This is a story about two headsets – headphones with a boom microphone. Ham Radio operators use these for contesting and DXing or any time you’re using the radio while active and you don’t want to be stuck in front of a “normal” microphone. Because the microphone is mounted on the boom, it’s always near your mouth no matter how you move.

I first bought the Heil Proset many years ago for contest use. It has a special microphone that is tailored to voice frequencies and is supposed to increase intelligibility over SSB radio transmissions. It’s something that Bob Heil developed and has been one of his most successful products.

I used these all the time, preferring them to a desk microphone, but over the years, they got so they were showing their age.

One annoyance they always had, at least to me, was that the movement of the earpieces as they sat on your head made an audible sound, a click. Any movement, even the movement of your jaw as you spoke produced the plastic-on-plastic movement and the short creaking noise. They always felt slightly loose as well. But it was only in your own ears and was a minor thing that was easy to overlook.

They were also slightly fragile. I broke the joint at each earpiece where the band joins to the earcups. It’s a ball and socket joint, the same place that generated the noise. The plastic was formed to a small point with a ball on the end which fit into the earcup and allowed it to pivot there. One broke while I was at a multi-op contest effort in NNY for Sweepstakes. I’ve forgotten when the other one snapped.

I figured out a way to fix them, though. There was a hole through the center of the ball-joint. If I recall, it was for a screw to attach another piece from the inside of the earcup which held them together while still being able to pivot. I found that I could replace the screw with a longer machine screw and nut which held the broken pieces together. To tighten the nut, though I had to be able to get a socket or nutdriver onto it from the outside. To do that I had to drill a hole large enough for the socket. Thankfully, there is a stick-on piece with the Heil logo right where the hole needed to be placed. I removed the emblem, drilled the hole, reassembled the headset and put the emblem back over the hole. Voi-la! Fixed without any visible effects.

I bought a Sennheiser HMD-280 headset when I was doing my podcast. It was for field interviews so that I could use a hand microphone for the interviewee and the boom mike for myself. It kept me from having to move a mike back and forth and let me hear what was going on at the same time. They were expensive, over $300 at list price. I don’t remember what I actually paid for them, but I remember it being a tough decision. But I was still working at the time and decided to spend the money.

When I recently rebuilt my Ham Studio, I got out the old Heil Proset. Besides the repair jobs on the broken joints, the ear cushions were pretty cruddy. Age and exposure to skin oils had made the plastic coating on the faux leatherette start to come off. I wore them one time and was finding pieces of black plastic in my hair and on my ears and neck for hours afterward. The inside foam liners that cover the transducer grilles had also degraded and fallen out.

I had hooked another piece of podcast equipment up to my radio as well, the Alesis USB mixer. It’s a USB audio interface as well as a pretty standard mike mixer. I could use the USB interface to record messages for the voice keyer in contest logging software and use the mixer to feed microphone audio into the radio. I made a cable to go from an AUX out on the mixer to the rig’s mike jack. I had to do a conversion from balanced to unbalanced audio and I think I ended up with some resistor-capacitor combination in it as well. But it worked well and I put an Audix OM-5 microphone on a small boom stand and it worked very well with the Kenwood TS-850.

So, I decided why not try the Sennheiser boom mike. All the hard work was done, getting the mixer in line with the rig. All I needed to do was plug it in. I did and it worked great.

I like the feel of the Sennheiser 280 headphones. I also use a set of HD-280s which are the headphones alone. Some people would argue that the full-fidelity response would make them emphasize the highs and noise in a radio signal, but to be honest, I can’t think of one set of headphones being marketed to Hams for a frequency response suited to communications. Almost everything I’ve seen has full-range response, although maybe not as good as the Sennheisers, because they’re all based on consumer audio equipment. The Heils, incidentally, are the exception to the rule, claiming a -3db point at 8000Hz, meaning they roll off the high frequencies, with half being reduced by 8000Hz. Honestly, I don’t hear a big difference. The Heils aren’t something I’d want to listen to music on, but there isn’t a huge amount of tinniness or noise with the Sennheisers. I’m sure I could do an A/B comparison and hear it, but it’s not that big of a deal to me.

