Using Bose Speakers or Hearing Aids for Ham Radio – When you need it.
Bose for Ham Radio
I purchased Bose Companion speakers a long time ago when I had a Flexradio. They were suggested by many of the Flexradio owners. I use them when listening to videos or audio from websites.
Any decent powered speakers will work in this situation. Just be cautious of the wall wart that accompanies them. They could cause RFI.
Wiring
I have the Bose connected to my PC with the supplied speaker wires. They have an extra jack for running wires from my radios external speaker jack, but I don't use it that way.
I am using the audio from the USB cable. For the moment the Icom 7610 is in the shack, but this will work with many other radios as well.
Windows 10 Pro
Things have changed in the past months with Win10, but it's easy to configure.
- In the Sound Control Panel go to the Recording tab and double-click to enter the USB Audio CODEC Properties.
- On the Advanced tab select a 2 channel, 16 bit Quality. I am using (CD Quality).
- On the Listen tab click the box "Listen to this device" and select the Speakers for Playback.
Use it when you need it.
- Right-click on the speaker icon in the lower right of the Win10 taskbar.
- Select "Open Volume Mixer."
- Widen the window until you can see the USB Audio CODEC slider (it may be hidden to the right).
- You can enable or mute the audio when needed from here.
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- Sound
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- Advanced
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- Listen
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- Volume Mixer
Ham Radio Video - High Quality Audio When You Need It
Ideas
My Bluetooth headset.
My friend Jon, NQ4A asked about connecting his Bluetooth hearing aids to his PC and listening to the audio from his radio. Your PC needs to have Bluetooth capability. Pair your hearing aids with your computer and connect them. Then use the above method, but select the hearing aids for the Playback device in the USB Audio CODEC Sound Properties.
Works with Bluetooth headsets too. If your PC doesn't have Bluetooth, a cheap USB dongle will work.
If I had the speakers hard wired to the radio I could not switch back and forth as easy. This way, a click of the mouse mutes the Bose and I can listen to the internal speakers while operating.
Equalizer APO
Here is an excellent and FREE software equalizer for your computer speakers. The BOSE had a little too much bass and using the APO I was able to customize the audio quality.
Here is a link to the front end for the Equalizer APO:Peace Equalizer
Thank you
If you have any questions, comments or solutions, please comment below. I prefer the comment section here or in YouTube over e-mail because your comments and questions will help others as well.
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73,
Rich,K0PIR
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Listening thru hearing aids via Blue-Tooth works well in my mobile because it cancels some of the road noise. I find the Bose Headphones work very well in the shack because they couple to magnetic sensors in my hearing aids. The Bose noise cancelling headphones still cancel noise when using hearing aids. It’s not just us old-timers
with hearing loss. Many teen-agers have significant loss now too.
Hi Ken,
Thank you so much. Great information.
I’ve used wired headsets, but not BT in the vehicle.
Thank you for the idea, best 73 and good DX!
Thanks Rich!
I have been using my 7300’s headphone jack because I couldn’t seem to get sound output to my separate speakers any other way. Your method works great.
As an aside, I added a equalizer between the output of my PC and my speaker. While my 7300 does a good job, I use an equalizer filter to improve sound quality
For music in the shack, I have opted for a blue tooth speaker and my cell phone.
I would appreciate a post on DXLabs the way you use it.
Hi Pete,
Nice to hear from you and thank you for the information and comment.
I will work on DXLabs and post more info on it. Recently I’ve been using Spot Collector for DX chasing.
73,
Rich, K0PIR
Dear sir ,
I am using the asus sonar mk2 usb souncard . The sonic software has a built in equalyzer so you can tune the sound. Also i am using a hd headphone the B&O 9I i wired.
It gives a very good sound quality , and with the equalyzer you can tune it for your ears.
73
Symon
Hi Rich, I use a cable from the 8 pin Accessory plug on the back of my 7610 or the 13 pin Accessory plug from my 7300. On the 7610 8 pin plug, pin 2 is GND and pin 5 is AF. Bring them out to an RCA plug or whatever your powered speaker uses. In my case I use RCA plugs through a Behringer 802 mixer, that way I can control which radio is the loudest. I use JBL Control 2P powered speakers. This way you are dealing with a constant line voltage from the radio and control volume either through a mixer or with your powered speakers, depending on your setup. The mixer lets you use its equalizer to lower the hiss or atmospheric noise. Sounds better than the radio speaker by itself.
Hi Raymond,
Nice to hear from you and thank you for the information. Looks like I am going to have to try a mixer, hi hi. That sounds great.
I already have a DIN plug in the ACC jack on the 7610 so all I have to do is put a wire on the AF and plug it into a mixer.
Thanks for the description, best 73!
Rich, K0PIR