SSB Microphone Question

[Jeff Hetherington-2]

Hello Everybody.  (Sorry if this is a duplicate, I got error messages)

After putting K2 #3375 on the air back in January I have been having too
much fun to take it to the workbench and finish the rest of the option
kits.  This time has now come ... and K2 #3375 has been moved across the
room to the workbench.

Before I dig in too far, and while it was open, I hope I can solicit
some advice on SSB and microphone selection.  I have the SSB board
already installed and working.  I have had QSOs with the K2 on SSB both
domestically and DX, but something always seemed a bit amiss.  When I
recently repaired the finals on my FT817, I was able to do side by side
tests.  On CW I choose the K2 everytime for receive and transmit.  On
SSB while I would take the K2 for receive, I work stations giving me
solid reports with the FT817 that can not hear me at all, or can only
barely pull out one letter of my callsign with the K2.  Seems to me that
I don't have something optimized properly yet.  I have all of the most
recent SSB upgrades installed.

I am running the K2 with a Heil HC4/HC5 element in a dual element Heil
HM10 mic.  I was thinking of trying a preamp while I had the rig on the
bench, but am I moving in the right direction or is there something else
I should be focusing on as to the optimization of my SSB signal.

Thanks as always.
73/72
 Jeff - VA3JFF
 Canadian QRP Award http://www3.symaptico.ca/wjhetherington/cqa.htm

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[Ron D'Eau Claire-2]

Jeff, VA3JFF wrote:

I hope I can solicit some advice on SSB and microphone selection.  I have
the SSB board already installed and working.  I have had QSOs with the K2 on
SSB both domestically and DX, but something always seemed a bit amiss.  When
I recently repaired the finals on my FT817, I was able to do side by side
tests.  On CW I choose the K2 everytime for receive and transmit.  On SSB
while I would take the K2 for receive, I work stations giving me solid
reports with the FT817 that can not hear me at all, or can only barely pull
out one letter of my callsign with the K2.  Seems to me that I don't have
something optimized properly yet.  I have all of the most recent SSB
upgrades installed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

Here's a few things you can check Jeff:

1 - Mic bias. If you're using an electret mic that requires an external d-c
voltage supply, make sure it's getting the proper bias voltage from the rig.


2- Audio Level. It's easy to check to see if you're getting full output on
SSB. First switch the bargraph from RF output indication to ALC by
pressing/holding the DISPLAY - RF/ALC button. The LCD will say ALC briefly
to indicate you're now in ALC monitor mode. Key the mic and speak. You'll
see bars light up on the display. It reads backwards (right to left) to
remind you you're in ALC and not RF output mode now. Set your POWER output
to maximum and speak into the mic. At least one bar on the right end should
flash. IF it does, that means you have all the audio the K2 can use. That
flashing bar means that the ALC is now turning down the gain because you are
making full RF output. If you aren't getting at least one bar, the first
thing to check is to see if you have the audio attenuator switched in at the
K2 mic input. You do that by checking the SSBA menu setting. It should be 2
or 3. Those produce full audio. SSBA 1 inserts 10 dB of attenuation for use
with amplified mics to help keep them from over-driving the K2. If you have
your mic input set for SSBA 2 or 3 and aren't getting enough audio, check
the ALC action and BFO as described below before adding a preamp. A problem
in the ALC or a bad BFO adjustment can also cause problems.

3 - Check to be sure the ALC is working properly by switching the display
back to RF (press/hold DISPLAY - RF/ALC and note that RF appears in the LCD
momentarily), keying the mic and speaking again. With the POWER set to 10
watts (K2) or 100 watts (K2/100) you should see the right hand bar flash
momentarily on voice peaks. If so, your K2 is making full output. The power
monitor is a peak-reading device. If it isn't showing full power output,
there's  something amiss in your ALC circuit that's causing it to act too
soon. Keep in mind that your voice peaks are very brief. You'll see only
flashes of full power. Be sure to set your compression (SSBC 1-1, 1-2, 1-3
or 1-4) to the level you want (1-1 no compression, 1-4 max compression)
before you check. The K2 needs more audio input for higher compression
levels.