The microphone in the Sennheisers is no HC-4 either. It’s probably not a great mike anyway. It’s small and sits on the end of it’s boom with a little funky-looking swivel thing. I don’t know what it’s meant to do, isolate vibration maybe, because while it can be bent at an angle, it just springs back where it wants to be. I covered it all up with a foam windscreen anyway.

The Sennheisers have one other thing I really like about them. They are very rugged. The earpieces can fold inward letting you fold one in and have the other nest over it, making a small package that stores very well. They are beefy enough that they don’t break. I’ve kept them in side pockets on cloth bags with other equipment and never had a problem. They’re also very comfortable. Not light, but a firm, soft feel that stays put firmly on your head. The Heils are nearly as comfortable, but lack the firmness and you could probably shake them off your head with a quick movement.

The Heil Proset costs $140 plus another $20 for the adapter to fit your radio.

The Sennheiser HMD-280-13 (The last digits refer to the cable with an XLR mike connector and 1/4″ stereo phones connector) have a MSRP of $414, but can be found online for less than $250. You have to figure out how to get the audio into you rig, whether through a mixer or a W2IHY box, or a custom cbale, is up to you.

The ultimate thing might be to replace the Sennheiser microphone with the Heil HC-4. Heil used to sell the cartridges alone, but I don’t see a price on their web site. You’d also need to find the plastic pieces to hold it.

Another thing in the Proset’s favor: Heil’s rebuild service. For $45 (plus $15 shipping) you can send in your Proset and they will refurbish it. I don’t mean just fix what ails it, they totally go over it and return a unit that looks like brand-new. I sent in my old set and they came back in a week looking like new. All new plastic pieces where they had broken, new cable, earpads, linings. They even put on a foam windscreen and new cloth covers, which I had never had. The new cable has a 1/8″ end with a 1/4″ screw-on adapter too, which is a nice touch the old one didn’t have. Honestly, I have a hard time telling which parts are new and which are original, but it looks like the only original parts are the speakers and the earpieces, the boom and mike element (probably the costliest part) and the headband. Sennheiser probably has parts available for their sets, but I’ll bet they don’t offer as economical and thorough a service as that.

I found a picture of my old operating desk. This is a very early shot of it. For most of the recent time, it’s been sitting turned 90 degrees from what is shown. I guess I wanted to unblock the window! The equipment changed, but mostly, that is the desk I tore apart a month ago.

But it also was piled high with stuff. Unfinished projects, papers I needed to save, magazines I wanted to keep, computer stuff, tools, and on and on. You get the mental picture, even if I don’t have one.

Now that I think about it, this photo might just be pre-computer. It’s hard to think of Ham Radio without computers anymore.

Here’s the mostly finished (nothing is ever completely finished…) operating position. Same room. In fact, the table surface is the same. Six feet of kitchen counter, which really makes a great desk surface. That’s about the only thing in the picture that was in the first one.

Oh, and the sheet of glass on it. It’s great for putting notes or reference items under where you can see them but still use the surface to write or sit things on. It’s actually the tempered glass out of an old TV set. Remember when they had a glass front and the picture tube sat behind it? If you ever have an old set like that and are throwing it away, let me know, I’d love another piece of that glass.

I still have some of those things. The gray Vibroplex bug and the black Bencher paddles I still have, but the ones on the new desk are chrome versions. I still have the Heathkit microphone, but it’s in really bad shape and I decided against using it. I still have the MFJ keyer. I mentioned it in a previous post. The digital clock, which was a kit from Radio Shack, is still around, but the electro-luminescent tubes that make the digits are so dim, it’s not very good anymore. I should find a good, more modern clock. Right now, I’m using a little MFJ clock.

Not that the time is so important. With three computers in front of me, all connected to the internet, the time is always on them and exactly right. The main thing I like a clock for is to check if I have some plan at a certain time.

So, what’s in the new picture?

Across the top of the shelves you’ll see two KRK Rokit-5 powered speakers. The blue box in the middle is a Stereo-Link USB-1200 hi-quality USB audio device. It’s plugged into the right hand computer. I have to have my music. These things are awesome and will kick any computer speakers butt.

