Microphones came much better than when I worked for Motorola with the old carbon mic give them a rap and it would shake the carbon inside,nice mic tester, you made always like when you great videos pop up thanks Peter
Nice fix Peter. Our local emergency group had a problem with some Yaesu handhelds that out of the box had very low transmit audio. Apparently Yaesu tried to weatherize these HT's and that process impacted on the hole for the mic on the front of the radio. We VERY carefully used a sharp pick and ever so slightly pierced whatever covering they had in place and viola perfect audio. Seems this was a common problem with that model. Keep up the great work! 73 - Dino KL0S
Wow! I am so way behind in these videos; this one produced in 2016. Great video Peter. I am looking for solutions to my headset "problem" and came across this video. It certainly added to my knowledge in repairing mics. Perhaps you have time to help solve my dilemma and create another video, yes?
Excellent video Peter. Nice adapter for the 747 mic test rig. That Western socket is our most common data jack for our Cat 6 RJ45 for computer LAN. Your hum is 10 cycles flat so you must not be in the USA, Canada or Mexico. I am guilty of using through hole components on SMD boards, but usually not usually with caps. I used to float resistors off the boards in Nissan Engine Control Modules, because the 2/3 watt ones got so hot the solder would melt, and eventually they would fall off the board. I silicon glued the resistors in, so they are not knocking themselves loose. Bumblef__k, the apprentice there, needs to have his soldering pencils taken away. That's why we have the GEii silicon glue, and hot air rework solder rigs. Well all is not lost. Get out the telephone wire, the solder and the glue! The Tantalum cap will work good too, but, for God's sake, glue it down, with silistaical silicon gloop. I guess hot glue is okay. I was doing power resistors that would remelt the hot snot, so, no good for those. I was making $10 per ECM board to fix the ECMs, after that earthquake in Japan. Bare boards only! $100 if I had to remove them from the car, and reinstall them. I am too old and beaten up to twist and bend around underneath the dash boards of cars, so I charge extra money for doing that. A lot of the boards on my GM car started failing. All I needed to do was just reflow everything. ECM, traction control, ABS, transfer case selector, windshield wiper controller, etc. One had some bad caps, but all the rest just needed the soldering reflowed. and they all work great again. It is old enough to have through hole, then they dipped the boards in epoxy. FUN! NOT!
Thanks Pete for another good video, I knew of condenser microphone elements and that they worked with either a tube or transistor/FET but I NEVER SEEN one before! Now I know how they are made or fabricated, so Many thanks and Happy Holidays to you and everyone out in you tube land !!!!! John A Bellas
Very nice explanation of the problem and repair Peter. I do like your mic tester because I have the same unit. But have to take mine apart and work on it. It has become a noise generator for some reason. Turn it on and every radio in the shop hears noise from it. Plug a mic in and then it picks up radio stations lol. Thanks for another great video.73 Buddy
Thank you Buddy! Yes this mic tester with the modification is really a neat little device... Your tester would be a nice video I'm curious what the problem is! Take care 73
Nice repair Peter. Like Buddy I to think that's a interesting adapter you made for your mic tester. I have several of those. I will have to make a adapter box similar to that to add more functionality to mine. Big thumbs up.
Wow, when you showed the solder behind the mic element, I wondered whether it was bridged. Good plan on gluing the new cap down. I think I might have done the repair by using crazy glue to put an SMD cap in the proper place, and then running a few bits of wire-wrap or magnet wire to make the connections, but in retrospect, 2 solder connections are better than 4 I suppose! Thanks for the video. I always learn something (or lots of somethings!) :-)
Thanks again Peter very nice. I also noticed at 59:07 a smd cap has possibly moved as per Jaaps earlier comment. Keep up the great work and thanks again :)
Hi Peter that one you have there looks like the one i have on my Icom IC 7000, in fact i have two IC 7000's..one mic i keep as standard the other one i have had modified by Bob Nagy of Arkansas, he put a new head in it, higher output, made the Mic hole bigger and changed some components and made it heavier....works ok from Fred g4vvq
Hi Howard, well not necessarily as acoustic is a science for itself. I mentioned in the video that we had a dedicated acoustic engineer in our development team and without him we really would have been lost when it comes to sound... So it can be the the sound suffers if you simply enlarge the hole. Those things need to be done very carefully. Thanks for watching 73
Good job and video, Peter. I enjoy your video's. You have any info on your mic tester mod's? I currently making a box with various mic socket's to check different mic's that the T747 mic tester won't check. I have a Cobra 19 Plus microphone and it's electric. I've tried to add the 6 or so dc volt's to the audio circuit and i can't make the mic work through through the adaptor box i built. I'm sure there's more than adding the dc voltage to the audio circuit to make it work. And i do like the Ethernet plug style adaptor box you built as well.
