[Elecraft] OT: Hearing Aid Advice

[Chuck Smallhouse]

Hi Guys & Gals,

I'm finally overcoming my procrastination (and ego) and am going to 
be getting some hearing aids.  Finally the many explosions that my 
ears were exposed to, during my military career, from large AA guns 
(90 & 120 MM), experimental large ground to ground and ground to air 
guided missiles, to grenades, mortars and small arms fire, has caught 
up with me.  My ears have deteriorated to where I have difficulty 
with hearing high frequencies, and therefore understanding many 
conversations, especially those at a distance.

Over the years, I've been very frustrated with all the problems and 
difficulties that my wife has had, with her high end devices.  I 
realize that improvements are being made almost yearly, and new 
models are addressing customers' complaints, and also one must be 
willing to compromise.

 From my limited research and discussions with audiologists, there 
are basically two general types,  In the ear and behind the 
ear.  From a technical (and personal) standpoint I tend to favor the 
behind the ear versions, as I allude to the other type like putting a 
cork in the ear to plug up any outside sounds, and then inject 
totally artificially amplified sounds.  I realize that this is a 
requirement for some types of hearing loss, however, at this time, 
mine is not very severe and gives me a choice of types.

A very high percent of ham radio operating is listening to and trying 
to pull out, deep into the noise level, weak signals in the VHF/UHF 
and microwave bands.  This I try to accomplish, somewhat successfully 
(WAS, VUCC & 95+ DXCC on 2M CW), using narrow IF and audio 
filters.  I've always used headphones with large comfortable and 
effective earmuffs on them.  The muffs aid greatly to my 
concentration in trying to decipher CW signals, that are many dB 
below the noise.

Therein is my need for some advice and suggestions based on 
experience.  I would expect that in this case that in "the ear" 
devices might be appropriate as the muffed earphones could not be 
satisfactorily used, with "behind the ear" types.
Maybe the best approach, in this case, would be to remove the hearing 
aids and attempt to duplicate the hearing aids' response with the RX 
EQ adjustments in the K3, and maybe also with an additional response 
adjustment with an external MFJ  616 Speech Enhancer ?

One disadvantage with the "behind the ear" types, is that they tend 
to interfere with the wearing of sun and reading glasses, also they 
are more likely to fall off when engaged in certain recreational 
activities, that I'm still quite involved in, such as downhill skiing 
and dirt bike and ATV riding when wearing a helmet.  Since wearing of 
a helmet has built in audio attenuation, the safest approach is 
probably not to wear the "aids" during those activities.

There some neat options that now exist, especially for behind the ear 
units.  These are such things as wireless remote controls that are 
Bluetooth and TV adaptable, and an option for rechargeable 
batteries.  You drop the aids into a magnetic coupled charging 
fixture/box every night.  You now have a permanent place to store and 
dry them, where you know where to find them the next day !

At this time I don't think I can afford ones with all the bells and 
whistles and would like to stay in the 2k to 3k dollar range/pr, 
including the remote unit.

So please sound off with your recommendations and thoughts.

Thanks es 73,

Chuck,  W7CS