On various bands and power settings, more or less ALC bars will flash,
depending upon how much the ALC must turn down the gain to hold the power to
the requested level. Typically the K2 has the last RF gain at 10 meters, so
there you may only see one bar flash on voice peaks at 10 watts output. On
40 meters, it's common for several bars to flash at 10 watts output. And, if
your reduce your RF POWER setting, more bars will flash as needed to hold
down the RF level to what you've requested with the POWER control.  

4 - BFO setting for FL1. FL1 is used for transmit regardless of what filter
you are using for receive. So the BFO setting for FL1 is critical for
transmit audio quality. Using Spectrogram is often not close enough for
optimum audio on transmit. A lot depends upon your voice and our mic. I
recommend listening to yourself 'on the air'. Since you have two rigs, that
shouldn't be too difficult. Just load up the K2 at very low power in to a
dummy load and listen to yourself on  the  FT. One thing I've learned is
that it often doesn't work to simply talk into the mic while listening to
your voice in the headphones. Audio transmitted from your mouth to your ears
via bone conduction will fill in a lot of spectrum that may not be being
transmitted, so what you hear may be a lot better than what you are
transmitting.

I recommend using the "listen while you speak" system to be sure the second
rig is tuned it exactly right, then recording your voice from the second
rig. If you don't have a recorder, you can usually use the sound card in
your computer and the recorder built into Windows. Then play it back and see
how clear and clean your voice sounds.

If all of the above looks fine, and you still don't get at least one ALC bar
flashing when transmitting, then an external mic preamp might be called for.


Ron AC7AC



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[Don Wilhelm-3]

Jeff,

The Heil HC4 and HC5 elements have 6 to 10 dB less output than other dynamic
mics - that doesn't make them bad, it is just a fact of life.
The other fact of life is that the K2 does not have a mic gain control
(other than SSBA parameter in the menu), and it just does not have
sufficient reserve gain to make up for the low output of the Heil HC4 and
HC5 mic elements.

You have several options:  1.) A preamp on the mic input; 2.) Increase the
value of R14 on the KSB2 board from its current value of 1k to something in
the range of 5k to 10k (several folks have had success with just this
change); or 3.) Install the KI6WX KSB2 Increased Gain Mod which adds
additional gain to the K2 in the RF section of the KSB2 board rather than
just increasing the audio.

If you will be using other mics with more output on the K2, I suggest using
the preamp solution, but if you will always use the HC4/HC5 elements, then
you may find one of the other two options meet your needs without an
external preamp box (you may be able to squeeze a preamp inside the K2 if
you are careful with construction and mounting).

73,
Don W3FPR

> -----Original Message-----
>
> I am running the K2 with a Heil HC4/HC5 element in a dual element Heil
> HM10 mic.  I was thinking of trying a preamp while I had the rig on the
> bench, but am I moving in the right direction or is there something else
> I should be focusing on as to the optimization of my SSB signal.
>
> Thanks as always.
> 73/72
>  Jeff - VA3JFF
>  Canadian QRP Award http://www3.symaptico.ca/wjhetherington/cqa.htm
>

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[Ian Maude]

On Sun, 2005-08-14 at 14:52 -0400, Jeff Hetherington VA3JFF wrote:

> I am running the K2 with a Heil HC4/HC5 element in a dual element Heil
> HM10 mic.  I was thinking of trying a preamp while I had the rig on the
> bench, but am I moving in the right direction or is there something else
> I should be focusing on as to the optimization of my SSB signal.

