[Elecraft] Microphone

[Jim Brown]

On Thu,10/13/2016 1:18 PM, Michael Wong wrote:
> I’m still more of an audio professional than an accomplished ham, so I’ll ask while the thread is hot - why does ham gear use non-standard interconnects? Why don't Elecraft and others move to 3-pin XLR?
Two very good reasons -- panel real estate and the lack of NEED for pro 
mics.  optimum SSB bandwidth for communications is 500 Hz - 3 kHz. All 
that low end does is suck TX power with no intelligibility gain.

Virtually any ubalanced electret capsule or dynamic mic works very well 
with ham gear and sounds great. There is no need for pro mics with ham 
gear, and they cost a lot more than commonly used ham mics that sound 
quite good. All you need to run the electret is bias, which is applied 
to the mic output, about 8V through about 6K. Neither value is critical. 
This is exactly what we do for the lav capsules that are used with 
wireless mics.

> Honestly, the bottom of my mic cabinet is probably overkill for ham, but the fact I have to get (or make) a custom adapter for even my least expensive mic irks me.

I was in the same position 12 years ago when I got back on the air, and 
made a simple adapter to use an RE16 because I didn't own a ham mic. I 
continued to use it (on an AKG boom stand) until W6XU found and promoted 
the CM500.

73, Jim K9YC