Next, in the shelves, you’ll see two monitors. The left has a keyboard as well as a mouse and a trackpad, but I usually use the mouse and keyboard on the right computer by running a little piece of software called Synergy. At the right is a collection of Sweepstakes Sweep Mugs and Pennsylvania QSO Party mugs. Below them is some VHF-FM rigs. The Yaesu dual-band one in the middle is actually hooked up, but I don’t use it much. The other two are 2m only. The plan is to put one on packet and the other is for mobile use – to go in the car.

Let’s go back to the left and work across again. Right behind my shoulder, is a MFJ Versa-Tuner V. It’s old and beat up, but tunes up anything. It also has a dummy load in it, so I keep it around. Next, behind the laptop screen, is the Astron RS-35A power supply. It provides all the 12 VDC power for every radio here. I just added a West Mountain Radio RigRunner 4008 distribution box to it and all DC power is now using Power Pole connectors. In the middle, a Daiwa cross-needle SWR/wattmeter sits above the Rig Blaster and IF-232C interface. The RigBlaster right now is just for sending computer audio into the radio for contesting because the sound card’s line input in the computer is bad. Otherwise, it would also let me do digital modes like RTTY and PSK. I think a new motherboard and a rebuild of the computer is in the near future.

Of course, front and center is the Kenwood TS-850SAT HF transceiver, the Radio. Next to it is the matching speaker and then the rotor control for the HD-73 rotor I just got repaired.

On the table surface, you’ll see the Bencher keyer paddles, the Vibroplex bug (just for show, it’s not even hooked up at the moment) and a Alesis Multimix8 USB mixer with a small boom mike stand. The mike on it is an Audix OM-5, which is really a performance mike, but it seems to work okay on the air. I’ve received unsolicited reports of good audio with it.

The mixer will let me use more than one mike for comparisons, etc. It’s left over from my podcast equipment, as is the mike and stand. The headphones are too, they’re Sennheiser HD-280 Pros and are the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever had. I like them better than the Heil Boomset I have, but they don’t have the boom mike. Ah, but Sennheiser does make a version with a boom mike and I have a set, and it will plug in through the mixer. I haven’t tried it yet, and it’s not the Heil DX edge element, but I’ll have to try it. Unfortunately, while the 280 pros can be found for less than $100, the model with the boom mike is hard to find and ridiculously expensive.

And last, but not least, in the middle, is a cheap keyboard and a Logitech wireless mouse. They both go to the right side computer – the one used for logging and radio control – but as I said can work on the left hand computer using Synergy. The left side computer is for web surfing, and has my music collection. Believe it or not, I play the music on the left computer, but it comes out of the right computer and the KRK speakers, because I run a oddcast/icecast server to stream the audio!

The laptop doesn’t need to be there, but it always seems to end up here. I do all my email, web design, blogging and social media from the laptop.

Hidden behind the laptop, is my Elecraft K2, QRP (low-power) radio. It’s also hooked up to the computer for rig control and all I need to do to use it is throw an antenna switch. A keying interface lets the computer send the CW. In fact, other than a casual contact, I don’t even use the paddles anymore. It’s all sent by computer, but still all received by ear.

The butcher block look counter was the only thing I kept from the old desk. Things I learned from the old one have made this one better. Plywood instead of particle board. More attention to height and depth to avoid excessive reaching or craning the neck to see a monitor.

It was always a pain to crawl under the old desk to hook things up. This time, it’s all on wheels. The casters, rated at 300 lbs. each, cost a hundred dollars, but are worth every penny. There’s also a hidden shelf in back where there are power outlets and the DC power distribution and networking wiring can be hidden. Don’t let the wires hanging down in the pictures fool you, they’ll be dressed away neatly when it’s all done.

The monitor sits up at eye-level and the keyboard sits under an overhang where it can be pulled out at any time. But the last thing to be worked out was where to put the computer CPU. Today, I made a shelf for it underneath. It works great. Another one will eventually go at the other end, if needed.

There’s still more to be done. Some more finishing could be done below. There is more equipment that might get placed in the shelves eventually. And there is some antenna work to get done outdoors. I have a rotor sent out to be repaired and need to get at least an 80 meter dipole up in the air. Anyone want to climb some trees for me?

I don’t have any recent photos of the “Shack.” Frankly, it was such a mess, I really didn’t want to take any. It had become a place for unfinished projects to get dumped and to actually use the radios, I’d have to excavate them to get access! But the first photo is of the same room, back about 1980 or so.

