ive read a bunch about compression settings, the bass and treble rolloff stuff, keeping TX bandwidth somewhere around 2.4-2.8khz for good intelligibility without splattering everywhere. i think my levels are ok, im peaking around -10 to -15 on the ALC which i thought was the right ballpark but maybe im wrong. mic gain is at like 55% on the radio.

anyone have thoughts on what actually moves the needle for SSB audio quality vs what people just argue about endlessly? like is the compressor on the 7300 actually useful or does it just make things worse if you dont set it up right. genuinely curious what experienced ops have found vs what just sounds good on paper

also not sure if im supposed to be watching ALC or just set it and forget it. i always thought you wanted the ALC barely moving but someone on the air last week told me to just crank the mic gain and let the processor handle it, which honestly sounds wrong to me but what do i know. any tips from guys who actually spend a lot of time on SSB phone would be helpful, especially anything specific to the kenwood if you have one

the thing is i can hear myself in the monitor and it sounds fine to me, but every third or fourth contact somebody will mention my audio is muddy or hard to copy. one guy said i sound like im in a barrel which i thought was kinda funny but also frustrating. ive messed with the bass and treble on the radio a little bit but im not really sure what im doing there. is there some kind of baseline EQ setting people use for voice on SSB that actually works? or is this more of a mic placement thing

i have the TX bandwidth set to around 2.4kHz which i thought was fine for voice, and the mic gain is sitting at about 50% but the ALC is kinda bouncing around a lot when i talk — like it dips pretty hard on my voice peaks. not sure if thats the problem or if its the eq settings in the radio or what. ive messed with the bass and treble in the menu but nothing really seemed to help much. anyone run this combo and know what settings actually work?

running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 through the Heil adapter cable, and i keep going back and forth on the TX EQ settings in the radio. right now i have a slight boost around 2-3kHz and roll off a bit below 200Hz because i read somewhere that cutting the low end cleans up the audio and reduces splatter but honestly i dont know if im doing more harm than good at this point.

also the compression — i see people saying run zero compression, and other people saying run 3-4 on the IC-7300's compressor for SSB DX. seems like total opposite advice. anyone have a feel for what actually moves the needle on SSB audio quality vs just placebo stuff people repeat on forums

my setup is an IC-7300 going into a Heil PR-40 through their boom arm, and i have the ALC sitting right around where the manual says it should be but i sometimes wonder if the mic gain is too high because the ALC does jump around a lot when i talk. ive played with the TX equalizer settings a bit but mostly i just left them at flat because i dont really know what im doing there.

also not totally sure if USB vs LSB even matters for audio quality on a given band or if thats a dumb question. on 40m i always go LSB because thats just what everyone does but on 20m i go USB. is there anything i can actually do to make transmitted audio noticeably better without buying more stuff, or is this just something you dial in over like years of operating

the recording sounds like im talking into a bucket. tried rolling off some bass on the radio's TX equalizer but i dont really know what im doing there. is this a mic technique thing or a settings thing or what? any starting point would be helpful because right now im just kind of poking around in the dark with menu settings

I know there's the TX monitor feature on the 7300 so I've been listening to myself a bit and honestly it doesn't sound terrible to me but I also don't really know what I'm listening for. like what does good SSB audio actually sound like vs just okay audio. someone on the air told me to roll off the low end and boost around 2k or something but I didn't really get the full explanation before the band shifted and I lost him.

also does mic gain matter as much as people say it does or is ALC the thing I should actually be watching. I see the ALC jumping around a lot when I talk and I'm not sure if thats normal or a problem. any thoughts appreciated, been bugging me for a while

my mic is just the stock HM-219 that came with the radio and im talking probably 2-3 inches away from it. the room im in has hardwood floors and not much on the walls so it might be a bit echoey i guess. i did try boosting the mic gain once and that just made it sound louder but not actually better, maybe worse actually.

