"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Phil Allison
scribeth thus

"Serge Auckland"

I volunteer at our local Hospital Radio station, and we've just been
given
a license as a Community Station. We've had an old very cheap VHF radio
mic
which has worked sort of Ok for us in the past, but that's now become
unreliable and the audio quality was never great so I'd like to replace
it.

I've seen radio mics at £50, even Sennheisers at about £100 and others
at
around £400 for a single handheld transmitter. I can't tell from the
specs
what the differences are, and I have little experience of speccing radio
mics, as it was something that I very rarely got involved with
professionally.

Can anyone here advise me what the differences are between cheap mics
and
expensive mics, and recommend any favourites. Is it sound quality,
range,
reliability or what? I don't have a budget in mind, but even as a
Community Station, we have limited funds, so a £100 would be better than
a
£400 one if the cheaper one will do the job. Sadly being based in rural
Suffolk, there aren't any dealers round here I could go and talk to, but
anyway, what dealer would actually give me impartial advice?


** OK - the very cheapest radio mic systems operate in the VHF band,
have
only one fixed frequency and are flimsy in construction with a mediocre to
poor sound quality.

The ones to go for these days operate in the UHF band, have several
switchable frequencies, are of much sturdier in construction and have an
essential feature called " true diversity " built into the receiver.
Without
this feature, a radio mic systems suffers from severe signal "drop outs"
as
you move the mic around a room.

It is also a good idea to go for one of the major brand names, like Shure
or
Sennheiser.

Have a look at the Sennheiser " Freeport " system - has all the
features
I mentioned and is still inexpensive at around 130 UK pounds.



...... Phil




Trantrec are UK based and offer high performance at a reasonable price
find them in the Canford catalogue...
--
Tony Sayer

Thanks to all for the comments. I did look at the Sennheiser Freeport
system, as you say, Phil, they're pretty inexpensive, but as Sennheiser also
do the G2 system at betwen £400 and £500 depending on microphone, I wondered
what the differences would be. As bit of further information, our use of a
radio mic is for Outside Broadcasts at Country Fairs and the like where we
send off a Presenter into the crowd and do inpromptue interviews, so
crowding isn't a real problem for us, range is more important, I'd need
about 100 metres as that's as much as the wireless headphones give us.

I'll look up Trantec as well.

S.

www.radiowestsuffolk.co.uk

On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:02:20 +0100, "Serge Auckland"
wrote:


"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Phil Allison
scribeth thus

"Serge Auckland"

I volunteer at our local Hospital Radio station, and we've just been
given
a license as a Community Station. We've had an old very cheap VHF radio
mic
which has worked sort of Ok for us in the past, but that's now become
unreliable and the audio quality was never great so I'd like to replace
it.

I've seen radio mics at £50, even Sennheisers at about £100 and others
at
around £400 for a single handheld transmitter. I can't tell from the
specs
what the differences are, and I have little experience of speccing radio
mics, as it was something that I very rarely got involved with
professionally.

Can anyone here advise me what the differences are between cheap mics
and
expensive mics, and recommend any favourites. Is it sound quality,
range,
reliability or what? I don't have a budget in mind, but even as a
Community Station, we have limited funds, so a £100 would be better than
a
£400 one if the cheaper one will do the job. Sadly being based in rural
Suffolk, there aren't any dealers round here I could go and talk to, but
anyway, what dealer would actually give me impartial advice?


** OK - the very cheapest radio mic systems operate in the VHF band,
have
only one fixed frequency and are flimsy in construction with a mediocre to
poor sound quality.

The ones to go for these days operate in the UHF band, have several
switchable frequencies, are of much sturdier in construction and have an
essential feature called " true diversity " built into the receiver.
Without
this feature, a radio mic systems suffers from severe signal "drop outs"
as
you move the mic around a room.

It is also a good idea to go for one of the major brand names, like Shure
or
Sennheiser.

Have a look at the Sennheiser " Freeport " system - has all the
features
I mentioned and is still inexpensive at around 130 UK pounds.



...... Phil




Trantrec are UK based and offer high performance at a reasonable price
find them in the Canford catalogue...
--
Tony Sayer

Thanks to all for the comments. I did look at the Sennheiser Freeport
system, as you say, Phil, they're pretty inexpensive, but as Sennheiser also
do the G2 system at betwen £400 and £500 depending on microphone, I wondered
what the differences would be. As bit of further information, our use of a
radio mic is for Outside Broadcasts at Country Fairs and the like where we
send off a Presenter into the crowd and do inpromptue interviews, so
crowding isn't a real problem for us, range is more important, I'd need
about 100 metres as that's as much as the wireless headphones give us.

I'll look up Trantec as well.

S.

www.radiowestsuffolk.co.uk

If you need range, go for a mic with a separate RF pack, not one built
in. Also make sure the receiver has antenna diversity, as this will
rescue you from a lot of fading problems. Unfortunately this probably
means you won't be looking at the very bottom of anybody's range.

d

In article 4a52d642.1485793703@localhost,
Don Pearce wrote:
If you need range, go for a mic with a separate RF pack, not one built
in.

