[Elecraft] Headphones

[Fred Jensen]

On 7/11/2011 9:15 AM, Jim Brown wrote:

> Ed,
>
> I understand your more severe hearing loss, but I was responding IN PART
> to many others on the list with much less several loss than you, and can
> use RXEQ to solve their own problems, at least until their hearing loss
> progresses.

I appreciate this thread.  I too am both nearly deaf, and even with 
level and frequency correction, I can't understand someone speaking 
behind me.  My loss occurred all at once from an RPG explosion one 
night, and I've been told "the rocks on your hair cells are gone" so it 
affects my sense of balance as well.

The latest hearing aids the VA gave me are Phonak multi-program DSP 
gizmos, and are many light years ahead of anything else I've had.  They 
run at "afterburner roar" and do not work under the Heil Proset I got 
from Elecraft.  However I do get to walk around with $6K of fairly 
effective micro-electronics stuffed into my ears thanks to very generous 
American taxpayers.  Thank you all, I hope I deserve it.

SSB has been pretty much a non-starter since my hearing disappeared, and 
I stick to CW most of the time.   On Jim's patient advice [we know each 
other], I have been able to tailor the K3 Rx EQ to get an overall range 
of about 30 dB differential correction, and SSB on a quiet band, without 
QRM and accents, has become semi-usable for me -- first time in 40 
years.  75 or 80 dB of correction would be better, but the 30 or so does 
really help.

It took some time to work it out, and the final settings, while 
"similar" to the programs for my aids, are a little non-intuitive.  One 
of Jim's suggestions was to go slow.  Make a change, and then evaluate 
it over several days or a week under various band conditions.  I, of 
course, expected to sit down and get this done in 10 mins :-)  So, if 
you are hearing-impaired with a K3, I would urge you to spend some time 
with the Rx equalizer.  You *can* make a difference with it.

My hearing aids have a teeny little multi-wire connector inside the 
battery compartment they use to program them.  I've wondered if there 
was a way to use that to feed flat audio from the radio into them for 
correction, but so far, no progress on that front.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011
- www.cqp.org