The New Behringer DEQ 2496

Second page

One of the most complicated parts of the DEQ2496 is the DEQ section. Even though it is complicated it is one of the features that makes the box so desirable for us here in amateur radio. You can do what is called "Split Band Processing." This area is still a bit of a cloud of unknown to me. I don't pretend to understand it.

Most of what I have was done in a kind of change and listen mode, that is to say experimentation. After all isn't that what it is all about. There are 3 pages in this part of the box and each page has three (3) parts as well. I will give you a table of the parameters I currently have below. Be sure that you have the LEFT channel highlighted. The top left of the display indicates which of the three (3) pages you are on and the "B" button will change from DEQ #1 to #3. Make sure you keep them coordinated with the use of the PAGE key and the "B" key. 

Note that the above examples from the manual shows all three (3) pages in DEQ #3 as noted in the bottom of each display. There are of course two (2) other DEQs. The table below has each of the DEQs labeled 1 low, 2 mid, and 3 high, with the corresponding values.

Table of setup for the DEQ         

If you are like me, your shack is far less than quiet. I have several computers running most of the time, and of course an amplifier that is quite noisy. To make matters worse, there is a large electronic furnace/air conditioning unit just on the other side of the wall between my shack and the garage. When all these are going, I have a lot of problems getting all these background sounds off my transmitted signal. I have tried many devices to make this problem less noticeable, but have not been successful.

The 2496 does the best job of anything I have found short of putting my transmitting position in a separate room.  Just about no one has the same environment or equipment so the setting for the DYN section of the 2496 will be different for each setup.

I provide mine here in the following table just to give you and idea, but most likely they will not work for you. If you get things too tight, you will get choppy or VOX sounding audio. Too loose and the background noise will again appear. You have to find that just right settings that make your audio noise free, or at least as close as you can come.

There are two pages that must be setup. Make sure you are setting up the left channel, and that you are working with the downward expander part of the DYN by highlighting the EXPA on the display. The settings are controlled by the two little and one large knob. 

Table for the DYN setup

Be sure to push the knobs in one time to put them in the fine tune mode if you need a finer adjustment for any of the values given here in the above table. Remember these setting are a guide and are pretty severe. You will probably not have to go to this extreme. The large diaphragm condenser microphone I am using (Nady 1050) pick up almost everything in the house let alone the ham shack. 

The MEMORY button and how to use it.

Now we get to the question of how I save what I have done and how to I go between various setup that I am working on.? There are 65 memories in the box 64 of which we can use. Position 0 is protected and used by the 2496 itself. Everything you setup in any of the function keys GEQ, PEQ, etc can be saved and recalled when you want to change between. Move the big knob and you will move the curser up or down to the next memory channel. 

Once you have everything setup in the function keys/buttons, you can save them by pressing the MEMORY button, selecting a vacant channel by moving to it with the big knob and the pressing the "A" button to store all your presets (settings you did). You will be given a chance to name the program you have created in the memory channel. Use the big and little knobs to select a meaningful name. 

When you select a memory channel the memory button L.E.D. will go out [off] indicating that it is the channel you selected. to verify this you can scroll through the memories and you'll see the memory button L.E.D. light up when NOT on the selected memory channel. this is confusing because you'd think the opposite would apply.

If you want to LOCK a memory channel, just press the lower small button until a lock figure appears on the memory name line and it will be protected from accidentally modification. 

Here is  info on the various reset procedures.

There are two levels:

1.Reset/clearing information held in temporary memory: Press and hold the key "memory" during power-up
2.Total reset clearing all memories and returning the unit to factory default:  Press and hold the keys "memory & compare" during power up. The display will show a warning, asking you to confirm the complete reset. 

You can also "lock" the box to prevent inadvertent editing: Press and hold the "low cut" button ...long enough for all LED's above the display to light up, the "low cut LED' will flash indicating the settings are locked.

To unlock the settings repeat the above procedure. Keep in mind this is not the same as locking a memory channel's parameter settings.

That is about all there is to the new box. The rest of functions can be easily learned by reading the manual or maybe visiting any of the other pages on the internet that deal with the DEQ2496.

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