Heil Sound Microphones......

I've used an HM-10, and still have it with its original case, cord, etc. It worked well for me. I no longer use it since I'm partial to my Silver Eagle.

Cheapham is relatively local to us. I think he's in the Lakewood or Brick area. He told me quite a while back that he may have a local pickup and shop option at some point but I haven't checked back with him...probably better for my bank account that I haven't.

HRO is not far from you really over in Delaware, no sales tax either, even if you buy it there. They are real pricks in that store though, best to know what you need, walk in and say 'get me this' and just leave quickly. Real bastards....but they have most of what you need there.

I opted to keep my Yaesu MD-100A8X desk mic for the K3. After wiring a cable to adapt between the two, the marriage seems to work rather well. On the advice of another amateur who knows my voice I tweaked the TX equalizer and I get good reports. This weekend I used my Heil ProSet Micro that I originally bought with the HC-4 element. Over the years I discovered that my voice has enough highs in it that the HC-4 made me largely unintelligible. So I swapped it for an HC-5 and it has worked much better. I found this weekend that I needed to only tweak the mic gain a bit lower for the HC-5 than for the MD-100 and I had little problem being heard.

On the K3 I use the following settings:

MD-100 mic=30, comp=13
HC-5 mic=28, comp=13

I like Heil microphones, I've used one of them for a lot of years. I don't care for the 'audio' thing much, but they don't have to be all that 'fancy', they do work well. I usually put the cartridge into some holder that was whatever I liked at the time. I'm sure there are other manufacturers that are just as good, but I've gotten used to them.
- 'Doc

I like messing with mics. It is the sound that other people get to hear; it is how they can recognize the station. Just like your signature - in a sense. Putting a better foot forward can partially be accomplished by the polish of your mics sound and choice.

Heil mics are OK. Some stations sound fine that use them, some real quality. For the same amount of money spent, you can do better than Heil for condenser mics. Better off with an MXL than a Heil; cost is less and better performance to boot. The MXL V67 Condenser mic is a mic that I would put up against Heil's best condenser mic offering and still do better.

Heil's dynamic mics are pretty decent bang for buck wise; this is where they shine for the most part. Heil Dynamic mics are their real strong suit. Heil has successfully marketed the Ham radio community; HRO carries most of their product line. I would rather have a Shure SM-7A or an ElectroVoice RE-20 or RE-27N/D than a Heil PR-40. But the Heil is pretty close in quality and less in price in this instance. The Shures and EV's are about $100 more; but the Heil comes up with nearly the same goods.

HEIL

I use a HEIL PR20 on my ICOM 756 PROII & I also use a HEIL HM-10(dual element)on my 746 PRO(also sometimes use a D-104 Silver Eagle on the 746 PRO)& get GREAT audio reports.For the money the PR20 is a SWEET deal.


SIX-SHOOTER

I purchased the HC-104, Heil conversion kit for the D104 with the HC-5 element to 'freshen up' my old D104. I use it with my Ten Tec Omni VI and have gotten good reports from friends who know what my voice sounds like. The kit did come with some capacitors that are to be used for selected Icom rigs, but I believe the Heil element could be adapted to a lot of rigs. In some cases, depending on the rig, you may need to use an impedance matching transformer. The mic impedance is 1000 ohms @ 1kHz.

To add some updating to this thread,
....I use a w2ihy 8 band with a Heil HM 10 on boom and the new Heil Pros Set Elite with HC6 element.
....Kenwood TS480 Eq on flat.
....IHY output gain set up to satisfy ALC requirements first then compression second to about 6 db compression point.
....IHY box is set to the reverse of the mike frequency response so the low and some high end are boosted.
....3200 Hz Eq is not used because the radio's pass band will not pass it without undesirable artifacts showing up. It's like you can't force 10 lbs of poop in a 5 lb bucket, type of deal.
....The noise gate is not used because under strong signal conditions it sounds like VOX coming on and off without downwad expansion. Said another way, it's too course and lacking in fine control.
....I hear stiff Vox settings with high background noise on other stations and to me it's objectional.
....So, I get to use three different mike cartridges, from two mikes on two different radios with out changing any setting.
....Set up for the radio that requires the least drive first then with mike gains set up for the next radio. After this is done the audio is fine over all combinations.
....Lastly, investing in mikes looking for one that is the magic one, is foolish for the unmodified radio.
....A look at the mike frequency response is all you need to do to dial the EQ level shape in.
.
THEN; "don't" go get a dozen opinions to confuse you or your end up trying to satisfy every one seperately. Stay with someone who knows good audio and is able to 'reproduce it at his station so you get a fair assesment, then let it go. The rest has to get used to it.
Good luck.

Opinion not fact but to me it seems like the more modern the gear the worse the sound. I mean the radio not the mic. They keep making everything more narrow in band width to the point that voice is degraded compared to on something less modern. Like another poster said the mic does no good if the radio will not pass the added bandwidth through the amp section and out into the air waves.

ElectronTubesRule said:

Opinion not fact but to me it seems like the more modern the gear the worse the sound. I mean the radio not the mic. They keep making everything more narrow in band width to the point that voice is degraded compared to on something less modern. Like another poster said the mic does no good if the radio will not pass the added bandwidth through the amp section and out into the air waves.

Click to expand...

It's communication audio so it's not supposed to be broadcast quality. Lot of newer radios have adjustable tx and rx bandwidths. Only good if the other guy can hear you at 3khz wide.