There needs to be a way TO TURN OFF this audio-killing feature.

Question

I've written in Apple's suggestion form several times during the past two and a half years, but iChat seems quiet forgotten since Leopard. So now I'm wondering if there's a hack-like way to fix this.
My girlfriend and I are in a long-distance relationship.
I live with a roomate on a 11quartermaster who can be quiet noisy. She lives in a family-packed home.
iChat has a tendency to gradually mute the other person if loud audio is coming from one side. This feature is useless. Skype doesn't do it, and we always have clearer audio. But Skype has far less features, iChat theater for watching films and sharing music and pictures with one another. Screensharing for giving techsupport, group video for free (How the &%#€ does Skype charge for P2P chat anyway?)
So, is there any way to disable this "Smart" audio leveling/normalizing feature? Oh and while I'm at it, is there a way to make calls autoresume if connection is lost? A session can easily last 3 hours, sometimes 6+, saying something for a long time, thinking you can be heard only to find out it's saying that there was no connection for 10 seconds, is quiet frustrating when it happens several times a day, every day of the year.
Thanks in advance! Willing to use any terminal-based fixes!
What we did to troubleshoot: Turn off and on the "recude ambient noise" in sound settings, as well as both using headphones. I asume the feature is to stop feedback, but feedback is impassible with headphones (As long as they are volumed responibly)

Answer 1

Hi,
On the sound front you seemed to have tried most things.
From the way you started I was thnking of Headsets but I se you have tried them as well.
I generally keep my Volume on my computer fairly low.
I then use this AppleScript that is linked in the iChat Video Invites in the Alerts section of the Preferences so it is auto Triggered.
using terms from application "iChat"
    on av chat started
        set status to away
        set status message to "In Conference . . ."
        delay 0.2
        set volume input volume 85
        delay 0.2
        set volume output volume 80
        delay 0.2
    end av chat started
end using terms from
The First bit just make me look "Busy" both by turning the Away marker (Red) On and by the Message.
The Second bumps bother trhe Input Volume (The one set in System Preferences > Sound > Input) and the Output Volume.
You could take the second part of this and set it in a loop to keep resetting the volume every few seconds.
9:27 PM      Monday; October 31, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously