Personal Receivers

Is it the responsibility of the ward to acquire and maintain personal receivers for the hard of hearing? We have a Comtex PR-72b, but it does not work well. Also have gigantic earphones that are not liked because they attract attention to those who use them.

Just curious how other wards handle this.

I believe the FM is supposed to provide a certain number of Comtek receivers for each meetinghouse. Additional receivers can probably be purchased by the ward or stake through the FM. I don't know if a ward or stake can purchase them directly through store.lds.org, since I've never tried to do so.

Private individuals may also purchase Comtek receivers. Those who can afford to do so prefer to have their own so they don't share earpieces with others.

A little more detail can be found in Assisted Listening System (ALS).

The receivers are quite expensive. But it should be possible to buy additional earpieces to avoid sharing those. That would be far more affordable.

Not mentioned is that there's an option for a magnetic loop that can be worn around the neck and will work with compatible hearing aids. The earpieces I've seen are large single-ear type devices. I assume the size is in part to be able to develop the volume needed by some listeners and to keep the sound in the ear so as not to distract others around them.