[ARC5] [Milsurplus] "Throat mic" subject addendum

[Michael Hanz]

On 2/20/2021 8:54 PM, Hubert Miller wrote:
>
> Helge Fykse demonstrating 9 meter Panzer radios Ukw.E.e. and 10W.S.c.
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D768bAps4Q&t=922s 
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D768bAps4Q&t=922s>
>
> In the comments section below video:
>
> kargo_cult: Is the sound mixed, open air + throat mic, or is the sound 
> from you, throat mic only? I am trying to get an idea exactly how the 
> throat microphone sound is.
>
> Helge Fykse 2 days ago: At the beginning of the video, the sound from 
> me is only from the throat microphone. From 2 minutes it is mixed from 
> the throat microphone + the camera microphone
>
> So what do you think? Not understandable?
>

Well, it might be useful to ask, as compared to what?  Are we comparing 
it with today's mics in a typical ham shack environment? Or in WWII 
combat, which is how I thought the discussion originally began?  What 
are the parameters of the word "understandable", and do they include any 
consideration other than under the relatively perfect band conditions in 
the Fykse recording?  Would they be understandable under typical QRM and 
QRN?  The boundary values aren't quite clear here.

There seems sufficient reason for throat mics ultimately being phased 
out in US military vehicles and aircraft during the war.  The Bell Lab 
technical staff were superb systems engineers and scientists, and they 
rightly considered more than just bare "excellent conditions" factors 
that went into intelligibility. Below is a couple of salient pages that 
describe what they considered in rating various sound delivery systems 
used in combat. They are from the same NDRC wartime development series 
that I posted earlier, by Division 17.  The first page addresses the 
problem directly; the second gives you some feeling for the noise levels 
involved in various aircraft of the day.  To be sure, I have no problem 
playing around with WWII equipment today - it's fun and educational.  
But the parameters of advocacy need to be established to make any 
comparison meaningful.  Or so it seems to me.

- Mike  KC4TOS

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