I’m cleaning out and remodeling my “shack.” That’s what we “Hams” call our place where we keep our radio equipment. It’s one of many terms that were established long ago and have taken on a life of their own, despite giving a less-then-complimentary spin on our hobby.

Similiar terms are “Elmer” – a term for a Ham who helps a newcomer get started in this hobby, presumably an older person; “Rag Chewing” – a term that means just chatting over the air; and of course the term “Ham” itself, which was coined by commercial operators as a derogatory appellation, but the amateurs took it, like Yankee Doodle, and made it their own.

Frankly, I could do without all of them. Amateur, mentor, conversation all work fine for me. Since I’ve lived here, for the last 30 years, we’ve all called my room just the “Radio Room.” It’s about the only room in the house that has never been painted or otherwise remodeled. It’s been sort of the Shoemaker’s Kids story, everything else took priority.

So, I’m finally getting around to overhauling it and I think from now on, I’m going to call it not my “Shack,” not my “Radio Room,” but from now on, my “Studio.” It sort of works in the way “Office” or “Study” would, but is more technical/radio sounding.

So far, I’ve torn out eight feet of cracked plaster and put up drywall, patched and taped it in, painted the walls, and put in a drop ceiling. I don’t know why I didn’t do that sooner, because it’s the solution to one of the big problems with a “Radio Shack” – that is wires. I have a bunch of wires – coaxial cables, ethernet, phone, audio and rotor cables – coming into the room through holes in the ceiling. I kept them to two corners of the room, but they still had to get from there to the radios somehow. The old room had some 1×2 boards running around the upper wall that supported some pegboard. I laid the cables on them to run around the perimeter of the room. But it was still ugly. A drop ceiling hides all of that. They can go anywhere above it, then drop straight down to where they are needed. I can even hide them inside some kind of pillar or conduit.

This photo shows the work in progress. I have so much stuff, I can’t move it all out of the room. I have to work around it. The desk, piled with “stuff” has to be moved around to avoid wherever I’m working.

Another benefit is lighting. The room was always dark. I use a swing arm lamp on the operating desk, but wanted more light. I put in two 2×4 troffers, flourescent lights, and wow, is it bright now.

I’m in the process of painting trim. I got one coat on the window today. Boy, do windows take forever. All the little crevices around the glass and moving the panes up and down so you can get all of them painted without painting them shut! I think the door, although bigger, will be faster. Then I need to do the mouldings around the bottom of the walls. The plan is to get the painting done before I work on the floor. That way, any spills don’t matter a bit.

The old floor was an ugly brown linoleum. It must have had a pattern once, but it was long ago worn off. I really don’t know what the room was used for before we moved in, but I understand the previous owner was a building inspector and it looks like it might have been his drafting room. We bought the house from the estate of his widow, so it had been unused for some years before I moved in.

Another angle. I went with two different colors for the walls. Don’t ask why, it just seemed like the thing to do. I hope the two lighter walls reflect the natural light from the window. I may have gone too dark with the green, but I’m going to have to live with it now. The trim will be a darker tan than the color shown now.

The final step is going to be the floor. The underfloor is very rough pine boards. They are tongue and groove, but are in such bad shape, there are cracks, knotholes and patched parts all over. There was a spot where one of my chair legs had worn through the linoleum and chewed up the wood to the point there was a dip in the floor. I levelled it out with some plaster.

I’ll put down some 3/16″ tempered hardboard, what we used to call Masonite, then a floating composite floor. Most people call it a “Pergo” floor, just like they call facial tissue, “Kleenex.” What I bought is another brand, but it’s the same idea. I found a good deal on some in a light oak finish, but opted for a little more expensive version that is thicker. With the floor as bad as it is, I think all the strength I can get will help out. There’s a layer of cushion material that goes between the hardboard and the floating floor to help out too. A molding around the floor to finish it and I’ll be done.

The job of clearing out the room to just work on it cannot be minimized. It took me a couple weeks to accomplish. I now have about 10 plastic bins, some of which were in the room already, some of which are new, full of “stuff” that I will either have to move back into the room or figure out what to do with later. I have an entire large bin of just wire. Wires, cables, patch cords, all too good to throw away, or impossible to buy again if I need it. I have a good bin and a half of just computer media – old floppys, both 5.25 and 3 inch, CD-ROMS etc. I’ll probably go through them at a later date and get rid of most of them.

