Heil Sound
| Heil Sound | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private company (Heil Sound Communications, Inc.) |
| Founded | 1966, in Marissa, Illinois |
| Founder | Bob Heil, K9EID (1940–2024) |
| Headquarters | Fairview Heights, Illinois |
| Amateur radio | |
| Known for | Microphones, headsets and boom sets for amateur radio |
| Amateur line since | Early 1980s; HC-4 and HC-5 microphone elements in 1982 |
| Amateur brand | Heil Ham Radio |
| Other business | Professional microphones and live-sound equipment |
| Today | |
| Ownership | Ash Levitt and Steve Warford since February 2022 |
| Status | Active |
| Website | heilhamradio.com (amateur radio); heilsound.com |
Heil Sound is an American maker of microphones, headsets and other audio equipment for amateur radio and for professional sound, based in Fairview Heights, Illinois. It was founded in 1966 by Bob Heil, K9EID, who began in concert sound and turned to ham radio audio in the early 1980s. Among hams the company is known mainly for its microphones and its "boom sets," headsets with a microphone mounted on an arm, sold under the Heil Ham Radio name. Bob Heil died in 2024. The company, owned since 2022 by two longtime employees, was active as of 2026.
History
Heil opened the business in 1966 as Ye Olde Music Shoppe in Marissa, Illinois. It grew into a sound reinforcement company that built touring sound systems for rock bands, among them the Grateful Dead, The Who and Humble Pie. According to the ARRL, Jerry Garcia suggested the Heil Sound name. Heil also created the Heil Talk Box, an effect that lets a musician shape an instrument's sound with the mouth, used by Peter Frampton.
Heil had been a ham since his youth, and in the early 1980s the company left the professional sound market to concentrate on amateur radio. In 1982 it introduced the HC series of microphone elements, beginning with the HC-4 and HC-5. They let transmitters without digital signal processing (DSP) produce different-sounding audio, since changing the element changed the transmitted sound. In the late 1990s the rock musician and ham Joe Walsh suggested that Heil design a microphone for live vocals. The result, the PR 20, brought the company back into professional audio, and it has sold both professional and amateur products since.
Bob Heil was a familiar figure in the hobby. He was known for his enthusiasm for AM operation and for many years was an on-camera host of the online program Ham Nation. In February 2022 ownership passed from Bob and Sarah Heil to Ash Levitt, the company's president since 2020, and Steve Warford, its director of operations. Both had first worked at Heil Sound as teenagers. Sarah Heil retired, and Bob Heil stayed on as founder and CEO emeritus to continue outreach work and amateur radio product design. He died in February 2024 at the age of 83.
Amateur radio products
Heil Ham Radio, the company's amateur radio division, sells transmit and receive audio equipment for hams. Examples include:
- Headsets and boom sets: the Pro Set family of headphones, including the Pro Set Elite, the BM-17 and Pro 7 headsets, and a headset for handheld transceivers. A headset leaves both hands free for the keyboard and logbook, which suits contesting and long operating sessions.
- Microphones: desk microphones such as the PR 781, along with hand and boom microphones. Many current models use the HC-6 element, the most recent of the HC series.
- Booms, mounts and hardware: microphone booms, shock mounts and stands for the shack desk.
- Adapters and cables that connect Heil microphones and headsets to radios from different makers. Each manufacturer wires its microphone connector differently, so the correct adapter depends on the radio.
- Receive audio: headphones and other listening accessories. The company has also made audio equalizers such as the EQ 200.
The professional line, sold under the Heil Sound name, includes the PR series of microphones that began with the PR 20.
In the hobby today
Heil Ham Radio continues to sell through its own website and through dealers in the United States and other countries. In 2005 the company sent headsets to responders after Hurricane Katrina, and Bob Heil donated new audio equipment to W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station at ARRL headquarters. On taking over in 2022, the new owners said they intended to build on the amateur radio line with new products and wider distribution.