Microphones - Hearing Aids / Wireless Mic Interference

[jyow]

One of my colleagues, who must give many presentations at our school, has a hearing aid. The problem we have run into is that when she is close to a wireless microphone, her hearing aid gives out a loud chirping noise. Has anyone else had this problem? Is this an interference issue? Could I fix this by switching to a wired mic instead? I'm trying to be discreet about this so as to not hurt her feelings. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you.

[museav]

One of my colleagues, who must give many presentations at our school, has a hearing aid. The problem we have run into is that when she is close to a wireless microphone, her hearing aid gives out a loud chirping noise. Has anyone else had this problem? Is this an interference issue? Could I fix this by switching to a wired mic instead? I'm trying to be discreet about this so as to not hurt her feelings. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thank you.

There should not be RF interference, but chirping is often indicative of hearing aid feedback. Google "hearing aid chirping" and you'll find many discussion on the subject and some recommendations of things to check (earwax buildup, hearing aid fitment, feedback suppression and other DSP settings for the hearing aid, etc.) You might also want to see if she turns her hearing aid up before speaking in order to try to hear herself better.

Far from a definitive test but if her hearing aid is T-coil compatible then you might ask her to try it in microphone only and then T-coil only modes. If the hearing aid chirps in T-coil mode but not in microphone mode then it may indeed be RF or magnetic field interference. If it chirps in mic mode but not in T-coil mode then that may support that it is the hearing aid feeding back on itself.

[SteveB]

Note as well that many aids "talk" to each other (assuming 2 aids) via a radio connection, thus you can push a button on one aid to set to a different frequency mode (restaurant, movie theater, etc...) and not have to adjust both aids. Possibly the radio communication frequency used is in the same band ?.

I have this feature on my aids but have never had issues with our wireless systems.