is there some baseline set of settings people use as a starting point for the 7300 or is it really just trial and error? also wondering if the stock mic is just kinda mediocre and id be better off with something like an SM58 or a desk mic. any thoughts appreciated, not trying to sound like a broadcast station just want to not make peoples ears bleed

what i dont get is how some guys sound absolutely crisp and present on the band and others sound like theyre talking into a coffee can. is it mic placement? the EQ settings? i messed with the bass and treble on the radio a bit but i honestly dont know what im doing there. ive heard people talk about cutting the low end below like 300hz but i dont really understand how to do that on the icom. and whats the deal with ALC — mine is always pegged and someone told me thats bad but i dont know why exactly.

anyway if anyone has dialed in their audio on a 7300 or just has general SSB tips id appreciate it, been bugging me for a while

i read somewhere that you're supposed to roll off the low end pretty aggressively for SSB, like maybe a high pass filter starting around 300hz or so, and keep the upper end somewhere around 2700-3000hz. the radio has a built in TX equalizer but i havent really messed with it much because honestly those parametric eq screens are kind of intimidating and i dont want to make things worse. anyone have a starting point for EQ settings on the 7300 for voice that actually works? or is this more of a microphone placement thing

also curious if the TX bandwidth setting matters as much as people say — i have mine set to the default which i think is like 2.4k wide. should i be narrowing that down

right now running an IC-7300 with the stock HM-219 mic. i know i know, everyone says upgrade the mic, but ive also heard the 7300 has pretty capable built-in processing and EQ if you actually set it up correctly. i've played with the TX tone settings a bit but honestly haven't gone deep into it. mostly running mid-range compression, maybe 3-4 bars on the ALC.

what i'm really wondering is — how much of the SSB audio quality stuff is genuinely useful technique versus gear snob territory. like does a $150 aftermarket mic actually sound that much better or is it more about getting the radio settings dialed in properly first. and is there a good way to actually monitor your own transmitted audio without just relying on random reports from the other end

ive been messing with the TX bandwidth settings in the menu and the mic gain and i think at some point i just made everything worse because now i dont even have a baseline to go back to. i know the 7300 has a ton of EQ options buried in the menus and i honestly havent touched most of them because it gets overwhelming fast. is there like a sensible starting point for SSB TX audio that doesnt involve just copying someones settings off youtube and hoping for the word?

also not sure if this matters but im running the mic on a boom arm about 6 inches from my face and talking kind of across it not directly into it. maybe thats the issue i dunno

ive messed with the TX equalizer in the radio a bit, cut some of the low end around 100-200hz and tried boosting a little around 2-3khz where speech intelligibility sits, and that helped somewhat but i still get inconsistent reports. one guy on 40 last week said i sounded great, next contact 20 minutes later different band conditions same settings and the other op said i was muddy. not sure if thats just propagation playing tricks or if theres more i should be doing on my end.

also wondering about mic gain — ive read a bunch of conflicting stuff online about running it lower than you think you need vs peaking the ALC. my ALC is barely moving at my current settings and i read somewhere that a small amount of ALC action is actually fine but then someone else said keep it totally out of it. what are you all actually doing in practice, not the manual answer, the real answer

• Mic gain set to barely tickle ALC on voice peaks
• Speech proc at 15% (tried as low as 10%)
• Standard SSB filter (2.4kHz)

Anyone else experience this issue with Yaesu rigs?

for me the single biggest improvement was getting my mic gain set properly. i was running it way too hot thinking more level equals better audio and all it was doing was making me sound like i was transmitting from inside a tin can. pulled it back until the ALC was barely kissing on voice peaks and suddenly i started getting reports that i actually sounded like a human being. second thing that helped was a decent desk mic with a bit of proximity effect — the stock hand mic on my 7300 was fine but nothing special.

also the TX bandwidth setting is something people sleep on. i had mine set to narrow because i thought that was polite and someone finally told me i sounded muffled. opened it up to about 2.8k and the difference was noticeable on both ends. yeah it takes a bit more spectrum but honestly on a clear frequency its not a big deal.

curious what other people have found — especially on the processing side. im not sure where i stand on compression still. feels like it helps in a pileup but im not convinced its doing much for actual audio quality day to day.

