N6MTS: “Open Headset Interconnect Standard” at New England Sci-Tech ARS Hybrid Meeting, November 14, 2023

New England Sci Tech logoThe New England Sci-Tech Amateur Radio Society will meet on-line and in-person on November14, 2023 at 7 PM and feature: “Open Headset Interconnect Standard” by Mark Smith, N6MTS.

Ham Radio has standards for connections between the radio and power source (13.8vDC), and between the radio and the antenna (50 ohm coax). There is, however, no such standard for the connection between the radio and the user. This makes it challenging in a multi-user environment like a club shack, contest station, or EOC, for a user to connect their own headset (with their own ear goobers (technical term)) to any radio, without carrying a full-mesh of adapters between all types of headsets and all types of radios. The Open Headset Interconnect Standard (OHIS) is an open standard (free like speech) that allows any OHIS compliant User Device (e.g., headsets) to connect to any OHIS compliant Radio Device.

Bio: Mark Smith, N6MTS, aka Smitty, has been a nerd of various types his whole life. He added Amateur Radio to his list of nerdy hobbies in 1992. In 2021, he left his career of 25 years in IT (some blend of Network and Systems Engineering, Software Development, and Information Security) to start Halibut Electronics, a company that designs and makes Amateur Radio and Audiophile hardware devices and kits. He is also a co-host of the Ham Radio Workbench podcast.

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