I was looking forwards for a video with MICs, so many thanks for this Peter. One thing that always confuses me is the value of the ideal DC bias voltage that should be applied across pins of the condenser MIC. The datasheets of the MICs suggest a wide range of bias voltage (e.g. 2-10Vdc), but a high voltage might saturate the MIC, while a low voltage might cause clipping and severe distortion. I have removed the dynamic MIC of my Kenwood TS-590SG and replaced it with a condenser type. Now I am experimenting with the different DC bias voltages. 73, Kostas.
Hi Donald, well not necessarily as acoustic is a science for itself. I mentioned in the video that we had a dedicated acoustic engineer in our development team and without him we really would have been lost when it comes to sound... Thanks for watching 73
Peter all your videos are very good. In regards to the microphone buttons what do you do when the carbon will not Bridge the contacts anymore? Is there a way to clean them or does the whole button pad have to be removed and replaced?
There were a pair of unpopulated pads for another in-line component on that trace just above the torn pads (follow the trace toward the mic connector, between C10 and EP3 at 36:56 ) that you could have installed a new SMD cap in. Just cut the trace between them, install the cap, and put a jumper wire across the old missing component. It would have made a much neater repair.
It was soldered poorly and it is probably a generic film cap. I would replace it with a Wima, Panasonic or Nichicon Film capacitor and do a better job with the solder iron! I often split the difference. Many CB modifications are to add more bass. I have a deep voice already so the last thing I need or want is much more base. So I was modifing a President Lincoln's audio chain while re-capping the unit. A well known CB technician known for HiFi and ESSB mod's called for 1uf to 2.2uf cap in the first two stages of the audio chain. The stock capacitors in those locations are .22uf@50V so I went with 1uf which is already 5X the stock value going to 2.2uf would have been insane. Instead of the low grade electrolytic caps in that area I went with Wima caps to smooth out the sound. A lot of disk capacitors where replaced with bipolar audio grade caps of equal value in the rest of the audio chain and in the receiver sections audio. I do not want to sound like Darth Vader from Star Wars! I ended up with a little more lows and more highs before the -3 and -6db down point. I was getting 500mhz to 2500mhz now I am getting about 150mhz to 4000mhz. Definitely biased for rag chewing over contesting and pile-up's. The am audio is fantastic and the SSB sounds fantastic. The band width was kept stock so it is not ESSB or true hifi but it sounds much more natural with more highs, mids and lows. I am also using an electret condenser mic for flat audio response. I used audio grade caps from Nichicon, Panisonic and Wima in the audio chain. I have another radio for contesting that I have done just the opposite too. It has more highs and mid's and the lows have been filtered when added with 6db compression it is a piled busting beast! LOL
Yeah the caps should always adapted to your own voice. 1uF is a very common value but for SSB DX it is most of the time not really fitting the needs. Wima have top audio caps very high grade.. Thanks for stepping in 73
Yes too much capacitance for SSB DX too much bass not enough treble. Great for AM though. It looked like the person that did the capacitor mod in that unit used way too much heat that is probably what damaged the pads. If you do not have the right gear for SMD components at the very least you need to be able to turn down the temperature on your soldering iron. When increasing value I will often solder the new cap to the SMD cap instead of removing it and soldering right tot he pad to try and avoid damaging the pad. Going down in value that will not work though. Too bad he did not just order the right SMD cap!
Hello. As always, a very informative video. I learn something from each video you make. I only wish I lived close by and I could apprentice you. :) Just a quick question, I have a Midland Alan 18 CB radio in my station, bought it as new/old stock, couple of months before. I am a licenced amateur, but I like to use it for fun and chat with CB'ers. All the reports I get say I have a very good signal but the audio is low. The mic gain on the radio is turned to full but still not enough. I believe the stock mike has a dynamic capsule, and I have quite many of them lying around. How can I tell which one has stronger output without trying them one by one? Thanks and 73, TA2AWX
Thank you Bora! With your CB radio I believe the FM deviation is set to low. should be around 2,1up to 2,5 khz. Mildland radios are know for having the deviation to low..73
Could you not use Electro-Coat to to re-create the PCB tracks and I think you have to let it cure before applying heat to make the coating conductive so to behave in its intended purpose.