Only it it's not body worn. The body packs are allowed a higher ERP than
hand held ones - because the body soaks up RF. Some more than others.

--
*Money isn't everything, but it sure keeps the kids in touch.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:34:00 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article 4a52d642.1485793703@localhost,
Don Pearce wrote:
If you need range, go for a mic with a separate RF pack, not one built
in.

Only it it's not body worn. The body packs are allowed a higher ERP than
hand held ones - because the body soaks up RF. Some more than others.

True, you do need to pin it on your hat.

d

In article 4a5d1e5a.1504249890@localhost,
Don Pearce wrote:
On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:34:00 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article 4a52d642.1485793703@localhost,
Don Pearce wrote:
If you need range, go for a mic with a separate RF pack, not one built
in.

Only it it's not body worn. The body packs are allowed a higher ERP than
hand held ones - because the body soaks up RF. Some more than others.

True, you do need to pin it on your hat.

Yup. Or if you want the maximum range fit it to a pole of some sort to get
the advantage of ground plane.

In VHF days I remember using a mag mount transmission aerial on a car with
an ordinary body pack - and a four element Yagi as one receive aerial.
All last minute stuff. Using Microns. And got an estimated 1 mile range.
Just as well because we were running out of time. ;-)

I dunno what they do these days, but you could cover a (horse) racecourt
grandstand (using VHF) for presenters with a 4 element Yagi and and omni
mounted high for line of sight. At 10Mw output from the hand mics.

--
*Sticks and stones may break my bones but whips and chains excite me*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:05:21 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article 4a5d1e5a.1504249890@localhost,
Don Pearce wrote:
On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:34:00 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article 4a52d642.1485793703@localhost,
Don Pearce wrote:
If you need range, go for a mic with a separate RF pack, not one built
in.

Only it it's not body worn. The body packs are allowed a higher ERP than
hand held ones - because the body soaks up RF. Some more than others.

True, you do need to pin it on your hat.

Yup. Or if you want the maximum range fit it to a pole of some sort to get
the advantage of ground plane.

In VHF days I remember using a mag mount transmission aerial on a car with
an ordinary body pack - and a four element Yagi as one receive aerial.
All last minute stuff. Using Microns. And got an estimated 1 mile range.
Just as well because we were running out of time. ;-)

I dunno what they do these days, but you could cover a (horse) racecourt
grandstand (using VHF) for presenters with a 4 element Yagi and and omni
mounted high for line of sight. At 10Mw output from the hand mics.

The shoulder held TV cameras they run up and down the touch line with
at footy matches use a 13GHz link back to the control room. The camera
has an omni antenna, and high up above the stand is a chap with a
handheld directional antenna that he keeps trained on the cameraman.
What a job...

d

In article 4a5f2ca2.1507905734@localhost,
Don Pearce wrote:
In VHF days I remember using a mag mount transmission aerial on a car with
an ordinary body pack - and a four element Yagi as one receive aerial.
All last minute stuff. Using Microns. And got an estimated 1 mile range.
Just as well because we were running out of time. ;-)

I dunno what they do these days, but you could cover a (horse) racecourt
grandstand (using VHF) for presenters with a 4 element Yagi and and omni
mounted high for line of sight. At 10Mw output from the hand mics.

The shoulder held TV cameras they run up and down the touch line with
at footy matches use a 13GHz link back to the control room. The camera
has an omni antenna, and high up above the stand is a chap with a
handheld directional antenna that he keeps trained on the cameraman.
What a job...

Indeed. But there's no way production would pay for that for 'mere' sound.
;-(

Although years ago we did used a panned parabola mic at cup finals, etc.

--
*Fax is stronger than fiction *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Serge Auckland"

Thanks to all for the comments. I did look at the Sennheiser Freeport
system, as you say, Phil, they're pretty inexpensive, but as Sennheiser
also do the G2 system at betwen £400 and £500 depending on microphone, I
wondered what the differences would be.


** Basically - just lots of extra technical features YOU do not need.

Read the specs - its all there.




..... Phil

In article , Serge Auckland
scribeth thus

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Phil Allison
scribeth thus

"Serge Auckland"

I volunteer at our local Hospital Radio station, and we've just been
given
a license as a Community Station. We've had an old very cheap VHF radio
mic
which has worked sort of Ok for us in the past, but that's now become
unreliable and the audio quality was never great so I'd like to replace
it.

I've seen radio mics at £50, even Sennheisers at about £100 and others
at
around £400 for a single handheld transmitter. I can't tell from the
specs
what the differences are, and I have little experience of speccing radio
mics, as it was something that I very rarely got involved with
professionally.

Can anyone here advise me what the differences are between cheap mics
and
expensive mics, and recommend any favourites. Is it sound quality,
range,
reliability or what? I don't have a budget in mind, but even as a
Community Station, we have limited funds, so a £100 would be better than
a
£400 one if the cheaper one will do the job. Sadly being based in rural
Suffolk, there aren't any dealers round here I could go and talk to, but
anyway, what dealer would actually give me impartial advice?


