Base microphone

What's a reasonable priced base microphone to use with a icom-718..

I sold a 718 2 weeks ago and it had a base mic with it.
It was a pretty basic Icom one but i had good audio reports with it.
They are around £70 new but can't remember the model number.

Hi Chris,

Hope you're keeping well and enjoying that 'ticket'.  


I'm not a fan of desk mics myself but I suppose that's all down to how they're used.

You tend to hear the clack of a keyboard, (on the same desk), as they look you up on QRZ, often no one talks directly into them so volume of voice is a bit up and down and you tend to hear the background noise of the operators dog snoring or their missus screaming upstairs that they're wiping the TV out again!



Depends on what you call a 'reasonable' price really?
(Some think Heil products are very reasonable!)

You'll always pay a premium for anything with a brand name on them.

Often the 'plug-and-play' aspect is more important.


If you're that way inclined you can rewire a typical USB desk mic up, it utilises the same technology as in an electret capsule microphone element typically used on the Icom's. I've heard some European operators use such setups with fantastic audio on their signal. These are often much cheaper at the £15 - £20 mark but as mentioned you'd have to adapt/modify/rewire it yourself.


I'm sure that there's someone out there that rewires such microphones for use but can't remember the details off hand.
If I remember the specifics I'll post up on here.


All the best,
Victor

I have never been a fan of the desk mic, never used one so can't say for sure why I do not like them, but it just seems to professional for Cb and Dxing on 11 M, I like the mic in the hand and thats about it.

I'm with you Glenn, I think a dynamic fist mic is the perfect choice and my own preference.


I found the desk mic details I was trying to think of Chris but unfortunately the guy is in the USA. He does sell through eBay but it'd cost just as much again in postage & taxes(!!!)

Not much help I'm afraid but I hope you find something that suits your budget and needs.

Keep us abreast and if I come across anything else I'll let you know.

I like a desk mike looking for one for my Kenwood BUT have noticed anything Kenwood is a bit pricey....Got an Echo Master Plus here not connected to anything....Always ad a desk mike back in the 80s

Hi Antony,

The big name brands can set you back a fair amount of cash nowadays, some shockingly so!

You could always rewire your Echo Master for your Kenwood or sell it to put towards another desk mic. These old mics can command higher prices than expected, (Radio world have a second hand unit listed at over £100!), and some like to source them as collectibles.

Be warned that modern lower priced desk mics are pretty much all plastic though and just won't 'feel' as good as an old metal chassis mic.

I've known radio operators using the old Sadelta's and such but they usually have the echo turned off/down and any 'roger beep' disabled if using them on the Amateur bands. (Seems to enrage some Hams senseless! )


Anyway, hope that's of some help.

All the best,
Victor

Probably the most reasonably priced is iCom's SM30, whcih I use on my 9700.  however, for HF, I have always favoured headphones with mic (I use Heil, with the iCom specific element) and a foot switch or VOX.

Personal choice, of course....and I'm even considering a headset on the 9700 too.

Yeah could rewire but I'm a bit heavy handed with a soldering iron, Not sure I'd feel comfortable trusting me sticking my really hot iron in that small area lmao . it has been round the block a few times bit tatty, wouldn't mind a nice shinny mic on my nice shinny Kenwood lol ....But they do feel much more robust i agree...

I like the Adonis AM-308 mikes used them for over 20 years now on most radio including my Icom radio.
But also on Yaesu, Alinco Kenwood radios in the past.
smashing audio reports.
73
Mark.

It's never about what's the best or most favoured, constrained by price or availability, mic wise in any config.

It's all about choosing (and this is where DIY/Retrofitting is a serious contender route) something where you end up with an insert with a response range and sensitivity within the frequency spread of your voice - the object being to get the best clear facsimile of your voice by the time the mic has BPF'd the sound pressure levels into a more limited range of frequencies and electrical levels that gets further BPF'd by the mic input, any fixed and combo of selectable dynamic processing in your rig, and what's left readability wise at the other end demod wise straight out of the demodulator before it gets boosted and BPF'd and final BPF'd by whatever piece of garbage or finery constitutes a speaker on the receive gear.

A set of dummy CQ and conversation level short phrasings and sentences recorded by a typical PC/Mac/phone/tablet electret will replicate the typical combo of small electret insert in terms of your voice reproduction vs the flat very sensitive nature of PEC based transducers. I've detailed a lot about it in various posts.

Sometimes the best option is if you've a good solid hand mic you're otherwise happy with, make a plinth and post to mount it on and maybe replace the momentary PTT switch with a locking version.

Since I've detailed the aspects to death, I'll suggest you dig around a bit where my thoughts and that of others should give you a ground to work from deciding on good candidates.