I run a Heil HC5 element with my K2 (#4044) and the mods I used are
simple.  I changed out the capacitors on the SSB board to give me the
2.2k mod and changed R14 on the board to 10k.  These 2 mods are all it
took to get my audio sounding great :-)

Ian
--
Ian Maude G0VGS Morecambe Lancs UK | [hidden email]
Sysop of GB7MBC, the Morecambe Bay Cluster
Running Linux and DXSpider | K2 #4044

DX and Cluster forums at http://www.gb7mbc.net/forum/

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[Geoffrey Mackenzie-Kennedy-2]

On Monday, 15th August 2005, Ian Maude G0VGS wrote:

> I run a Heil HC5 element with my K2 (#4044) and the mods I used are
> simple.  I changed out the capacitors on the SSB board to give me the
> 2.2k mod and changed R14 on the board to 10k.  These 2 mods are all it
> took to get my audio sounding great :-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Morning Ian,

Out of curiousity, what type of mic with the Heil HC5 element do you use -
desk, hand, boom? As I told Jeff  '0ff list',  I have always used the Heil
Pro-Set Plus with boom mic and HC4 / HC5 elements without any modifications
to the K2/100, nor preamp, and get the full specd. output on all bands
without shouting. Power measured in 50 +j0 calibrated load with a scope,
cross-checked with a RF voltmeter. SSbA at 3 and SSbC at 2-1 with the HC5. I
have not had to use the 'DX' HC4 yet, and most QSOs are with DX on 40m.

I wonder whether a HC5 in a boom mic has something to do with it not being
necessary to make modifications to get full power output.

73,
Geoff
GM4ESD



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[hank k8dd-2]

I use a Heil ProSet ic - it is for the Icom radios and uses an
electrotet element
and it works fine for little SSB that I operate - people tell me that I
sound like
me (unfortunately!).
With the ProSets with HC4 & HC5 elements it sounds OK - could use a bit
more audio,
I guess, but people still tell me it sounds good as it can with my voice!

72  73    Hank    K8DD



Ian J Maude wrote:

>On Sun, 2005-08-14 at 14:52 -0400, Jeff Hetherington VA3JFF wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I am running the K2 with a Heil HC4/HC5 element in a dual element Heil
>>HM10 mic.  I was thinking of trying a preamp while I had the rig on the
>>bench, but am I moving in the right direction or is there something else
>>I should be focusing on as to the optimization of my SSB signal.
>>    
>>
>
>I run a Heil HC5 element with my K2 (#4044) and the mods I used are
>simple.  I changed out the capacitors on the SSB board to give me the
>2.2k mod and changed R14 on the board to 10k.  These 2 mods are all it
>took to get my audio sounding great :-)
>
>Ian
>  
>

--
'Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.'    -anon


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[Mark J. Schreiner]

I use the Heil Proset Plus with the HC4/HC5 elements as well as the smaller BM5 (I think that is the model number, has HC5 and one earpiece, I use mostly for HF Mobile).  I changed R14 on the SSB Board from 1k to 10k and that helped it work much better, increasing the gain.  I used it for the SSB station for Field Day this year and had good reports.  

73,

Mark, NK8Q
K2 4786

>From: Hank Kohl K8DD <[hidden email]>
>Date: Mon Aug 15 09:32:54 CDT 2005
>To: Ian J Maude <[hidden email]>
>Cc: Jeff Hetherington VA3JFF <[hidden email]>,
        elecraft <[hidden email]>
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] SSB Microphone Question

>I use a Heil ProSet ic - it is for the Icom radios and uses an
>electrotet element
>and it works fine for little SSB that I operate - people tell me that I
>sound like
>me (unfortunately!).
>With the ProSets with HC4 & HC5 elements it sounds OK - could use a bit
>more audio,
>I guess, but people still tell me it sounds good as it can with my voice!
>
>72  73    Hank    K8DD
>
>
>
>Ian J Maude wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 2005-08-14 at 14:52 -0400, Jeff Hetherington VA3JFF wrote:
>>
>>  
>>
>>>I am running the K2 with a Heil HC4/HC5 element in a dual element Heil
>>>HM10 mic.  I was thinking of trying a preamp while I had the rig on the
>>>bench, but am I moving in the right direction or is there something else
>>>I should be focusing on as to the optimization of my SSB signal.
>>>    
>>>
>>
>>I run a Heil HC5 element with my K2 (#4044) and the mods I used are
>>simple.  I changed out the capacitors on the SSB board to give me the
>>2.2k mod and changed R14 on the board to 10k.  These 2 mods are all it
>>took to get my audio sounding great :-)
>>
>>Ian
>>  
>>
>
>--
>'Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.'    -anon
>
>
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