Fear of the Mic Gain!!!

[Hawkeye351]

Yes, as the title states, there is a fear of turning down that Mic Gain. For some it's as though they think it will bite them or something.

What I'm getting at is, in my local area many operators have learned how to adjust their mic gain and power mics to sound great. But then there are those that think I want to hear their air conditioner over my air conditioner. When your mic gain is cranked all the way up, you sound like crap, regardless of what that watt meter or your uneducated friends say, obviously your friends don't know any more than you do on distortion, harmonics, splatter, waveforms and such.

We have a couple in our area that feel the need to run "Balls to the wall" and then they wonder why we can't understand them or they can't get out as far as us.

Clean is better...
Trust me, that mic gain won't bite you...so turn it down.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Gain as low as it can be, close talk the microphone, and do not mumble. That is what needs to be done to maintain the best signal/noise ratio of ANY microphone. I could not care less if I can hear the other guys dog barking in the yard or his doorbell ring. In fact, when I hear that shit, I don't even call them back or if I am in a conversation at the time with them, I find an excuse to end it.

 

[Cable Guy]

Locally we are all pretty good at controlling the gain, all anyone has to say is "turn it down a hair" and it's done. I guess we are all on the same page here. Now if we could get folks to stop stressing over the meter "swing" that would be nice.

 

[Hawkeye351]

I need you guys in my area to explain it better to a few locals around here, we've tried, lol...

This past weekend (Friday night) we had one of those "Fear the mic gain" guys on channel 40. He sounded muffled, yelling in the mic, yuk.... I got tired of hearing everyone else telling him to turn it down, but he always came up with an excuse or something else to try, OTHER THAN TURNING IT DOWN like we were telling him. I finally told him not to be scared of touching that mic gain knob and that it's not gonna bite him. Then I cranked my mic gain and mic wide open and started talking to him his way, hahaha, turned it around on him and then he got the picture, until 2 days later, lol.... Balls to the wall...

And yes, that watt meter nonsense drives me nuts, it's just an observation tool. People complain cause they can't see the 50w as advertised, when it's normally advertised in PEP watts, not peak watts like most operators use.

I'm glad most around here have learned and still listen, but then there's the hardheads.

 

[dave457]

You need a scope to properly adjust the mic gain... Anything else is just guessing

 

[Crawdad]

Now if we could get folks to stop stressing over the meter "swing" that would be nice.

I wish you luck with that one............

 

[nomadradio]

Bad old days of amplified D104 mikes:

"Turn down the mike. Or close the window so the crickets in the neighbors' lawn aren't so loud."

73

 

[M0GVZ]

You need a scope to properly adjust the mic gain... Anything else is just guessing

You can do it without that as long as you've a power meter. Get a tone generator app on your phone, set it to chuck out a 1kHz tone at your normal voice speaking level. Wind down the mic gain, put the phone generating the tone the normal distance from your mouth the mic is, key up the radio, increase the mic gain until the power meter shows the maximum power the radio is set to put out. Job done.

 

[Hawkeye351]

That's how I always tell them to set the mic gain. I tell them to do it with their meter in avg or rms mode. Once you get it set at the right spot then the avg/RMS swing will start to drop back if you go too much on mic gain.

Example:
1. Place meter in avg/RMS mode.
2. Place radio in AM mode.
3. Turn mic gain all way down.
4. Key up radio.
5. Use a 1k tone in mic or a steady "auuuu" in the mic.
6. Slowly turn up mic gain.
7. You'll notice the swing will climb and then start to drop off. Once it starts to drop off, back it up just a hair.

Sound like the same procedure you tell them?

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

The best way to listen to your transmit audio is to use a second radio with no antenna and headphones. Slowly turn the mic gain up while talking in a normal voice. When the sound changes or starts to become raspy, turn it back down. You can set your modulation this way too. I have watched it on a scope, there is one small spot where it is starting to change on the scope, but still sounds great.

When I get a new radio, I run it through my microphone collection using this method. I also do a quick check every time I power up, just to make sure nothing changed.

 

[loosecannon]

the mic gain control on a CB radio is not actually a gain control at all.

It's an attenuator.

Mic gain set at max is zero, and you can go down from there.

All radios get aligned with the mic gain at max, so if someone has a radio that sounds like crap with the mic gain turned up, they have most likely modded their radio in a bad way.

now, the mic gain control on a power mic is actually an active gain control, and this is where people need to start at zero and only turn the control up enough to fully modulate the radio.

I tell people there is no need for a power mic if their radio is set up properly, but some have favorite mics and want to use them.
I have those people include the mic with the radio when i work on them.

that way i can set the radio up so that they can run their mic gain all the way up and just use the control on the mic.

the people that just can't stand not having everything turned up to 11 are beyond help and people need to start ignoring them or telling them that they can't be understood.
LC