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Larry

Larryr wrote in news:8c1cb3a9-523c-4901-b0e9-
:

The FCC's spectrum auctions are of interest to me as a live sound
engineer. Wireless mics are in a state of flux with heavy use in the
700Mhz band before the recent changes. Lots of users are very vexed
with this, but as an industry, we have very little clout compared to
cellular and broadband providers.

I work on PA systems in churches. Channel 7 TV on 174 eliminates those
mics in that band 100%. That transmitter will shut down soon, relieving
lots of problems their video sidebands have caused all these years.

Of all places, Radio Shack came out with some really nice, and cheap,
900 Mhz handheld and lapel/beltclip wireless mics that work simply
wonderful! They are all channel selectable over 8 channels on 900 Mhz.
I've never heard a single odd noise or had any reports of any odd
signals breaking their squelch. With all 8 receivers stacked under the
pulpit at the back of the auditorium, antennas helter skelter wherever
they'll fit, I can take a hand mic off the stage, down any aisle, out
the back doors into the church vestibule, out the thick front door of
this huge masonry church that seats 1100, down the 18 front steps into
the street, across the street and halfway down the neighbor's driveway
across the street from the church before the signal starts to break up!
They've got to be the hottest wireless mics under $150 I've ever seen.
The same church has another mic they paid over $600 for on the 450 Mhz
spectrum that can't go to the back of the big church without balking.
And, crazy as it is, the cheap RS mics SOUND BETTER! The handheld costs
about $80 so if someone breaks it there's not so many tears shed as with
one costing $350.

Now, if I could only teach AME preachers how NOT to put the damned 9V
transistor battery in UPSIDE DOWN with BOTH battery contacts shorting
out against the BIG METAL SPRING holding the battery in
place!....Grrrrr....(expletives deleted).

"Come fix this mic. It went dead and even a new battery didn't fix it."

"See the nice diagram I pasted to the box you store them in? Notice how
these contacts on the battery fit SO NEATLY into these two little SLOTS,
ONE BIG and one little so you can't get them in reversed? Notice how
the battery that melted has BOTH contacts shorting against the metal
clip on the OPPOSITE END from where the two slots are?!"

I try to stay calm.....They keep writing the checks.....(c;]

What do you charge for putting batteries into microphones 25 miles away?