It’s pretty bad when the clean up takes as long as the remodeling job.

The final stage of the project will be the operating desk. I really wish I had a good picture of the old one, but I don’t. It was based on a six-foot piece of Formica counter-top sitting on top of a set of steel workbench legs. I had a shelf above the counter-top along the back as well. It was a good design for the radios except it was too high. Workbenches are designed for standing at, not sitting. The other problem was the depth was too deep. I had to reach a ways to operate the radio.

So, I need to design a new desk. I kept the counter-top, but got rid of the shelving and legs. The shelf was particle board and sagged. Version II will have to be 3/4″ plywood and be reinforced so that won’t happen.

I think the counter-top is good, but I’m planning to move the first level of shelf forward to bring the radios into reach better. It will overhang the counter and leave a lot of space for keys and keyboards. There will need to be a second level of shelf above the radio level for the other items. I’m still deciding where I want to put computer monitors. At least I’ve gone to all LCD screens, so they take a lot less room.

I’m still debating over what to use for a base. The workbench legs are too high. I saw some nice kitchen cabinets that would fit under, but I wonder if they are too tall as well. A couple of two-drawer file cabinets might be the right thing, but I wonder if they would be strong enough.

Last night, I was looking at the web site for Heil Sound. I was sort of window shopping for a microphone, but ended up getting distracted – like I often do on the internet – and was browsing through the photos on Bob’s site.

I came across this photo, of Bob Heil with Les Paul and a shudder went down my spine. Here was an image of two men, possibly THE two men, responsible for modern sound recording technology. Each of them came up with equipment and techniques that, while not wiz-bang super-new technology, the way they applied their knowledge to a problem they saw changed the way that music recording and live sound amplification was done almost universally.

Little did I know, the next day, I’d be reading that Les Paul had died.

I knew who Les Paul was, of course. I enjoyed his music and knew of him as a talented guitar player. But until I saw a movie documenting his accomplishments – Les Paul: Chasing Sound – did I realize how much he had done in pioneering multi-track recording and overdubbing. Before he changed the way tape recorders were constructed and used, all music was recorded as a live take, flaws and all. His technique allowed recording parts of the music separately, even at different times or places. That practice is common place today, but was revolutionary at the time.

Bob Heil, a keyboardist and music shop owner in Illinois, and incidentally, a Ham Radio Operator, also saw a need and developed equipment and techniques to fill that need. Bob developed the modern mixer, used in studio and live performances and went into a career as an in-demand sound engineer for groups like The Who, Greatful Dead, and the Eagles. Today, he has developed a line of microphones considered by many the best dynamic microphones made.

I first heard of Bob Heil back in the late 70′s when he wrote an article or two about converting cheap CB radios to 10 Meter Amateur Radio use. I bought a circuit board and some other parts from him for a 10 Meter FM radio. I built it up and had a lot of fun with it, working through repeaters in the Virgin Islands and Colorado.

Bob’s line of Ham Radio accessories, mainly microphones, have been legendary. I’ve used one of his Pro-Set headphone-boom-mike sets for so long that it’s in need of a good restoration. He’s seen at many a Hamfest giving his demonstrations of his microphone elements tuned for communications use, another need he saw and stepped in to fill. The line of Ham microphones was a stepping stone to his getting into the professional microphone market.

I remember standing in the Dome Arena at one Rochester Hamfest many years ago, chatting with Bob as the hamfest wound down. I don’t even remember what we were talking about, and I’m sure he didn’t know me from Adam, but we were fellow hams just talking shop.

You can imagine my excitement, a few years later, as I stood at his exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, practically grabbing strangers and saying “I know him!” He’s the only manufacturer honored by the Hall of Fame.

But I’m still saddened by the passing of Les Paul. The thought that we’ll never see him standing next to Bob Heil again, basically summarizing the recording technology innovations of the 20th Century, is so sad.

Here’s a video of Les Paul with an appearance by the late Chet Atkins (another Ham Radio Operator, as is Joe Walsh of the Eagles.)