** OK - the very cheapest radio mic systems operate in the VHF band,
have
only one fixed frequency and are flimsy in construction with a mediocre to
poor sound quality.

The ones to go for these days operate in the UHF band, have several
switchable frequencies, are of much sturdier in construction and have an
essential feature called " true diversity " built into the receiver.
Without
this feature, a radio mic systems suffers from severe signal "drop outs"
as
you move the mic around a room.

It is also a good idea to go for one of the major brand names, like Shure
or
Sennheiser.

Have a look at the Sennheiser " Freeport " system - has all the
features
I mentioned and is still inexpensive at around 130 UK pounds.



...... Phil




Trantrec are UK based and offer high performance at a reasonable price
find them in the Canford catalogue...
--
Tony Sayer

Thanks to all for the comments. I did look at the Sennheiser Freeport
system, as you say, Phil, they're pretty inexpensive, but as Sennheiser also
do the G2 system at betwen £400 and £500 depending on microphone, I wondered
what the differences would be. As bit of further information, our use of a
radio mic is for Outside Broadcasts at Country Fairs and the like where we
send off a Presenter into the crowd and do inpromptue interviews, so
crowding isn't a real problem for us, range is more important, I'd need
about 100 metres as that's as much as the wireless headphones give us.

I'll look up Trantec as well.


If your looking at that sort of range in the open air and that you'd be
best of with something a bit more powerful that prolly isn't going to be
a licence exempt one. And of course a decent aerial up a bit off the
ground makes -all- the difference

BTW if your sending them out into the crowd why not just equip them with
a decent recorder and bring it back on that unless your really intending
to do live OB's .. which are bloody hard work for a small station..


S.

www.radiowestsuffolk.co.uk


--
Tony Sayer

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Serge Auckland
scribeth thus

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Phil Allison
scribeth thus

"Serge Auckland"

I volunteer at our local Hospital Radio station, and we've just been
given
a license as a Community Station. We've had an old very cheap VHF radio
mic
which has worked sort of Ok for us in the past, but that's now become
unreliable and the audio quality was never great so I'd like to replace
it.

I've seen radio mics at £50, even Sennheisers at about £100 and others
at
around £400 for a single handheld transmitter. I can't tell from the
specs
what the differences are, and I have little experience of speccing
radio
mics, as it was something that I very rarely got involved with
professionally.

Can anyone here advise me what the differences are between cheap mics
and
expensive mics, and recommend any favourites. Is it sound quality,
range,
reliability or what? I don't have a budget in mind, but even as a
Community Station, we have limited funds, so a £100 would be better
than
a
£400 one if the cheaper one will do the job. Sadly being based in
rural
Suffolk, there aren't any dealers round here I could go and talk to,
but
anyway, what dealer would actually give me impartial advice?


** OK - the very cheapest radio mic systems operate in the VHF band,
have
only one fixed frequency and are flimsy in construction with a mediocre
to
poor sound quality.

The ones to go for these days operate in the UHF band, have several
switchable frequencies, are of much sturdier in construction and have an
essential feature called " true diversity " built into the receiver.
Without
this feature, a radio mic systems suffers from severe signal "drop outs"
as
you move the mic around a room.

It is also a good idea to go for one of the major brand names, like
Shure
or
Sennheiser.

Have a look at the Sennheiser " Freeport " system - has all the
features
I mentioned and is still inexpensive at around 130 UK pounds.



...... Phil




Trantrec are UK based and offer high performance at a reasonable price
find them in the Canford catalogue...
--
Tony Sayer

Thanks to all for the comments. I did look at the Sennheiser Freeport
system, as you say, Phil, they're pretty inexpensive, but as Sennheiser
also
do the G2 system at betwen £400 and £500 depending on microphone, I
wondered
what the differences would be. As bit of further information, our use of
a
radio mic is for Outside Broadcasts at Country Fairs and the like where we
send off a Presenter into the crowd and do inpromptue interviews, so
crowding isn't a real problem for us, range is more important, I'd need
about 100 metres as that's as much as the wireless headphones give us.

I'll look up Trantec as well.


If your looking at that sort of range in the open air and that you'd be
best of with something a bit more powerful that prolly isn't going to be
a licence exempt one. And of course a decent aerial up a bit off the
ground makes -all- the difference

BTW if your sending them out into the crowd why not just equip them with
a decent recorder and bring it back on that unless your really intending
to do live OB's .. which are bloody hard work for a small station..


S.

www.radiowestsuffolk.co.uk


--
Tony Sayer


All our OBs are really live. It's part of our profile of getting out into
our Community. In effects what we do is to try and run as close as we can to
our normal programming schedule, but do it from a playing field, or as in
last weekend, from Rougham airfield which was a WWII US Army Airforce bomber
base just outside the town. There was the two-day Wings Wheels and Steam
Fair, with vintage aircraft flying, vintage cars and military vehicles and
steam traction engines. Yes, it's bloody hard work but good fun.

I hadn't tried raising the antenna, I'll try that this weekend, - we've got
two more OBs, and see what difference it makes.

S.
--
http://audiopages.googlepages.com