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Thread: Getting More Volume from a Handheld Radio

  1. #11
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Heffelfinger View Post
    Ron et all.... I was dealing with the same issue the other day - of having a limited volume on a head set/portable - this time for marshaling. So I searched the feeds and ran into your multiple articles.
    SO, I ordered the headset and replacement speakers but the wiring looks a bit different now - I thought I would add the photos here for comparison.
    There is a 3.5 mm jack on the right ear cup as well.
    Wow, that is a bit weird (or maybe wired). Didn't see all the circuit boards in my Rugged Radios headset, but I didn't dig into it very far, either.

    Despite the complexity, it's just the speakers that need swapping. Disconnect the wires to the 300-ohm speakers, solder them to the 8-ohm models.

    However, gotta ask...it's not an ANL unit, is it? Not sure what a speaker switch would do to an ANL unit...nothing good, I'm sure.

    I now have ~10 hours on my converted Rugged Radios headset, and it's been working great. No problem at all, volume-wise.

    Ron Wanttaja

  2. #12
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    Ron, No not ANR. Same model as you and also "demo". Does yours have a volume control? 3.5mm jack for input. Not sure of levels or impedence. No owner's manual. I will look on the site. Easy solder job. Use a low wattage iron or you will fry the prints on the boards.

  3. #13
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Heffelfinger View Post
    Ron, No not ANR. Same model as you and also "demo". Does yours have a volume control? 3.5mm jack for input. Not sure of levels or impedence. No owner's manual. I will look on the site. Easy solder job. Use a low wattage iron or you will fry the prints on the boards.
    I don't have it here, but I believe mine has a volume control.

    Personally, I wouldn't bother with the boards. Cut the speaker wires and splice in the new speakers.

    Ron Wanttaja

  4. #14
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    Actually Ron , I just easily unsoldered the 300 ohms and soldered the 8s at the PC boards. - 10 Minutes including letting the station come up to temp and clearing away a spot on the bench. Added an additional sound absorbing layer on the inside of the cups as I put it back together. All good.
    Jim
    BTW : Thanks for all the great work you do for EAA and us.
    Last edited by Jim Heffelfinger; 05-22-2017 at 01:06 PM.

  5. #15
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    BTW - BTW - I am having a dickens of a time putting on the gel cup seals. I even had the Rugged guys send me a photo tutorial. Still having a hard time......

  6. #16
    DaleB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Heffelfinger View Post
    10 Minutes including letting the station come up to temp and clearing away a spot on the bench.
    Man, I can tell you're not in my workshop. 10 minutes wouldn't even get you down through enough layers to see the top of the bench. I've forgotten what color it is.
    Measure twice, cut once...
    scratch head, shrug, shim to fit.

    Flying an RV-12. I am building a Fisher Celebrity, slowly.

  7. #17
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Heffelfinger View Post
    BTW - BTW - I am having a dickens of a time putting on the gel cup seals. I even had the Rugged guys send me a photo tutorial. Still having a hard time......
    I had a hard time, too...took persistence and a lot of Finnish swear words. I think I got one short bit started, then pinned it in place with my thumb and used a skinny screwdriver to encourage the rest of it.

    Ron Wanttaja

  8. #18
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rwanttaja View Post
    I had a hard time, too...took persistence and a lot of Finnish swear words. I think I got one short bit started, then pinned it in place with my thumb and used a skinny screwdriver to encourage the rest of it.
    BTW, it occurred to me too late, but...try heat. Use a hair dryer to heat up the cub seal before trying to put it on.

    Ron Wanttaja

  9. #19
    Jim Heffelfinger's Avatar
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    RE ear cup seals - I set them out in the sun for 30 minutes - in-sun temps reading 114 today. ( 99 in the shade) I was able to get them on but it was quite a trial. Not for the weak of hand. After all that I was not able to get the 3.5mm input to the speakers. Just nothing coming out. So...... I pulled it all apart looking for a fractured wire or something. Head set worked other than that. At first I was annoyed as the volume was actually weaker than the volume in the regular headset going through the same radio - comparison test - until I realized the on headset volume was turned way down. Pheuw. Have to call tech at Rugged to figure out why I do not have the aux input feature. Apparently they do not have a schematic diagram at hand for the headset. I may have to make one from wire tracing.
    FWIW - the speakers are in parallel so I am getting a 4 ohm resistance reading at the plug.

  10. #20
    Sam Buchanan's Avatar
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    Headset volume has been a problem in my very windy and noisy Fokker D.VII replica. I use a Yuasa handheld and Lightspeed QFR ANR headset but still have problems hearing some radio transmissions.

    Until today. Following Ron's suggestions, I ordered the 42TL004 miniature audio matching transformer from Mouser and wired it onto the headset adapter. Wow...lots more volume! I was a little concerned about proper matching because the transformer input is 10 ohm and the radio specs say audio is fed to a 16 ohm speaker. But it seems to work fine and I hope there are no long-term issues with the small mis-match.

    Highly recommended mod and much appreciated!
    Last edited by Sam Buchanan; 05-27-2017 at 05:42 AM.
    Sam Buchanan
    The RV Journal RV-6 build log
    Fokker D.VII semi-replica build log

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