There are certain people and objects throughout history that will be forever linked in our minds: peanut butter and jelly, red beans and rice, gin and tonic, Fred and Barney, Batman and Robin, Bert and Ernie, Starksy and Hutch, Hamilton and Burr, Ford and Ferrari, and countless other famous, infamous, and fictional duos.
Same goes in the ham radio community, where pairs like coffee and contesting, mosquitoes and Field Day, hamfest flea markets and muddy boots, and friendships and frequencies have always seemed to go hand in hand.
In today’s blog post, we improve upon the above list with two pieces of gear that make a welcome addition to any shack—a solidly-built foot switch from DX Engineering and a quality headset from the legendary audio specialists at Heil Sound. Installing this combo allows you to easily move your operation away from an open speaker and local desk or hand microphone.
Choose from eight headset and foot switch packages. Combos come with DX Engineering’s budget-friendly plastic foot switch (DXE-FS-001) or iron model (DXE-FS-002). The foot switches are paired with Heil Pro Set Elite Headsets or Pro 7 Headsets in black, blue, or red.
Lightweight and versatile Pro Set Elite Headsets work well with any shack setup. Along with the comfort of larger, heavily padded earpieces, they feature Heil Sound’s exclusive phase reversal switch, which can significantly improve copy during pileups. The PSE-6 model requires a Heil AD-1 series adapter cable for your particular transceiver.
A step up from the Elite models, Pro 7 Headsets come with well-insulated ear pads and an innovative acoustic design. The headset’s passive noise canceling ability blocks out all background noise, leaving just you and your radio. And since it’s passive, you don’t have to worry about eating batteries or any extra power draw. It also comes with a unique audio balance control which allows one speaker’s volume to be adjusted; a phase reversal switch that lets you dig out weak frequencies; and a mic boom that can be used on either the right or left ear. Non-IC models require a Heil AD-1 series adapter cable for your particular transceiver.
What do hams say about the Headset/Foot Switch Combo?
Five Stars: “The noise canceling capabilities of the earphones is super, the microphone is excellent (high quality), and the hands-free operation using the foot switch is awesome for contesting. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is into DXing or contesting.”
See all DX Engineering/Heil Sound Headset and Foot Switch Packages at DXEngineering.com.
And lest we forget one more ham radio combo that’s hard to beat: DX Engineering and world-class customer service from a team of experienced, active hams.
