Used to wear Radio Shack PRO-40s until I got my hands on the Labtecs.
(latter having the advantage of the boom mike, so one can free both
hands for manipulating the equipment)

I have used a foot switch for years -- frees both hands for computer work
and even pencil - paper work.

Leaves one foot for QLF -- hi hi See URL:
http://users.sisna.com/mbignell/qlf.html

My hearing has rolled off and away over the years and I find the hi-fi
phones give me an edge on hearing high notes to enhance intelligence -- you
young guys (any left) probably want comm phones. My favorites are Sony
MDR-605 and RS Titaniums

"Peter Lemken" wrote in message
...

On average I've found hi-fi phones more comfortable than the
communications variety.

Agreed. And while audio quality is important, comfort is a lot more
important when you spend a couple of hours at the rig. In that respect the
Heil set and other "special" headphones are way too incomfortable and I
cannot discern any advantages over a good HiFi-set in terms of audio
reproduction.

My headphone of choice is the KOSS Porta Pro, which is a very
leightweight,
foldable and yet stable headphone with excellent sound quality for any
kind
of rig and you can wear it during a lonf contest weekend without suffering
from massive headaches. There is an extra set of rubber foam on the
headband
that reduces pressure on one's ear and makes wearing these pure pleasure.

http://www.portabledvdstore.com/kosporpropor.html

I showed these to a couple of active hams, most of them CW ragchewers and
contesters, and by now roughly 30 hams I know have bought the set and are
super happy with it. All of them know the Heil headset and report that it
is
vastly inferior in terms of comfort and audio quality.

The only letdown is the fact that you don't want to run a MM-SSB contest
;-)

Peter Lemken
DF5JT
Berlin
--
"dass wir keine sklavenarbeit mehr haben zeigt doch, dass der
Marktwirtschaft ueberhaupt kein raum zu ihrer entfaltung gelassen
wird."
-- frank paulsen in d.a.t.u

My hearing has rolled off and away over the years and I find the hi-fi
phones give me an edge on hearing high notes to enhance intelligence -- you
young guys (any left) probably want comm phones. My favorites are Sony
MDR-605 and RS Titaniums

"Peter Lemken" wrote in message
...

On average I've found hi-fi phones more comfortable than the
communications variety.

Agreed. And while audio quality is important, comfort is a lot more
important when you spend a couple of hours at the rig. In that respect the
Heil set and other "special" headphones are way too incomfortable and I
cannot discern any advantages over a good HiFi-set in terms of audio
reproduction.

My headphone of choice is the KOSS Porta Pro, which is a very
leightweight,
foldable and yet stable headphone with excellent sound quality for any
kind
of rig and you can wear it during a lonf contest weekend without suffering
from massive headaches. There is an extra set of rubber foam on the
headband
that reduces pressure on one's ear and makes wearing these pure pleasure.

http://www.portabledvdstore.com/kosporpropor.html

I showed these to a couple of active hams, most of them CW ragchewers and
contesters, and by now roughly 30 hams I know have bought the set and are
super happy with it. All of them know the Heil headset and report that it
is
vastly inferior in terms of comfort and audio quality.

The only letdown is the fact that you don't want to run a MM-SSB contest
;-)

Peter Lemken
DF5JT
Berlin
--
"dass wir keine sklavenarbeit mehr haben zeigt doch, dass der
Marktwirtschaft ueberhaupt kein raum zu ihrer entfaltung gelassen
wird."
-- frank paulsen in d.a.t.u

"Keyboard In The Wilderness" wrote in message
news:lDuZa.31783$ff.3013@fed1read01...
Well lets stir it up.

When you work an exceptionally weak DX station, do u use ESP?
Is that Extra Sensory Perception or Expected Sensory Perception ??

Expected Sensory Perception amounts to knowing what to expect for the signal
report (count em out), callsign (from packet Cluster), etc. So yes you can
work the weak ones that are a syllable at a time if the info is repeated
several times and you know more or less what to expect.

Is the best filter between your ears ??

Many think so. Some folks are blessed with this -- able to tune out the loud
mouthed Mother-In-Law. Some are pitch sensitive and easily discern between
two CW or SSB signals.

Can u really copy CW right down into the noise -- if so why??
Experienced CW ops can do this. Again the trained ears and brain

Have you ever copied SSB right down into the noise ?? If not why not ??
I really believe you can. May take several repeats, but that and ESP can do
the job.

Do you listen to DX on a Speaker. Are headphones better ??? Which ones --
Com Phones or Hi-Fi
Can not imagine working weak DX using the speaker. Com phones for young
ears, Hi-Fi -phones for the rest of us. The intelligence is primarily in the
high tones -- ala kids and YL's breaking a pileup

Do you keep the RF Gain at Max?
Or advance the audio gain, then bring up the RF Gain control for APPARENT
improved S/N ratio. Huh how does that work??
Very subjective, but experienced CW and SSB DXers will turn up the audio and
bring up the RF gain for just hearing the signal -- try it -- works for
many.


