do they solve the low drive problem for the K2?... And why are they "only for ICOM radios"? And one final question: are they likely to work better than the mike that I'm using that I put together using a $3 Radio Shack electret replacement element (plenty of drive, but mediocre audio reports)? Thanks. Bob W1SRB -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ron D'Eau Claire Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 6:54 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Heil Handi Mic Mike AI4NS wrote: I am using the Heil HM-5, and the audio is just fine according to reports. I didn't have to do anything special. I set SSb A menu to 2, and SSbB menu to 3-1, And it works well for my voice. Just another option. --------------------- Excellent point Mike! The SSb A menu will switch in about 10 dB of attenuation if it's set to 1! That's useful when an external mic preamp to over-driving the K2 but will keep many mics from properly driving the rig when connected without a preamp. Even so, I've noticed that several mics won't drive the K2 properly on 10 meters (where the TX gain is lowest) especially if I use any compression. That seems to be the experience of a great many operators. I use an electret element that has an output of about -64 dB. It works FB once I changed R14 to 5.6K. I considered an external preamp, but it seemed to me more efficient to reduce the unnecessary loss at the mic input rather than add external active components to make up for it. Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
