diff --git a/gui/dialogs/fgcom.xml b/gui/dialogs/fgcom.xml
index b0e13734a..3bb57f925 100644
--- a/gui/dialogs/fgcom.xml
+++ b/gui/dialogs/fgcom.xml
@@ -172,7 +172,7 @@
     <text>
       <row>1</row>
       <col>1</col>
-      <label>        (for debug only)</label>
+      <label>     (for debug only)</label>
       <halign>right</halign>
     </text>
 
@@ -262,8 +262,8 @@
     <text>
       <row>5</row>
       <col>2</col>
-      <label>1234</label>
-      <format>%.1f</format>
+      <label>1234 dB  </label>
+      <format>%.1f dB</format>
       <live>true</live>
       <property>/sim/fgcom/silence-threshold</property>
     </text>
diff --git a/preferences.xml b/preferences.xml
index 7deff17a4..b4c7b0dc2 100644
--- a/preferences.xml
+++ b/preferences.xml
@@ -832,6 +832,7 @@ Started September 2000 by David Megginson, david@megginson.com
 			<server type="string" userarchive="y">fgcom.flightgear.org</server>
 			<show-messages type="bool" userarchive="y">false</show-messages>
 			<speaker-level type="double" userarchive="y">1.0</speaker-level>
+			<silence-threshold type="double" userarchive="y">-20.0</silence-threshold>
 			<register>
 				<enabled type="bool" userarchive="y">false</enabled>
 				<username type="string" userarchive="y">guest</username>