ive been reading about TX bandwidth settings and the bass/treble roll-off stuff in the menu and played with it a little but honestly the menu system is kind of overwhelming and i dont really know what im optimizing for. like should i be cutting lows below 300hz or so? and whats the deal with the TX monitor — is that actually representative of what people are hearing or is it kind of misleading. also somebody on the air told me to watch my ALC and keep it out of the red which i get but he wasnt really clear on where exactly it should be sitting. any practical tips appreciated, been lurking here for a while and you guys seem to know your stuff

ive got an IC-7300 and im using the stock hm-219 mic which i know isnt exactly a audiophile piece of equipment but i figured it would be good enough. starting to think maybe it isnt. ive been reading about compression settings and the built in TX equalizer in the 7300 and there's a LOT of conflicting advice out there — some guys say run a little compression like 3-4 on the ALC meter swing, others say compression is the devil and you should just set your audio flat and let it ride.

also curious about mic technique because i feel like nobody talks about that enough. distance from the mic, angle, room acoustics — does any of that actually matter on SSB or am i overthinking it? the RF side of things i feel pretty comfortable with but the audio chain is kind of a mystery to me still. what have you guys actually found makes a noticeable improvement vs what is just tweaking for the sake of tweaking

a guy last week on a ragchew said my lows were missing and my highs were peaking — he literally said i sounded like i was on a CB radio which, ouch. so i guess my question is what settings are people actually running on the 7300 for decent SSB audio, and is the stock mic just not cutting it or is this a settings thing. im not trying to sound like a broadcast station just want to be intelligible and not annoy people

the thing that really gets me is i can hear OTHER stations sounding totally clean and punchy and i dont know what they're doing differently. is it the mic itself, compression settings, the way im talking into it, what? i tried the TX monitor and honestly it doesnt sound that bad to me but then someone on 40m last week told me i was splattering all over the place. i wasnt even driving it that hard i thought.

anyone been through this and figured out what actually made the biggest difference? not looking to go buy an expensive mic right away if the problem is something simple im just overlooking in the setup

ive messed with the TX EQ a bit but honestly the menu system on that radio is kind of overwhelming and i dont fully understand what im boosting or cutting. someone at my club told me to roll off the low end and boost around 2-3khz but i tried that and it still sounded off according to one guy on a net i check into regularly

also been wondering about compression — i have it turned on but only at like 3-4 on the meter because ive heard over-compression sounds really bad. is that right or should i be pushing it more. and does mic gain interact with the compressor in a way that matters a lot

basically just looking for whatever tips people have found actually make a difference on SSB audio quality, not looking for studio sound just want to be readable without people asking me to repeat myself constantly

i messed around with the TX bandwidth settings and the bass/treble in the menu but i feel like im just turning knobs without really understanding what im doing. a guy on 40m last week told me to cut below 300hz and boost around 2-2.5k and it made a noticeable difference but i dont fully get the why behind it. is it just about fitting the audio into the SSB passband better or is there more to it than that

also should i be using ALC at all or is that something to avoid on voice. i know for digital modes its a whole different thing but for phone i genuinely dont know what the 'right' approach is with ALC and mic gain. feels like every time i read about it i get a conflicting answer

people can copy me fine most of the time but on 40m when theres a pileup or just a little qrm i notice folks seem to struggle more than they should. my signal reports on a meter are fine, like 57 or 59, so its not a power issue. i wonder if its an eq thing? or maybe my mic placement? im using the hm-219 that came with the radio. would a different mic actually make that much of a difference or am i chasing the wrong thing here

My current settings: MIC gain at 60%, PROC at OFF, AMC at 50%. Power meter shows around 25-30W average on voice peaks. I know I should be seeing more like 35-40W average for proper modulation depth.

Has anyone found optimal PROC and AMC settings for the 991A that give good punch without splatter? Also considering upgrading to a Heil HC-4 element - worth it for this rig?

ive been reading about proper mic gain settings and the ALC behavior and i think i had my mic gain cranked too high for a long time which was probably causing the ALC to slam and make me sound compressed and harsh. backed it off and things seem better but im not 100% sure. also been experimenting with the TX bandwidth setting — had it on narrow for a while thinking that was 'correct' for HF SSB but somebody told me wide actually sounds better for voice quality, just takes up more spectrum. is that right?

any tips from people who have dialed this stuff in would be appreciated. not looking to sound like a broadcast station just want consistent clean audio that people dont have to ask me to repeat