Hello Chris, I got my "new" wireless handheld about 6 weeks ago and have used it twice to call full dances. So, I went through the same process of "who-what-how much to spend" etc very recently. I asked 3 different sound engineers for their opinion on the ones I was looking at..... I used the web site of www.zzsounds.com to do most of my research.... I ended up getting the exact model I was looking for off ebay (won the bid! - which one of our sound engineers found for me).... Here are some copy/ pastes from one of the sound engineer's his recommendations when I was looking: << The multi channel unit is useful when using it in an environment with other mics. It means you can easily move to another channel when there is another mic on the same channel. I have some of these, but then I do gigs where there are multiple mics. The feature may come in handy sometimes, but rarley. Any big event where there are a bunch of wireless mics runnig around, you probably won't have yours out. >> and: << I have standardized on Samson mics for my uses. I have a collection of them. This one is like the ones I use: http://www.zzounds.com/item--SAMSWLSHQ [Chris, this is the one I ended up getting, except I got mine on ebay, one year used for $150. The receiver is very small which makes it easy for travel]. You want to stay with the UHF band, they are better than the VHF band. The ATUS mic you sent should work fine, but I'm not as experienced with them. The other investment is some rechargable batteries from: http://www.thomasdistributing.com/maha-powerex-mh-c490f-9v-battery-charger.… http://www.thomasdistributing.com/mh-96v170.htm These run my Samson mics for 4 hours or so, enough for a full dance. The charger comes with a car cord as well as a wall wart supply. I keep my charger in the van and top off the charge on the way to the dance.>> Once I got my wireless handheld, he gave me some more excellent advice.... get a few of those foam, wind-shield things to put on top of the microphone.... I always wondered what they were for.... The advice he gave me was when you are done calling, take off the foam and let it air out / dry . Every so often you can wash them in the washing machine in a net (lingerie - type/ hand wash for delicate items) bag. (This sound engineer washes them after every use as he rents out his equipment often). I decided to purchase my own wireless handheld for two reasons: 1. the first was that being a relatively new caller, I call at a lot of "community dances" with a high number of beginners and I wanted to be able to be on the floor more. 2. I started thinking about the germ factor and how many people actually use these microphones, do they get wiped down afterwards, etc? Sometimes you can't help it bumping up against your mouth... Here is one of my learnings since using my own microphone: I was shocked (OK, grossed out) at how wet that foam got after I had called one evening..... Well, after all this good advice, I should credit Marty Brenneis from San Rafael (North of San Francisco, CA)...... "enjoy" your research! Karen Fontana Chris Weiler &lt;Chris.Weiler(a)weirdtable.org&gt; wrote: Hi all, I have been thinking about getting a handheld cordless microphone and was wondering which ones were the best for calling and why. I am looking to get prices. I have decided that when I earn (gross, not net) the price of the microphone from calling, that I'll be ready for one. (Or maybe not, but it works as a goal.) Thanks for your help! Chris _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers karen_fontana(a)yahoo.com H650-691-9663