A good candidate for me was the classic teardrop mic used on Standard brand maritime and mobile gear as my voice meshes well in the transducer's response pattern. So whilst I have better stuff, one of my favs is an old Standard I plinth and post mounted with a broadcast style cantilever arm and mount and had bolted to the bookshelf above my rigs. I actually use a modified broadcast mic these days, where it has a mixed output from a wide/large condenser insert and a cobalt large dynamic driver put through a dual mic insert channels robbed from a terninally busted Tascam Portastudio through 2-1 mixdown and mild dynamic levelling to the switch box and impedance matched o/P's for the array of very old and modern rigs here. No EQ necessary when you've got the right inserts.

A5H5ATAN1C
How does your post help the op pick a base mic.
If people understood what you are saying at all then they wouldn't be asking the question in the first place.
Sorry in advance.

I believe that A5H5ATAN1C is saying that a microphone that works well for one person won't necessarily work well for another.
Some peoples voices modulate extremely well and others need a microphone that helps give their voice some more punch.
I have experienced that for myself playing with different microphones and having someone else use my equipment.

I had a friend who had a voice for the radio, he could make the needle bounce off the limiter by just talking normally into the microphone yet my voice couldn't replicate that.
It was interesting to see especially considering I don't have a meek or quite voice by any means.
Reading A5H5ATAN1C posts definitely tests the grey matter, he's obviously one smart cookie who knows his subject extremely well. I like reading his posts, often it ends up with me researching more to better understand what he is saying when it gets above my head.

To me some is a bit too testical for a cb at heart forum but that's just me.
A lot will be over most head's and as you said we can always do some more homework if inclined.
Not explaining myself very well here but i personally stop reading after 2 lines or so.???????

Well, there's nothing stopping anyone passing over posts as suits their level of interest/motivation - so if my input seems irrelevant, ignore it - but I certainly am not in mine or any other living souls lifetime going to justify my reasoning for my long detailed posts. They are what they are, useless to some and useful to others.

As for any observation about suitably in a 'CB at heart' forum, grow up ffs. Wherever this forum started as, it's clearly grown beyond the CB playpen and as the more mature CB users eventually came to realise, half the BS they swallowed over the years from CB experts was either valid where stolen or invented BS that was more PT Barnum than literal lies. You may not want to recognise it, or accept it, but CB radio doesn't exist in a magical existence with it's own Minecraft like pseudo reality and physics tailored to the peusdo existence governing the reality within.

It still, on the technical level, inescapably is subject to the physics and dynamics that govern functional reality in radio communications and radio principles as a whole - and especially the stuff that epicenters on the HF/VHF boundary where it is inextricably tied to. Therefore it's inescapably the fact that what governs everything else relating to 'phone' modes of an analogue nature used elsewhere has a significance and some inextricably fixed limits and boundaries all radio systems are bound by and specifically effects all analogue phone operations.

Subsequently, how a mic translates and how good matching to the dynamics of AF bandwidth and response for a given mode matters to both clarity and readability and also affects SQ on DSB/SSB is inescapably absolute. Such as that, also is creating a good match between a chosen inserts response profile and the user's voice and tailoring the translated AF signal to suit the constraints of the handling modulation circuitry on the Tx side.

Every AF input, regardless of radio type, has at least 2 BPF's and at least one extra LPF or HPF on it's ass end and ultimately at least two more if you factor in the audio handling on the Rx side and the output speaker itself being a passive BPF. So inescapably, the audio you send and how it's translated is a damn sight more important a consideration than is often given creditability to having.

But what you make of what's inescapable is irrelevant, it's still going to affect how you use the playpen and gear you buy into. The sane ones recognise that in the bigger radio world there's plenty of good solid and much more fit for purpose mics and mic/voice/SP tech that's easily repurposed for CB if you dare to step out of the playpen.

I'd put money on the fact that those who dared to source beyond the playpen for mics and mic'ing solutions actually get more enjoyment knowing they've made their output actually more usable, making the the resulting demod as heard that much cleaner and clearer to endure.

Try working 48hrs flat, squelch open, during a radio contest and enduring the noise to not lose the almost imperceptible that often gets lose with the SQL closed, and you'll put a lot of value on why tone and clarity matters and definitely makes the difference as heard between pleasant and easy to endure than harsh to the point where you find yourself wanting to ditch the contact before the harshness and roughness triggers a bad head or worse a migrane. It's just as much a factor of casual Dxing as it is for serious contesters but equally is as desirable for less intensive casual use.

I hate contests no point and go on tooooo long.

I didn't know there was any other way to run a radio than squelch open.
I can see the point of contests, but doubt I'd ever engage in one. 99% of my time spent on the radio is spent just listening, often I'll go for weeks without hitting the ptt switch.

You should have seen the comments I've already had to delete Graeme, let alone that I've already given a warning about such attitudes.

It's still all in discussion with the admin team.

Charlie Tango has always been about embracing everyone who's interest lays in radio regardless of their background or level of interest.

Unfortunately this can often lead to abuse.