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UK Hop Frequencies


Doug Martin

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Shout out to my UK Soundies! Hope you're having a busy year...

 

I'm looking at buying a wireless link to camera and could really do with some advise, please.  I've found a lot of info on here and in other areas but nothing that hits the nail on the head.

 

My question is: what frequencies are people in the UK using (and plan on using in the future) for wireless hops, given that some frequency distance is required between the hop and the adjacent receivers?

 

I'm currently using the Audio Ltd envoy system (channel 38) and although my 4 mic RX (microns) are in the low end of the band and the hop TX is in the 22-24Mhz area, Im still getting loads of spray on my Mic RX when in the bag (no surprise as the Hz are still quite close).  So, I'm wearing the hop TX on my belt and using my body as a 'RF sponge' but my range is still radically reduced.  The hop TX are also on low output power, which i believe is 30mw.

 

Now im looking at buying a hop so id like to know if there are any bands i could sneak into that are far enough away from the 606-614 band so as my hop could sit happily in the bag with the mic RX?

 

The new zaxcom TRX900CL camera link looks perfect for me but im sure even with their attention to reducing RF spray, im still going to loose a lot of juice from my mic systems if the hop is used in the ch38 block.

 

What are you guys & girls doing? Any advise is much appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Doug

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I use 2 older micron 500 series diversity VHF for camera hop with no problems. You can buy new VHF microns so give tanki a shout. I generally would not use channel 38 because transmitters next to receivers in the same or even adjacent blocks always kills range in my experience. I have also used a zaxcom exr (2.4ghz) for mono send + timecode from my Zfr which seemed to work ok. It's good, because its a mono scratch track so they have to use my recording.

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Sony DWX allow 12 channels or more to be used in a 8mhz band width (eg channel 38) and have c.72mhz switching bandwidth (and can be rented from meredith). They slot into sony pro camcorders and are less vulnerable to interference from digital and analogue sources than an analogue system, the flip side being that the TX sends sound as packets 1000 times a second and can induce interference in some analogue circuits if close enough. If i had the money, it is the system i would choose, because they sound so good, are easy to use, squeeze lots of channels into a small space and are good value (c. 3500gbp for 2 channels). The nice thing about using microns and audio ltd is the phone calls to ask about filtering (TX and RX) will be quite cheap.

 

However depending on what else you have in you bag and what monitoring options are taken up at the camera end you have many options you can try. EG. there are quite a few honest UK sound folk using illegal freqs for hops and talent (i found this out when selling my block 28 lectros). Make an informed decision about what you use your legal and illegal freqs for (if that is an option) and how you set them up. EG do your hops need to be at 30mw? 10mw should be fine if you're not far from the camera and produce less interference. Using a different powering source for the talent RX/TX hop can help. You've already tried putting the hop TX away from the bag, have a go at getting your RX antennas away from your recorder and hop antenna/TX. I think one of the hardest things to do is really test the various set-ups options (off the job) because not all elements are present and it's hard to simulate working conditions on your own. I bought an RF explorer recently and (while i'm still learning how to use it) such tools can be very useful.

 

The first question for me about your set-up is what will be the primary audio source when your production goes into edit - IE. are you sending a scratch track while you record a TC mix (and isos) as a primary source or is the editor expecting to use the audio embedded with picture and whatever else is your bag is a back-up. 

 

i've probably just rambled on about stuff you know already but i thought i'd put it out there anyway.

 

dan.

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Also heard good things about using sony dwx for this, especially at 10mW.

You can always get a system at the higher end of 600's (don't go under, they're about to put tv stations in that area) and get a site specific license from jfmg when you use it. A bit of extra bandwidth helps here too so you can use it in ch38 as well

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My current job I'm using 2x DWT B01's on about 629Mhz and my talent RX's are on CH38. They're set to 10mW and all seems to be well, however I have to have them up on the harness and dipoles wired around my back to avoid interference. Its a real pain negotiating the web of cables to install myself into the harness every time. 

 

My own personal hops are old microns on CH70 which are a dream, they just sit in the bag happy as larry. 

 

Although the sonys ARE working, I don't recommend it long term and would never buy hops that close to talent RX's.  ie. Just what you already know :) 

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Doug, I use both Lectrosonics as my hop and talent microphones. My SMDB transmitters are mounted on my back cabletied to my harness with power and audio signals wired through a 7-pin canon connector. Unlike the US we only can use 606.500-613.500 (unless we invest in site specific licenses) so are forced to fit all wireless within this small amount of spectrum. I have not had an issue running three talent mics and a hop within this RF space. While my talent radiomics are blk606, my hop however is block 23 (588-614) so if I need too I license frequencies around 588-590 although this may no longer be possible now that freeview will start appearing between 550-606! I have heard some recordists use blk21 and 26 successfully for hops but these are obviously NOT legal without a site specific license from JFMG.

 

You guys in the US don't know how lucky you are!

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