I recently bought a new set of headphones, to replace my old Heil headset.

I met Dave Bottom WI6R of Arlan Communications at Visalia 2011, and he introduced me to his fantastic headsets, a by-product of his motorsport business and repurposed for ham radio. These are wonderful headsets with comfortable gel pads and great build quality. I would like to recommend you visit Dave’s site if you’d like more details.

I decided to tune my headset up for use with my Elecraft K3 on SSB this evening. One of the changes I needed to accommodate is that the unit I purchased has an electret microphone element, and needs bias. Also, there are one or two changes that I wanted to make including using the rear panel to plug in the headphones. As usual, the K3 has a setting for everything, but on this occasion I needed to consult the user guide to work out how it is done.

It’s very important to get the bias on the mic right, otherwise the audio and compressor together produce a nasty mush, so I made a quick video to explain how to do it in case you’d like a quick walk through.

K3 Electret microphone element video (MOV file – 2.4MB)

Don’t forget that if you hold in the ‘Mode ^’ button (orange text “Test”) then you can listen to yourself on the monitor without outputing RF. This is essential whenever you’re trying out new microphone settings for obvious reasons!

A full review of the Radiosport Headset RS60 will be posted here soon. See you on the bands…

73
Michael G7VJR