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Heil Headsets

Grogan

W9WDX Amateur Radio Club Member
Oct 1, 2011
1,133
343
93
Southern New Jersey
Looking at the Heil Headsets, I like using Headphones and was looking at the Heil Head sets for my Kenwood TS480sat I like the PSE-6 and PS-6 and I am kind of lost as to the difference. also wondering how they work Buy the headset and the cable for the radio of your choice. I guess you need to key the radio with a foot or hand switch. Does that plug into the cable? Also can I buy the adapter for 4 pin they Have and rewire or use on Cobra Galaxy radio Radio. Or will the headsets not work for CB radios etc. Thanks
 

YOUTUBE Wow watched a short video and I see the Headset connects for transmit and receive to a radio with a foot switch to key But I still wonder is the microphone compatible wit a cb Radio or would it be a waste of $$ to try.
 
You can use one for CB.

The Heil headsets require an adapter cable for different radios. The adapter cables accepts the mic plug from the headset and uses a radio specific 8 pin or modular mic plug for modern HF radios on the other end to plug into the radio.

They do have a 4 pin adapter cable which is common for a lot of CB's. Then use a different adapter cable for your Kenwood.

You will have to check that the radio pin outs match the adapter cables and you will need a PTT which you can make yourself with a non-latching momentary switch or use a commercially available foot or hand swtich. The Heil adapter cables usually have a 1/ 4 inch jack on a pigtail to connect a PTT switch.

For the audio out, you can plug into the radios external speaker out but be sure to keep the radio volume low since this output is usually around 5 watts or so and the Headsets are rated in Milli-watts. Best bet is to pad this output with a resistor to attenuate the audio level.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I Have a nice external speaker that I use and it has a built in headphone jack that eliminates problems with using the speaker jack on the back of the radio. Also works great with talk back.Would the heil mic work good and be a big improvement if used on a cb/export radio Galaxy etc. and would one model work better than the other looking at the PSE-6 and PS-6 models.
 
Looking at the Heil Headsets, I like using Headphones and was looking at the Heil Head sets for my Kenwood TS480sat I like the PSE-6 and PS-6 and I am kind of lost as to the difference. also wondering how they work Buy the headset and the cable for the radio of your choice. I guess you need to key the radio with a foot or hand switch. Does that plug into the cable? Also can I buy the adapter for 4 pin they Have and rewire or use on Cobra Galaxy radio Radio. Or will the headsets not work for CB radios etc. Thanks
You can usually find a premade adapter for any headset on ebay. There are much better headsets for the money besides Heil. Look around a bit before you buy.
 
Only issue I see here possibly is that the plug on your radio is a mono plug for use of one speaker only. Will both speakers in the Heil headset work with use of a mono jack as I know that when I plug into the front of my kenwood or Icom HF radio I get sound out of both speakers vs. coming out of the back where if I were to directly plug in a set of headphones I get only sound out of one speaker. CB radios don't have an RCA jack obviously for headphones. You might have to add an RCA jack to a CB radio in order to properly get sound from both speakers of the headset/headphones. Does this make sense?? I know it's early!!
At any rate if you're planning on using it on your kenwood 480, then all you should need is the ptt adapter like fourstringburn stated. With your radio you might be able to use the VOX feature as well with the headset as well. But the PTT switch normally is either a small push button or a foot pedal. Check out these. Made for Heil headsets and kenwood radios. These are the handheld ptt ones.
 

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On the headphone jack on my cobra speaker I found if i don't plug in to the last click I get sound from both speakers on the head phones If I push it in all the way I only get one side ( sometimes I use only one side and the MFJ headphones also have separate volume controls) I have a foot switch also and see that I need the proper cables to key up, listen thru the headphones and have the audio from the mic into the radio. Just wondering if it will sound better than aftermarket CB mics Astadic etc. or should I use a D104 and Headphones .I may buy the headset fot the Kenwood but is it worth spending the extra 40.00 for the cable with the 4 pin conector for the Galaxy. ( that I may have to re-solder the 4 pin to matvh the radio)
 
If it's 4 pin cobra type it shouldn't require anything to be re soldered. I could be wrong but I think most common 4 pin mics are wired this way. As in it should work with your Galaxy radio. As far as quality goes I don't know if it is worth it for the Galaxy radio, but I would say yes it's a good thing for the kenwood, depending on which mic you choose. Shoot it may sound great on the Galaxy, but not as good as it most likely will with the kenwood as you can taylor your tx audio much more with the kenwood. JMHO. They are nice headsets and I have heard some using them with exports like the anytone 5555, and they sound great if setup right. Some processing and compression may be needed for full potential of audio quality. I am by no means an expert on this subject, it's JMO. Also as far as leaving the headphones unplugged a bit to get the sound out of both of them, I've done this as well and found having an extension helps a bunch. A 3.5mm 6ft extension cord helps. And grab a couple ferrite chokes and wrap around. I have found that feedback is more common with having the headphones plugged in like this. Almost like talk back LOL. Best option might be to build a small box with a 1/4" and 3.5mm headphone jack that has both grounds and positives made to mono. Then a wire with a 3.5mm mono jack on the end of it to go to the CB speaker out jack or any radios ext. speaker jack that is 3.5mm. Just some food for thought. I am not a big fan of the stock kenwood mics as they sound horrible with my voice!! Now my Icom HM-12 stock mic rocks! Others have used the kenwood mic and don't sound bad at all, but it doesn't like my voice. Could be the radio as well. Old ts140s.
Personally I want to try one of the Heil HMM hand mics. They are a regular handheld mobile type mic but have both condensor and dynamic style mics as well. The Handi Mics look pretty nice as well at only 4" tall. But they aren't headphones with a mic either. Not sure which set you're looking at?? At any rate keep us posted if you do decide to get a set!! Good day.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I Have a nice external speaker that I use and it has a built in headphone jack that eliminates problems with using the speaker jack on the back of the radio. Also works great with talk back.Would the heil mic work good and be a big improvement if used on a cb/export radio Galaxy etc. and would one model work better than the other looking at the PSE-6 and PS-6 models.

Yes your headphones would work nicely using that headphone out jack on your external speaker. You may need a 1/8 to 1/4 inch adapter but that's an easy fix.

As for being a big improvement on the transmitted audio? that would be subjective to what your looking for when using it on a CB radio. I was also under the assumption that this would be for mobile use.

If big loud booming typical CB on AM modulation is what your looking for, than maybe not. You would be better off using your D104 and headphones for the received audio. On SSB is where these headset mics are designed to shine by giving clear voice quality audio.

As 222DBFL said, some processing and compression can really make these headsets audio more robust on SSB, but export radios don't have this capability like your Kenwood.

If you still want to use one headset for both radios, then you need to go with the PS-6 and the proper mic adapters for both radios. This is a dynamic mic element and doesn't need phantom power like the PSE-6 with the condenser element which your CB radio's aren't capable of.

I would look at the Heil BM-10 dynamic. This is a lighter weight headset and features a PTT button on it ready to go. You still need the mic adapters for your radios of course.

http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-012400
 
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