White noise. Some people love it, some people hare it. I am one of the latter so the promise of an open squelch and a reduction in noise was one that I could not resist.
Ever since seeing a bhi mini speaker with built in DSP at my foundation course, I have wanted one and today, I finally got one. As I was only planning to use it at home, I went for the desktop version. Im not going to run through the specs as you can go and take a look here on the bhi website.
The speaker came well packed in a sturdy box with plenty of protective packing.
Here are the contents of the box.
The unit is supplied with a good instruction manual, power lead and audio lead. Overall it is very good quality but I would like to have seen a bit more length on the leads. I have a shelf above my radio that I was going to put the speaker on but the lead wont reach.
I would also like to have seen a headphone out jack on the speaker so that you could use the DSP unit with a pair of headphones.
Performance is very good with 8 selectable levels of DSP available. So far, I have been using mine set on level 5. Here is a short clip on the speaker in action with DSP turned off then on.
I have one of these units as well. I have a concern with the 2 mini switches in that i have noticed the following abnormalities:
1. When I switch it off by the small left hand side switch, it turns off as it would. Then I switch off the feeder 13.8v powersupply, as I am leaving the shack, to say…go to bed. When i go back in the shack and I turn on the powersupply, then the unit would power up, although i had it switched off previously.
2. Also noticed that sometimes when i want to switch it off by the left hand power button, it actually doesn’t switch off, but it just turns off the DSP, ie: the green LED goes to red. (so the power button just turned off the dsp, fair enough). But this is not consistent, sometimes I switch the powerbutton when the DSP is on, and it switches straight off. (Usually the latter is the case when the dsp has only been on for a shorter time)
3.It pops everytime the button is pressed.
Other than that, I really think this product is great, sturdy and perfect for my needs. Definite difference in comprehending distant stations. Even intermediate stations are improved a lot by the use of this unit. I have it on 2 or 3, out of 8 steps, for DSP filtering.
Hi Steve. That does sound a bit odd. Have you spoken to BHI about it?
Hi Matt, I am not sure if it is odd or just the way they are all made. I will email them what I have written in the above and see what they say. It all works, just these little quirks. Can you test yours to see if you duplicate my problems, and let me know if it is any different. My power supply is a GME-Electrophone 13.8V regulated 11Amp peak. Thanks, Steve
Hi Steve,
Mine turns off when I press the far left button. If I turn the PSU off, then on, the bhi unit stays off. Also, my power button does not turn the DSP on or off. I would suggest that yours has something a touch wrong.
You are right about the performance. I like mins so much that i’m considering getting the smaller version for my portable setup. I usually have mine on setting 3 or 4.
Good luck.
Hi Matt, thanks for that quick test, yes I did contact BHI as you suggested and they seemed helpful. I sent them a quick video of fault demonstration and they agree it is strange, so they said the electronics guru will be looking into it. I will let you know what they say. Cheers, Steve
OK update: so I sent it back the faulty unit to the UK, and they sent me a brand new unit, which I am pleased to say, is working as it should. Although I am $50 out of pocket for the shipping, I am pleased with the company’s swift support. The person I dealt with is Graham Somerville of BHI, who is the owner I think. Before I shipped the unit I ran some tests and discovered that the fault would only occur over 12 volts. Anyway, time to use it.
Bought the Noise Away version to use on ATC transmissions on the 31 metre band using my AOR7030(on headphones). Not been very impressed so far, at max noise reduction signal vanishes and sounds like noise in a water pipe. Finding it difficult to determine if any improvement even at reduced levels.
That’s a shame. I find it helps out on most noisy transmissions.