Just wondering if any companies still make decent VHF mics, can't seem to find many links on the internet to any.

I find it useful to use a combination of VHF/UHF mics for large scale musicals to increase the number of mics I can use.

It seems that must brands such as Shure and Trantec have discontinued their VHF ranges in favour of UHF only.

since when?
heres a trantec one

Old stock - Trantec have stopped producing the 3500 and 3.5 systems to the best of my knowledge, although they do have some spares.

damn.

if all else fails, look on e-bay

Personally I'm not a fan of the Trantec.

Most models I've seen have a lot handling noise and need quite a bit of EQ to sound half decent.

John Denim.

The condenser ones were quite nice, Audio Technica mic elements, but I always hated the handhelds because they were too light, and had (on the 3500s) a kind of horrible soft coating - that was great when new, but wore off really quickly leaving the mic looking really tatty. I kept a couple for emergencies, but they sound quite crisp.

sennheiser Freeport series?

UHF

oh come on there's like 4 channels, hardly anything amazing.

the o/p wanted something to work with his existing uhf mics.

It might be worth ringing Audio Ltd. I haven't talked to them in a few years but they were still doing VHF after some of the other manufacturers had phased it out. Their kit is superb and lasts forever...but not cheap.

However, it occurs to me that you might find it cheaper just to license some additional UHF frequencies than to jump through hoops to find VHF kit for the few free frequencies that offers.

Bob

Cheers for all the pointers guys, what I have done in the past is use 8 VHF mic's on shared VHF frequencies to complement as many UHF as I can get licenses for. However I read somewhere that one of the reasons a lot of VHF kit is no longer manufactured is due to licensing issues.

Are shared VHF frequencies still available or is it only the de-regulated ones now?

In the UK there are 7 deregulated freqs plus another 2 deregulated legacy which is not supposed to be used for new equipment.
Plus the 15 shared freqs, go to JMFG for all the info
If you have the money you can go into co-ordinated frequencies

The VHF frequencies are NOT affected by the digital switchover

CPC have VHF radio mic kits

HTH

Just looked at CPC. Found this.

I may be barking up the wrong tree here (or simply barking).

I have four trantec vhf handhelds. If I were to purchase these transmitters at the right frequency would they work with the trantec receivers? Or (as I suspect) is there something complicated to stop me doing this? Is it worth £30 to find out or can anyone say it's a no-no?

I wouldn't need top quality, it's for occasional use in school.

Maybe. There's been a bit of discussion on this subject in other threads, but for UHF... Basically, some combinations will be fine, others won't.

Chances are they'll be OK - might be worth buying one to try it out. It's only 30 quid...

Sorry, but I think these things would sound worse that two bean tins and a piece of string.

based on what? The name? or have you tried them? They're probably not in the Sennheiser class, but I'd at least listen to them before giving an opinion on how they sound!

For the record, a friend has recently bought some ultra-cheap radio mics (admittedly they were UHF, and a little more expensive than this). He was very pleasantly surprised by them.

Thanks Bruce. I'm looking for something for not very much. I'm trying it in hope rather than expectation. If they sound worse than two bean tins and a piece of string then so be it. I'll give it a try and report back.

I know at least one forum member has some very cheap vhf beltpacks and is very pleased with them.
ps Sorry to hijack this thread.

Well, it's only 30 quid... and CPC have a very fair refunds policy. What have you got to lose!

Ive used trantec receivers with various transmitters on VHF with no problems, used both sennheiser and AKG stuff, IMO VHF seems less picky than UHF, presumably because most doesnt have complex things as pilot tones etc.

Think I'll have to wait for some decent VHF systems to come up on ebay then. It seems weird that even though the shared VHF frequencies are still available after the switchover that there are very few VHF mic systems available that are capable of running on these frequencies. I have in the past used 8 VHF mic's along with 8 UHF which has then avoided site license costs since they are all using the respective shared frequencies.

You must have had some very special mics then.... There are 5 frequencies identified in the VHF band and you can usually squeeze just four in the 863 - 865 MHz slice of UHF spectrum....

By shared frequencies I mean the ones that you pay an annual license for and can use on any site.

OK! That makes more sense. You're probably aware that some shared frequencies in the VHF band were lost after 31st Dec 2007. There are some still available, but on different frequencies, which might affect people without tunable VHF radios. The JFMG website has details.

For information should anyone be interested.
I've just tried this and it's worked very well. They sound significantly better than two bean tins and a piece of string. The supplied microphones are ok but are big and black. All in all a bit of a bargain really.

Keep an eye open on ebay for the sennheiser mikroport systems. In particular the EM2003 receiver and he SK2012 transmitter. They are very nice indeed, can be picked up reasonably cheaply and are bomb proof. I've just used a set of 4 on a local play and they are outperforming my UHF kit like there's no tomorrow. It's worth investing in decent receiver aerials and cabling for them though.