Cheap Microphones

[KC8VWM]

I call it my DX drill... Has two settings.. I can communicate forward or in reverse.

[NL7W]

Hey... a new form or inversion scrambling!

I call it my DX drill... Has two settings.. I can communicate forward or in reverse.

[KC8VWM]

Hey... a new form or inversion scrambling!

Yep.., I am pretty handy making things work around the shack...

Guess I better get back to fixing my amplifier tubes... See ya later Steve, way up there in Alaska.

[G4LNA]

This one only cost me $9.95

Testing...Testing...

Now, see what happens when you pay by Western Union

[WB2WIK]

And no mike can make Don Knotts (Barny Fife) sound like Arson Wells.

Arson was Orson's little brother, known for starting fires. He had a problem.

[K1FBI]

Arson was Orson's little brother, known for starting fires. He had a problem.

Ahhh, you caught that too. See post #15.

[KI6USW]

A cheap mic is just that. They don't have the sensitivity, the response, the output, the build quality, or consistency of a decent mic. Don't waste you time not money unless it is just a passing experiment.

A decent mic will last for years and deliver predictably.

[WB2WIK]

A cheap mic is just that. They don't have the sensitivity, the response, the output, the build quality, or consistency of a decent mic. Don't waste you time not money unless it is just a passing experiment.

A decent mic will last for years and deliver predictably.

Hams are cheap, which is a good reason. And we are experimenters, which is another good reason.

You never really know what might work well 'til you try it.

However, on the air I hear so much terrible modulation -- and most of it isn't the microphone's fault, it's the operator's -- it's almost unbelievable.

I have a simple revenge to that, as I simply don't answer them. But they get answers anyway. It's only a hobby.

[KA9UCN]

After nearly 30 years I have tried a lot of mikes and with cheep mikes it is luck of the draw.

The odds improve of getting a good one as the cost goes up. In my situation with my children and now grand children I find it best to use a hand mike. For years it was an old radio shack hand mike. It worked well. It was around 35 years old and recently lost audio quality.
It was the stand by that almost always went back in service when higher cost mikes did not work out. I am now using a $20 MFJ mike that I would not have thought worth even the $20 but after asking repeatedly and expecting the worst. All the audio reports were good. I bought it from a fellow ham when the old radio shack mike called it a day just before field day and I was desperate. It looks like I got lucky but I would not expect consistent results from $20 mikes.

Only advice to a new ham would be if you have used older ones would be to try several and find one you like.

If you are buying new don’t buy the cheapest but don’t spend the retirement unless you just want a trophy to talk about rather than talk on.

Joe

[KY5U]

Arson was Orson's little brother, known for starting fires. He had a problem.

Exactly.His brother's success just burned him up.