Electret MICs stop working when the humidity reaches 100%, unless it is sealed from the air, if there is such a thing. In standard condenser MICs one plate is micro thin and the other plate is very think and immoveable by the sound.
TRX Bench yes this is the 735 also it stops recieving on every 100KC, like 5.0000, 5.1000, 5.2000 ect. I was hoping there may be a common cause. thanks
Dodgy mods and dodgy soldering nothing new lol I just wish amateur radio kit microphones used a small single stage preamp in microphone to get the gain up better,Motorola use these this method and works superb in their fist microphones.
Microphones came much better than when I worked for Motorola with the old carbon mic
give them a rap and it would shake the carbon inside,nice mic tester, you made
always like when you great videos pop up
thanks Peter
LOL yeah I know this carbon mic from the 1960-1970 telephone sets. You shake them an they worked again :-) Always glad to see you here Dennis! 73
Nice fix Peter. Our local emergency group had a problem with some Yaesu handhelds that out of the box had very low transmit audio. Apparently Yaesu tried to weatherize these HT's and that process impacted on the hole for the mic on the front of the radio. We VERY carefully used a sharp pick and ever so slightly pierced whatever covering they had in place and viola perfect audio. Seems this was a common problem with that model. Keep up the great work! 73 - Dino KL0S
You never expect haw bad it can go..but as long the manufacturer has a solution for the problem fine. Thanks for feed-back Dino! 73
Wow! I am so way behind in these videos; this one produced in 2016. Great video Peter. I am looking for solutions to my headset "problem" and came across this video. It certainly added to my knowledge in repairing mics. Perhaps you have time to help solve my dilemma and create another video, yes?
Excellent video Peter. Nice adapter for the 747 mic test rig. That Western socket is our most common data jack for our Cat 6 RJ45 for computer LAN. Your hum is 10 cycles flat so you must not be in the USA, Canada or Mexico. I am guilty of using through hole components on SMD boards, but usually not usually with caps. I used to float resistors off the boards in Nissan Engine Control Modules, because the 2/3 watt ones got so hot the solder would melt, and eventually they would fall off the board. I silicon glued the resistors in, so they are not knocking themselves loose. Bumblef__k, the apprentice there, needs to have his soldering pencils taken away. That's why we have the GEii silicon glue, and hot air rework solder rigs. Well all is not lost. Get out the telephone wire, the solder and the glue! The Tantalum cap will work good too, but, for God's sake, glue it down, with silistaical silicon gloop. I guess hot glue is okay. I was doing power resistors that would remelt the hot snot, so, no good for those. I was making $10 per ECM board to fix the ECMs, after that earthquake in Japan. Bare boards only! $100 if I had to remove them from the car, and reinstall them. I am too old and beaten up to twist and bend around underneath the dash boards of cars, so I charge extra money for doing that. A lot of the boards on my GM car started failing. All I needed to do was just reflow everything. ECM, traction control, ABS, transfer case selector, windshield wiper controller, etc. One had some bad caps, but all the rest just needed the soldering reflowed. and they all work great again. It is old enough to have through hole, then they dipped the boards in epoxy. FUN! NOT!
Thank you Seth. Oh you can hear that we are 10 cycles down wow...Thanks for your report very interesting! All the best 73
Peter what a brilliant video...Thats helped me out so much thankyou
Glad that you like it and thanks for stopping by! 73
Another spectacular video as always, Peter. Congratulations!!!
Thank you very much Mauricio! 73
Well done Peter that was very well explained. That was a very good video. Thank u very much for sharing that with us Peter.
Thanks for stepping in Gary!! 73
Hi Peter, enjoyed the video. Best wishes. 73
Thank you Larry! 73
Thanks Pete for another good video, I knew of condenser microphone elements and that they worked with either a tube or transistor/FET but I NEVER SEEN one before! Now I know how they are made or fabricated, so Many thanks and Happy Holidays to you and everyone out in you tube land !!!!! John A Bellas
Thank you John glad that you like it! 73
Very nice explanation of the problem and repair Peter. I do like your mic tester because I have the same unit. But have to take mine apart and work on it. It has become a noise generator for some reason. Turn it on and every radio in the shop hears noise from it. Plug a mic in and then it picks up radio stations lol. Thanks for another great video.73 Buddy
Thank you Buddy! Yes this mic tester with the modification is really a neat little device... Your tester would be a nice video I'm curious what the problem is! Take care 73
Nice repair Peter. Like Buddy I to think that's a interesting adapter you made for your mic tester. I have several of those. I will have to make a adapter box similar to that to add more functionality to mine. Big thumbs up.
