Bose QuietComfort Mike Mod
Turning Bose QuietComfort 25 into a headset – ICOM IC-7300!
I am more than 20 Years into SSB Contesting and I always used a Heil Headset ever since. After my last trip CQ WPX SSB in march 2023 I decided I need to look for a new headset! Maybe its just me getting older, but for some reason it felt really unconfortable wearing the Heil Pro Elite on my ears for two times 15+ hours in a contest. My ears did realy hurt after the contest!
Outside the SSB contest I am using a Bose QuietComfort for Music, noise canceling on planes and CW contesting. The Bose is much lighter and as the name suggests – it feels very confortable on the head!
After some research and a tip from other operators I found the Antlion Mod mic on Amazon.
Disclaimer: I am not making any money on this – its just my private experience!
So I bought the mike from Amazon and used the supplied magnetic holder to snap it to the Bose – done!
I am using an ICOM IC-7300 in Madeira and IC-7610 at home. On both radios the outcome was identical:
- Gain: The microphone has a very high gain, so you have to turn mike gain down!
- Equalizer: I had to add high tones and reduce bass, but this may vary on your own voice.
- For non contest you might want to keep more bass.
- I like the RX sound of the Bose!
Upside: I really liked the sound and the wearing confort was improved by 300% at least!
Downside: The microphone is very sensitive – touching and adjusting the headset creates microphone noise and turns on VOX!
VOX: Yes I use VOX all the time in a SSB contest! I made more than 5100 QSOs that is a minimum of 11.000 TX cycles – have you ever tried to push a bulky footswitch 11.000 times? Than you propably use vox too. 🙂
Here is a short clip me CQ’ing on an empty band late in the contest recorded by Louis at D4C.
Overall I am happy with this solution and I will use it for the next couple of years – hoping it is as rugged and unbreakable as the Heil Headset I used for over 20 Years!
The mike lives in a small case and gets attached for sideband contest only.
OK, you have to live the the nedyne magnet on the Bode now.
Yaesu bietet auf der Mikrobuchse (front 8 -polig) an Pin 2 meist eine 5-8 V dc Spannung an. Diese habe ich ueber einen 2 kΩ Widerstand auf das Antlion Mic gelegt und von dort wieder auf den Mikrofon-Eingang des Yaesu. Eine weitere Beschaltung mit C’s etc. ist nicht notwendig. (Aus dem BCC Reflektor – ohne Gewähr)
73
Helmut DF7EE
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