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[Thomas Rickman]

Sorry about that admin - I thought I had changed my profile name, but apparently not.

I'm sure many of you have been in the situation where you weren't consulted before a purchase, but asked for advice afterwards.  See if you guys can see what's up here.

Our athletic department purchased this UHF wireless system with the intention of using for mic-ing the referees at football games.

https://gtdaudio.net/gtd-audio-2x800-channel-uhf-diversity-wireless-microphone-p10.html

It's not a bad unit for the price.  The bodypacks have a mute switch obviously, but the refs want something a little easier to mute/unmute when announcing penalties. 

This is where I was consulted.

The GTD bodypacks use TA3 plugs, and for the life of me - I could not find an in-line mute switch that used the TA3 interface.  (at least not one that wasn't exorbitantly priced)

So, I decided just to find the mute switch I wanted and see if I could make it work with our bodypack and headset mic.  I purchased the Shure WA360 which uses a TA4 interface.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/WA360

I found the correct adapters to get this TA4 mute switch plugged into our TA3 equipment, and not surprisingly, it does not work.

I suspect the problem is with pinout.  I have discovered tonight through a little googling that pins 2 and 3 are reversed when going from TA3 to TA4.

So - what do you guys think my next step should be here.  I have choir classes to teach this week and broadcasts to produce, so I don't have a ton of time to devote to this - but I would like to try and get this working by the next home game on 9/17.

Braintrust - what say you?

[Henry Cohen]

Why not simply install TA3 connectors, with the correct pinout of course, right on the Shure mute switch?

[David Sturzenbecher]

Make sure to buy a bunch of those WA360's. Their lifetime is about 6 months.  Shure and Telex make much more robust "NFL Approved" switches but will run you approximately 10 times your current investment.


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[Thomas Rickman]

Why not simply install TA3 connectors, with the correct pinout of course, right on the Shure mute switch?

That's not a bad idea.  I wonder how hard it would be to find the raw connectors and solder them in.

[Thomas Rickman]

Make sure to buy a bunch of those WA360's. Their lifetime is about 6 months.  Shure and Telex make much more robust "NFL Approved" switches but will run you approximately 10 times your current investment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Why in the world is it so hard to find a quality product for this application that doesn't cost 300 dollars.  It's a switch and a noise suppression circuit for crying out loud!

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Why in the world is it so hard to find a quality product for this application that doesn't cost 300 dollars.  It's a switch and a noise suppression circuit for crying out loud!

It's a simple matter of supply and demand.  There's not a big market for add-ons, so sourcing/manufacture/stocking and all other associated costs need to be spread over a limited run.

If you buy a higher quality product to begin with, one not needing an after-market upgrade, you are more likely to come out with a more workable setup out of the box.  Buying cheap has hidden costs...as you are learning.

[Scott Helmke]

That's not a bad idea.  I wonder how hard it would be to find the raw connectors and solder them in.

Switchcraft TA3FX and TA3M, readily available for a few dollars each.

The big question is what the pinout of your wireless might be. If the bias (DC voltage to power the mic) is on a different pin from the audio then it should be easy, because that's the way the Shure pinout works.

[Thomas Le]

Looks like GTD is using 600MHz, eventually you will have to buy all new wireless when the spectrum auction comes around. One thing I've learned, NEVER go cheap and off-brand on wireless microphones.

[Mac Kerr]

Looks like GTD is using 600MHz, eventually you will have to buy all new wireless when the spectrum auction comes around. One thing I've learned, NEVER go cheap and off-brand on wireless microphones.

One thing I've learned is not make broad statements that can't be backed up. We won't know until the auction happens how much of the 600MHz band will be gone. It is very unlikely that it will be completely gone in the way the 700MHz band was. There will probably be slices of spectrum available throughout the range, and there may even be slices set aside for uses such as wireless mics and wireless comm. The recommendation to buy 500MHz devices fails to take into account the fact that there will be a repacking of OTA TV stations into the lower UHF bands, possible making them as crowded as the 600s. When we get closer to the auction we may know more about what it really going to happen, but it is too early at this point to make panic inducing statements about having to sell off 600MHz gear, or restricting purchases to avoid 600MHz.

Mac

[Henry Cohen]

One thing I've learned is not make broad statements that can't be backed up. We won't know until the auction happens how much of the 600MHz band will be gone. It is very unlikely that it will be completely gone in the way the 700MHz band was. There will probably be slices of spectrum available throughout the range, and there may even be slices set aside for uses such as wireless mics and wireless comm. The recommendation to buy 500MHz devices fails to take into account the fact that there will be a repacking of OTA TV stations into the lower UHF bands, possible making them as crowded as the 600s. When we get closer to the auction we may know more about what it really going to happen, but it is too early at this point to make panic inducing statements about having to sell off 600MHz gear, or restricting purchases to avoid 600MHz.

Although valid advice to alleviate unnucessary FUD, one thing is fairly certain; after the 39 month transition period (which could be about 50 months from now), current wireless microphone systems that tune in the 600MHz range will no longer be certified or permitted as they will still be able to tune to those portions of the reallocated 600Mhz band. The monetary question is can the OEM simply update firmware, but that likley will not address the geographic aspect of where the permitted portion of the spectrum lies.

[ProSoundWeb Community]