Yeah works perfect for me Mike...Thanks for watching looking forward to your new bench set-up...73
Very educational and entertaining video! Thanks so much for sharing with us!
Thanks for feed back! 73
Nice job Peter big thumbs up 73
Thanks Allan 73
Wow, when you showed the solder behind the mic element, I wondered whether it was bridged. Good plan on gluing the new cap down. I think I might have done the repair by using crazy glue to put an SMD cap in the proper place, and then running a few bits of wire-wrap or magnet wire to make the connections, but in retrospect, 2 solder connections are better than 4 I suppose! Thanks for the video. I always learn something (or lots of somethings!) :-)
Thanks for watching Michael, well as we are dealing with af we can mange it this way. When it comes to hf it is a complete different story... 73
Danke Peter, wieder echt klasse, Grüsse 73 Peter
Freut mich immer wenn es dir gefällt! Alles Gute Peter
Thanks again Peter very nice. I also noticed at 59:07 a smd cap has possibly moved as per Jaaps earlier comment. Keep up the great work and thanks again :)
Thanks I have seen it 73
Hi Peter that one you have there looks like the one i have on my Icom IC 7000, in fact i have two IC 7000's..one mic i keep as standard the other one i have had modified by Bob Nagy of Arkansas, he put a new head in it, higher output, made the Mic hole bigger and changed some components and made it heavier....works ok from Fred g4vvq
Hello Fred, yes it is a originally Icom Mic used on different radios..Thanks for watching 73
Nice point about enlarging the mic hole. M3KQW 73s
Hi Howard, well not necessarily as acoustic is a science for itself. I mentioned in
the video that we had a dedicated acoustic engineer in our development
team and without him we really would have been lost when it comes to
sound... So it can be the the sound suffers if you simply enlarge the hole. Those things need to be done very carefully. Thanks for watching 73
Good job and video, Peter. I enjoy your video's. You have any info on your mic tester mod's? I currently making a box with various mic socket's to check different mic's that the T747 mic tester won't check. I have a Cobra 19 Plus microphone and it's electric. I've tried to add the 6 or so dc volt's to the audio circuit and i can't make the mic work through through the adaptor box i built. I'm sure there's more than adding the dc voltage to the audio circuit to make it work. And i do like the Ethernet plug style adaptor box you built as well.
this was a great little video. what do you think about changing the icom capsule out for the "wm61a" panasonic? . thanks
I was looking forwards for a video with MICs, so many thanks for this Peter. One thing that always confuses me is the value of the ideal DC bias voltage that should be applied across pins of the condenser MIC. The datasheets of the MICs suggest a wide range of bias voltage (e.g. 2-10Vdc), but a high voltage might saturate the MIC, while a low voltage might cause clipping and severe distortion. I have removed the dynamic MIC of my Kenwood TS-590SG and replaced it with a condenser type. Now I am experimenting with the different DC bias voltages. 73, Kostas.
Hi Kostas, well I always set it around 5V. Clipping is not the big problem as we are in the mV for audio.....Thanks for watching 73
Nice video. Highest grade as usual. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much Juan! 73
Peter,
Fine video. You would think that the cartridge could have been better centered in the Icom mic housing. WB3BJU
Hi Donald, well not necessarily as acoustic is a science for itself. I mentioned in the video that we had a dedicated acoustic engineer in our development team and without him we really would have been lost when it comes to sound... Thanks for watching 73
Peter all your videos are very good.
In regards to the microphone buttons what do you do when the carbon will not Bridge the contacts anymore? Is there a way to clean them or does the whole button pad have to be removed and replaced?
John, sometimes it is enough to simply clean the contacts on the pcb with alcohol....Hope that helps. 73
There were a pair of unpopulated pads for another in-line component on that trace just above the torn pads (follow the trace toward the mic connector, between C10 and EP3 at 36:56 ) that you could have installed a new SMD cap in. Just cut the trace between them, install the cap, and put a jumper wire across the old missing component. It would have made a much neater repair.
It was soldered poorly and it is probably a generic film cap. I would replace it with a Wima, Panasonic or Nichicon Film capacitor and do a better job with the solder iron!
