[Elecraft] W9BB, Inventor of Shure 440 and 444 Mics SK

[Jim Brown]

This week's ARRL Letter included the announcement of the passing of Bill 
Simons, W9BB.  It included a link to a nice story about how Bill 
conceived and developed what was almost certainly a ground-breaking 
product at its time, and is still one of the best sounding mics you can 
find for use with a ham rig.  Only a day or so ago I recommended one for 
someone who wanted a desk mic to use with his K3.

The thing that makes this mic sound so great was that Ray designed a 
strong response peak at around 3kHz to counter the strong rolloff in 
that range by the TX and RX crystal filters.  I don't know if Bill's 
design was the first to use this idea, but it's great engineering, and  
every successful ham mic since then has used it.

http://www.k9ya.org/w9bb/images/MAC_Newsletter_June_2002_FINAL.pdf

73, Jim Brown K9YC