Do you use fast AGC or Slow when DXing --- Why ???

Fast AGC. So a strong station doesn't blank out the weak one. Using NO AGC
runs the risk of a strong station coming on and blowing out your ears!!!

Lets solve these and other DX secrets.

And let the rest of the world solve the political issues ON ANOTHER NEWS
GROUP

"Keyboard In The Wilderness" wrote in message
news:lDuZa.31783$ff.3013@fed1read01...
Well lets stir it up.

When you work an exceptionally weak DX station, do u use ESP?
Is that Extra Sensory Perception or Expected Sensory Perception ??

Expected Sensory Perception amounts to knowing what to expect for the signal
report (count em out), callsign (from packet Cluster), etc. So yes you can
work the weak ones that are a syllable at a time if the info is repeated
several times and you know more or less what to expect.

Is the best filter between your ears ??

Many think so. Some folks are blessed with this -- able to tune out the loud
mouthed Mother-In-Law. Some are pitch sensitive and easily discern between
two CW or SSB signals.

Can u really copy CW right down into the noise -- if so why??
Experienced CW ops can do this. Again the trained ears and brain

Have you ever copied SSB right down into the noise ?? If not why not ??
I really believe you can. May take several repeats, but that and ESP can do
the job.

Do you listen to DX on a Speaker. Are headphones better ??? Which ones --
Com Phones or Hi-Fi
Can not imagine working weak DX using the speaker. Com phones for young
ears, Hi-Fi -phones for the rest of us. The intelligence is primarily in the
high tones -- ala kids and YL's breaking a pileup

Do you keep the RF Gain at Max?
Or advance the audio gain, then bring up the RF Gain control for APPARENT
improved S/N ratio. Huh how does that work??
Very subjective, but experienced CW and SSB DXers will turn up the audio and
bring up the RF gain for just hearing the signal -- try it -- works for
many.


Do you use fast AGC or Slow when DXing --- Why ???

Fast AGC. So a strong station doesn't blank out the weak one. Using NO AGC
runs the risk of a strong station coming on and blowing out your ears!!!

Lets solve these and other DX secrets.

And let the rest of the world solve the political issues ON ANOTHER NEWS
GROUP

"Keyboard In The Wilderness" wrote in message
news:lDuZa.31783$ff.3013@fed1read01...

Do you keep the RF Gain at Max?

When there are a lot of static crashes from lightning (QRN),
turning down the RF gain makes the interference much less
objectionable and keeps the automatic volume control delay
from reducing the strength of the signal I want to hear.

Otherwise, RF gain at max.

"Keyboard In The Wilderness" wrote in message
news:lDuZa.31783$ff.3013@fed1read01...

Do you keep the RF Gain at Max?

When there are a lot of static crashes from lightning (QRN),
turning down the RF gain makes the interference much less
objectionable and keeps the automatic volume control delay
from reducing the strength of the signal I want to hear.

Otherwise, RF gain at max.

Keyboard In The Wilderness wrote:

When you work an exceptionally weak DX station, do u use ESP?
Is that Extra Sensory Perception or Expected Sensory Perception ??

Expected Sensory Perception amounts to knowing what to expect for the signal
report [snip]


Nice correspondence you're conducting with yourself there. Do you also
answer your own CQ?


WA7AA



--

Anti-spam measu look me up on qrz.com if you need to reply directly

Keyboard In The Wilderness wrote:

When you work an exceptionally weak DX station, do u use ESP?
Is that Extra Sensory Perception or Expected Sensory Perception ??

Expected Sensory Perception amounts to knowing what to expect for the signal
report [snip]


Nice correspondence you're conducting with yourself there. Do you also
answer your own CQ?


WA7AA



--

Anti-spam measu look me up on qrz.com if you need to reply directly

Well someone asked me to post MY answers to the questions I posed 2 weeks
ago -- so I did

My reason for posting the questions was to stir up some discussion and I am
curious about how DXers would answer.

Some interesting replies -- unlike yours.


"Zoran Brlecic" wrote in message
...
Keyboard In The Wilderness wrote:

When you work an exceptionally weak DX station, do u use ESP?
Is that Extra Sensory Perception or Expected Sensory Perception ??

Expected Sensory Perception amounts to knowing what to expect for the
signal
report [snip]


Nice correspondence you're conducting with yourself there. Do you also
answer your own CQ?


WA7AA



--

Anti-spam measu look me up on qrz.com if you need to reply directly