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Reviews For: Heil ICM

Category: Microphones for ham radio

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Review Summary For : Heil ICM
Reviews: 85MSRP: 89.99
Description:
New high performance electret mike for ICOM older transceivers
Product is in production
More Info: http://info@heilsound.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
34.7854.6
W5CSM Rating: 2016-08-04
Great Reports, Delivers On Promises with one small annoyance. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Running the iCM on a Heil HB-1 into an IC-7410. My only complaint is that I had to de-solder and re-solder the wiring in the microphone in order to run the cable inside the channel in the HB-1 boom. What's an hour for a nice clean installation. A solid performing microphone that always delivers great reports. I would highly recommend this setup.
KB3SI Rating: 2016-07-27
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
On the advice of others, I got one for my new ICOM 7300. Works much better than the 781 I had been using on my 7600 and then my 7300.

The Icm is designed for ICOM radios which have lower gain audio boards, which is why it works so much better with my ICOM 7300.
WA4JM Rating: 2016-05-19
IC-718 with icm Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ordered mine from AES Orlando. Arrived nicely packaged. Installation was straight-forward as expected. Configured the 718 as described on the Heil site with some small tweaks. Mic gain was reduced from Max to 70%. I used no processing. When monitoring the ALC on the 718 it maintained in the 75% range with me speaking about 3 inches from the mic.Looking at my "peak hold" meter on my AT4K it was easily achieving full power. Talking to my regular rag chew guys through lightning static here in Florida on 100 watts, I had no audio issues. In fact I got compliments. Why only a 4 Rating you ask? I will re-evaluate in 6 months to see if anything has changed. Aside from that, I am pleased with my purchase.

73, me
EA4BNB Rating: 2016-05-13
Great mic Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use the ICM with an old ICOM-761 and get outstanding reports even when I don't ask. Never received so many comments on my audio. At the same time, I had to reduce the mic gain about 30-40. I worked with this 60 new countrys at 100 W and a DXetreme antenna. Highly recomend
VA7JH Rating: 2016-05-12
Never Worked Right Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought this microphone new a few years back, to help me drive an old but awesome IC-751. It barely worked better than the HM-36 hand mic and that was using a 100% mic gain setting. If I switched in the compressor, I would get no drive at all with the ICM but lots on the good old HM-36. Now that I have a newer IC-7200, I tried it on that rig, seeing that Heil recommends the ICM for that rig as well. This time, the drive is way better on the HM-36 hand mic. Maximum 20 watts out with the ICM (mic gain at 100% and the compressor at 30%).Go figure....Save your money. Heil is a 4 letter word meaning "Hype".
K6RQR Rating: 2015-11-08
Icom 718 booster Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I recently bought this Heil mike to be a replacement for the mediocre HM-36 mike that came with my Icom 718. From the first transmission when I was watching the power output reading on the meter I could tell how much better it was driving the rig. My wattmeter also showed that the average power out was visibly higher and the audio reports made me feel as if I have made the right choice.
I read on the Heil website that the iCM was a very good match for the particular mike preamp stage in the 718. That does seem to be true. The best reaction came from a fellow ham when I tested the new mike. He said - "It's a keeper!"
2E0WPZ Rating: 2015-07-07
Great mic Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was left an Icom 7200 by a friend who is now silent key.The fist mic worked OK but I was told it needed more drive. I tried my Icom SM20 and was told the same. So, I e mailed Bob Heil who told me to try the iCM. Well, results from feedback are really great. It also has a foot ptt socket.
So, I thought I`d try it on my 756mk1 and great reports again and even on my 7100 the reports are good. Solved my problems on three radios so I`m happy so far. I did read some reviews who mentioned that the element was cheap to buy and that`s OK if you really know what you are doing and of course you need a decent mic body to start with and the iCM has a lovely feel and finish. Time will tell but it`s always nice to spend your hard earned cash and things work out.
AD4C2006 Rating: 2015-06-09
Great mic Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Its well done electret mic units give a smooth high gain well balanced audio from a very low roll-off freqs up to over 10K and this ICM is not an exception.
This is the third I own, have the tendency to give them away to friends who visit me and love it when see it working.
My only radio at the shack is Eecraft K3 and so far its the best audio I have had with other different mics, the rolloff after been EQ'ed start on 60 Hz and ends at around 4000 Hz becauae the K3, limited to 4Khz BW.
The audio gain is so low that I have to use the low gain setting in the K3. Luckly the pin 1 audio out and pin 7 mic ground are identical in Icom and K3 so I did not have to do any change in the 8 pins mic connector.
Its a great mic that works fine with the Elecraft K3 for less than hundred bucks.

W2DI Rating: 2015-04-07
Great Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I use the ICM with an ICOM-718 and get outstanding reports even when I don't ask. The output of the mic is more than sufficient to set the mic gain around 50, without the processor on.
I have an external PTT switch built into a small utility box and fixed to the bench, with both a momentary switch and a regular SPDT rocker switch (for long winded talk). So I do not use the 'soft feel' PTT on the mic, although I tried it a couple times.
It's a super sounding mic and looks good too.
Thanks for reading. Joe.
LA8KHA Rating: 2014-10-03
Very pleased Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This mic.is superb to Icom IC-775DSP.Period.