Re: Noise cancellation

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

> I recall that the headsets of military pilots were equipped
> with noise cancelling interference so the pilots could
> hear and understand weak communications in a noisy
> aircraft. I'm not sure if they still do or not.
>
> Herb Gottlieb from New York City
> (Where guests learn to tune out unwanted conversations at our
> noisy cocktail parties without resorting to noise-cancellation earphones)

I flew military aircraft until about 1975 and we never even heard of
noise-cancelling earphones. If they have come into use since then, I
have not been in a position to hear of it. But if they have, I doubt
that they would have been discontinued, since the advantages are
obvious. They would also be a great help to crewmen on the flight
deck of aircraft carriers.

In December 1986 when Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew the first
non-stop non-refueled aircraft flight around the world, they started
off wearing prototype noise-cancelling earphones which, as I recall,
failed about halfway through the flight. The technology has come some
distance since then, but this is still a developing field. I tried
out a set of noise-cancelling earphones at one of the exhibitor
booths at a recent AAPT meeting and found them only marginally
effective, although I could tell the difference. On the other hand,
they were quite inexpensive, and the ones I see advertised in the
aviation magazines these days often cost upwards of $500. I have no
idea how effective these expensive ones are.

I recently purchased dictation software for my computer that comes
with an earphone-boom mike headset. The descriptive material with the
headset, claimed that the earphone was of the noise-cancelling
variety. I haven't tried it yet, so I can't testify to its
effectiveness, but the fact that it is only one earphone and not a
pair, leads me to believe that it can't be a great help, although I
imagine that it could have some effect.

Hugh


Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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