Some think of a telecoil as being useful only in a venue that is looped. It’s true that not many places are looped in most states. (If you’e in MI or WI, you’re in luck. Those states are well looped.) But loops are of tremendous value in all states because many places provide assistive listening devices: theaters, museum docent guides or even recorded guides, tour guides. If they provide ear buds, or people bring their own, you should bring your neck loop. After all, with ear buds you don’t get the amplification you need that’s programmed into your hearing aids. Plug the neck loop in the listening device instead of the ear buds, and you will be able to understand the speaker as well as can with your hearing aids and a person sitting next to you, with all background noise eliminated.
Haven’t had HAs with telecoil or seen the technology around here in Europe since I used this over fifty years ago…
I use t-coils at our church for every service. I am looking for a neck loop at this time.
When I am with a tour group, they often use a system where the tour leader has a microphone and transmitter and each guest has a receiver and earbuds (or sometimes a speaker that clips over the ear.) For a trip I took last month, I bought a neck loop and enabled the T-coil program on my aids. It worked great - the sound was better than I get through the cheap earbud/speaker they hand out.
Good tip! Yes, it is a shame this stone-age technology (dating from the 1940s…) is not more widely (systematically) deployed, as it can cover far larger areas than Bluetooth and doesn’t require 1:1 connectivity. Reviews say it is used more in Europe than the US, but I don’t see much of this here.
The UK, and I believe the EU (EN 17210 inclusive requirements for public spaces across Europe, 2021) makes it mandatory to implement hearing loops in public spaces, so hopefully things will improve.
As cvkemp notes, this is extremely useful in churches, which tend to be large and where acoustics appear to be rather designed to encourage monastic silence. I liked the technology a lot when I last used it as a kid.
Bluetooth is a relatively short-distance connector–about 30 feet, while telecoil with a hearing loop can connect in a VERY large space–big auditorium etc.
BTW–the new Jabra Enhance Pro’s LACK the telecoil, BUT the relevant external microphone–the Multi-Mic–DOES include a telecoil, so if you have a Multi-Mic, you have a telecoil available!
I did the same thing on a guided tour/trip to Europe. I heard much better than anyone else on the tour, and was able to stand at the back of the group. Heard perfectly!
I have had a telecoil for many years - I think I have only used it in a public place once or twice in that time.
HOWEVER, I use it all the time when using over ear headphones - they have magnetic speaker coils and work really well with telecoil. It prevents uncontrollable feedback when the ears are cupped by the headphones and leads to greatly enhanced music listening, especially when I am recording or mixing music productions - I hope a telecoil option will continue for many years.
I was in Victoria station in London standing at the ticket window and realized there was the loop symbol. The clerk uses a mic anyway and I changed my program to the telecoil and there it was. Accents and all were, as always, the challenge but it worked.
Way out here on the west coast of Canada we have a ferry system that has a cafeteria and I noticed the loop symbol there too and it worked.
So they’re around. Regardless of how old they are they still work wonderfully in their discrete way rather then some big ugly bulky thing. And we still have the wheel don’t we. That’s been around for a couple few years. 
I recently stayed in the hotel in Victoria Station and picked up the announcements when I adjusted my HAs to better hear the TV.
I use telecoil extensively because I attend a lot of international conferences where it is used. Also tours and museums.
I got the telecoil option when I got my “new” hearing aids, some 3 or 4 years ago, Phonak Marvel 13T, something like that. I had read about churches, theaters, and air ports being looped, and that sounded good to me. Sadly, I’ve yet to go to a church, theater, or airport that is looped.
However, I don’t regret getting the telecoil option. A couple of years ago, I started looking into what our church could do for us folks with “mature” hearing. I discovered that you could get little receivers with neck loops that hooked into the telecoil. Boy, does that make a world of difference!
I was interested to read folks above talking about plugging neck loops into the little receivers that get handed out in museums and the like. Sounds like I need to take my church loop with me when I go out to such places.
I don’t need it for the phone because I have bluetooth pairing with my iPhone. I’ve yet to figure out how to “upgrade” our landline so that it would work with my telecoil. Something to do with little magnets I gather, but switching my HAs into TC mode isn’t trivial, the little button on my HAs is dodgy, and folks would have long hung up on me were I to try to use TC on my landline. Whatever, the majority of calls these days are from telemarketers, and I’ve no interest in talking to them.
Anyway, thanks Allo for the info on this thread. I agree that TC is a great option to have.
Wow, that’s a strong induction loop. How many floors up were you? I wonder where the actual loop of wire is located. I wonder how high up an induction loop can be picked up by telecoils? Interesting. I don’t remember hearing announcements.
I travel with my TV Connector. Works on planes and hotel tvs.
Many public libraries are looped, mainly in the ‘community room’ where meetings are held. Sometimes you have to speak to the person in charge to get the loop “turned on”–that is, if there’s a sound system–as there is (sadly) so little usage of it. I like to ask for it, just to keep them on their toes.
@lgpiper Your Marvels will not auto-switch to telecoil mode in the presence of a magnet the way that older models used to. Therefore, a magnet on your landline phone would not help; you have to activate it manually. You just need the telecoil program to be the first in the list so that as you get up to answer the phone you press the button on your HA’s.
Thanks for the reply, I’m not sure I knew that the auto-switching, about which I’ve read, only worked in some cases, and not for my Marvels. Sadly, my TC program is the third on the list, and the button is getting increasingly difficult to make work. It took me something like a minute, and a half dozen tries to get switched up yesterday. Naturally, some of the misfires work to change volume, so then I also have to waste time getting back to “normal” for the volume.
Perhaps I should try switching on the iPhone app, but my brief experience with that was the app switching didn’t persist, but reverted back to auto after a few minutes.
Well, some parts of WI maybe. Nothing near me seems to be looped. I’ve a pair of KS8 hearing aids and used the telecoil feature for the first time about a month ago at my grandniece’s baptism. It was great! Too bad that church is about 60 miles away. I’m still happy though since I bought the telecoil feature version because it came with a bigger battery.
@lgpiper I have the Phonak Remote Control which is ofter easier to use than the buttons on the HA’s.
Would you please specify the FM receiver model number? Are you able to use it in other public venues?
I use it with the landline phones at work if I have a short conversation. (For longer conversations I use a Roger On and lapel mic as it is easier to hear)
Jim
DEAR Jim
May I know how to use “roger on” as “mic” when making a mobile phone call?
thnaks!
Jack