I often split the difference. Many CB modifications are to add more bass. I have a deep voice already so the last thing I need or want is much more base. So I was modifing a President Lincoln's audio chain while re-capping the unit. A well known CB technician known for HiFi and ESSB mod's called for 1uf to 2.2uf cap in the first two stages of the audio chain. The stock capacitors in those locations are .22uf@50V so I went with 1uf which is already 5X the stock value going to 2.2uf would have been insane. Instead of the low grade electrolytic caps in that area I went with Wima caps to smooth out the sound. A lot of disk capacitors where replaced with bipolar audio grade caps of equal value in the rest of the audio chain and in the receiver sections audio. I do not want to sound like Darth Vader from Star Wars! I ended up with a little more lows and more highs before the -3 and -6db down point. I was getting 500mhz to 2500mhz now I am getting about 150mhz to 4000mhz. Definitely biased for rag chewing over contesting and pile-up's. The am audio is fantastic and the SSB sounds fantastic. The band width was kept stock so it is not ESSB or true hifi but it sounds much more natural with more highs, mids and lows. I am also using an electret condenser mic for flat audio response. I used audio grade caps from Nichicon, Panisonic and Wima in the audio chain. I have another radio for contesting that I have done just the opposite too. It has more highs and mid's and the lows have been filtered when added with 6db compression it is a piled busting beast! LOL
Yeah the caps should always adapted to your own voice. 1uF is a very common value but for SSB DX it is most of the time not really fitting the needs. Wima have top audio caps very high grade.. Thanks for stepping in 73
"150mhz to 4000mhz" : )))
Yes too much capacitance for SSB DX too much bass not enough treble. Great for AM though. It looked like the person that did the capacitor mod in that unit used way too much heat that is probably what damaged the pads. If you do not have the right gear for SMD components at the very least you need to be able to turn down the temperature on your soldering iron. When increasing value I will often solder the new cap to the SMD cap instead of removing it and soldering right tot he pad to try and avoid damaging the pad. Going down in value that will not work though. Too bad he did not just order the right SMD cap!
buckaroobonsi555
nice video and explanation, but did you notice the damaged cap. visible at 59:07 in the upper right corner of the screen ? maybe a future problem ?
Hi Jaap, thank you I have double checked it! 73
What is the black disk with these different sized holes in it at 8:00 ? Is it for acoustic purposes?
Hello. As always, a very informative video. I learn something from each video you make. I only wish I lived close by and I could apprentice you. :)
Just a quick question, I have a Midland Alan 18 CB radio in my station, bought it as new/old stock, couple of months before. I am a licenced amateur, but I like to use it for fun and chat with CB'ers. All the reports I get say I have a very good signal but the audio is low. The mic gain on the radio is turned to full but still not enough. I believe the stock mike has a dynamic capsule, and I have quite many of them lying around. How can I tell which one has stronger output without trying them one by one?
Thanks and 73, TA2AWX
Thank you Bora! With your CB radio I believe the FM deviation is set to low. should be around 2,1up to 2,5 khz. Mildland radios are know for having the deviation to low..73
TRX Bench Is there an adjustment inside the radio for deviation?
great job.. sounds sweet as a nutt
LOL yes not to bad. Thanks for watching 73
One of the legs of Q1 looks like a bad joint too.
Thanks for the hint. I have double checked it.
Thank you Peter
73
Thanks for stepping in Hussain! 73
Do you have a video or instruction on how to modify the microphone tester and make the adapters for the ham radio microphone?
no
In my experience , microphones are accountable for 30 to 50% of reported faults with CB radios
Could you not use Electro-Coat to to re-create the PCB tracks and I think you have to let it cure before applying heat to make the coating conductive so to behave in its intended purpose.
Off course that is possible but not really needed in this case as we are dealing with audio.. 73
Electret MICs stop working when the humidity reaches 100%, unless it is sealed from the air, if there is such a thing. In standard condenser MICs one plate is micro thin and the other plate is very think and immoveable by the sound.
Thanks for your contribution..there is really so much more which could be said about acoustic..73
I have a Icom 735 with no audio.....have you run into this before?
I dont think its the microphone though
Well yes I had many radios with no audio but it really can be more or less in any stage of the radio. 73
TRX Bench yes this is the 735
also it stops recieving on every 100KC, like 5.0000, 5.1000, 5.2000 ect.
I was hoping there may be a common cause.
thanks
The word this starts with a t
zis sims to be tru
Thanks for nice video, as alwalys Peter. It is not boring! Can you please tell me your e-mail, I would like to contact You.
Danke 73 de E74D
Thanks for feed-back. e-mail is FBLab@gmx.de 73
Fine. Many thaks Peter. Good luck in work.
Dodgy mods and dodgy soldering nothing new lol
I just wish amateur radio kit microphones used a small single stage preamp in microphone to get the gain up better,Motorola use these this method and works superb in their fist microphones.
LOL yes that is true...thanks for watching 73
73'S Rob