Hi All,
I hope you're keeping well and most of all enjoying your radio.
I was in conversation on air with a good old Ham friend of mine recently, (got a 2m antenna up again now!), and he noted that my audio always sounds good no matter what band or mode we've conversed on. I explained that everyone of my radios are hooked up to the standard manufacturer handheld or 'fist' microphone with nothing else fancy. This led us on to a maybe comedic view of things we've heard whilst on air.....
Television - Nothing more annoying than struggling in a QSO with such 'background' noise.
Dog passing wind - The funniest of all, normally apparently emanating from an otherwise silent dog.
XYL noises - "You on that radio again?!", washing up noises, vacuum cleaning, etc.
Children - The wonderful sound of children's antics in the background whilst you're on air.
Echo - whether intentionally added or not but sounding like you're in a bathroom with awful reverberation.
Microphone 'pop' - Every plosive sound and syllable, P's, B's, T's, etc. crashing through.
Breathing - We've all got to breathe sure enough but not amplified more than your voice(!)
Probably the worst mentioned was having a coughing fit whilst on air with every splutter, gargle, bits of phlegm hitting the mic and generally sounding like your lungs will pop through the radio speaker at any moment! (For God's sake, de-key that PTT for a moment until after the event even if you lose your place in a net!)
(Before anyone jumps on the 'sexist' bandwagon regards XYL's I will admit my wife does more household chores than I but only because she has one more working leg than I do!
)
I've never experienced any of these 'noise' issues, luckily having the spare room for my radios but more than likely because I'm only using a standard handheld mic. I'm pretty sure that the fashion for hooking up boom mic's or otherwise expensive microphone setups to transceivers has a lot to do with it.
Now, now, before some of you get your knickers in a twist about your expensive microphone setups this is a general observation.
If you've managed to get an elaborate microphone set up without any of these issues then very well done. But it might be worth asking for 'honest' audio reports or better still recording yourself on the many webSDR services that facilitate such functions to reliably check that is the case.....
It might just save on that 'embarrassing' dog fart moment.
I'm not the only one to have such views on microphone setups that pick up every other sound going on outside of your vocal audio for transmission. My old Ham friend agrees but there's also a very good write up by VU2NSB on his website :-
https://vu2nsb.com/radio-systems/amateur-radio-station-ham-shack/radio-communication-microphones/
It's given me enough incentive to keep with my 'standard' mics but also take another look at headset setups, my wife having such a 'spare' unit after her work with the NHS Test & Trace service. Handy, because it won't cost me a penny.
Anyway, give us your views and please, please, (I'll say that again), please keep it civil.
A difference of opinion is one thing but there is never an excuse to be nasty about things. Remember the forum rules and be respectful to each other.
Look forward to hearing from you.
All the best,
Victor