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Reviews For: Heil HM-i for Icom

Category: Microphones for ham radio

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Review Summary For : Heil HM-i for Icom
Reviews: 38MSRP: 96 (Street)
Description:
Studio Condensor Microphone for Icom Radios.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.heilsound.com/HMinew.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00384.4
W7RTY Rating: 2001-06-28
Great Mic Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have received nothing but great comments on the sound quality of this mic. I highly recommend this mic. It works great on my IC-718. Thank you Heil for your quility of workmanship.
N0TRK Rating: 2001-06-27
Worth the money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This mic netted us nothing but great audio reports, most unsolicited and during field day. Not just "great signal" but "wow, you sound great!" We use the mic on a 746 Icom. It looks great and for the price it is hard to beat.
AL1F Rating: 2001-05-08
Heil-i Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've used the Heil-i for two months. All reports I get are that I have excellent audio quality. Well worth the money.
N4QT Rating: 2001-05-08
Super mike! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I agree with my friend PA5KM. We ran some audio checks recently. We both run Icom rigs with the HM-i mike. These two rigs now have audio as good as any Kenwood audio. I run the 775 and PA5KM runs the 756PRO. Thanks to Bob Heil for taking the time to develop this cost effective mike for Icom rigs. Long needed. My stock Icom mikes will be available for sale at the next hamfest I attend!
PA5KM Rating: 2001-05-08
excellent mic ! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I use this new one with the IC-756PRO.
I received several comments on the good audio.
Recently had a QSO on 20 metres with Hal, N4QT, who uses this HM-i with a 775DSP and compared the different settings, narrow and wide.
The difference was amazing. In the wide position the audio sounds super !
One strange thing :
In narrow mode you would expect a sharp audio that cuts through pile-ups but the audio sounds very poor in this mode... I wonder what this "narrow" is for then ?

Build quality is very good and for this kind of money ( I paid $ 79.95 ) it is the best mic for your Icom. ( but leave the switch in "wide" ! ).


73
Coen, PA5KM

KC8YQ Rating: 2001-03-13
Perfect Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently bought this mike to replace a Shure 444D on my Icom IC-765.I have not received a bad audio report and have been told by a station I work daily that my audio is the best he has heard it.I bought the proper cable and hand held PTT switch and mounted it on the shelf above my radio with a 13 inch goose neck and flange bought from radio shack for less then $15.00,which if you have priced the various booms from Heil you know this is an incredible savings.The whole setup ran about $170 compared to over $300 if you bought all of the items for the install from Bob Heil.
W0NZV Rating: 2001-02-28
Great Mic! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Truly outstanding performer on Icom rigs. Long needed. Audio qualities of this mic were consistently preferred over the Goldline, in on-air reports on the _wide_ setting. Crisp, punchy output on the _narrow_ setting. Definitely recommend this one.
K3XT Rating: 2001-02-23
Good Microphone Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The HM-i Heil studio type microphone is made only for the Icom radio line. Excellent fit and finish with dark gray/silver colors. On the mic is a PTT button and a Narrow/Wide switch. The mic has high output and you will run the mic gain in the 10 to 12 o?clock range. The audio output is not as good as Heil's Goldline model. This HM-i mic does not have the upper end articulation compared to the Goldline mic. Using FM mode the lack of high-end audio content is very apparent, even with the microphone's Wide setting. Selecting the Narrow range on the mic produces an unexpected result. Rather than cutting off the lows (as I would have expected) this switch setting cuts out even more highs and leaves you with very bassy mushy sounding audio. Without exception, on air comments favored the Goldline mic over the HM-i. In SSB mode the HM-i is better sounding than the Icom SM-8 microphone (smoother rounded sound in comparison). Make sure you put the black foam bootie over the mic or you will get excessive popping/puffing noises. Radios used were the Icom 756Pro and the Icom 746. The tone controls in the Icom radios were set for optimum audio quality for each microphone in the tests. HM-i -- not what I expected.