scooterspal wrote:

Yes, they are using the mic cable shield for the antenna. Cable is 48"
long with a 1/8" phone plug on the end. The shield side of the mic
connector is floating, that is correct.

I would be connecting the antenna to a new socket of some sort. A BNC
if I can make that fit this rather smallish casing.

Can you give me any starting point for the antenna itself? If I was to
connect it to the existing lead off the coil, the one that now goes to
the mic shield... remove if from there and connect it to the center
pin on the antenna. Would the outer ring of the BNC go to battery negative
ground?

The manufacturer mentioned using a 5K resistor on each side as I
recall. Does thie affect the gain in any way?

I'd only be guessing. Perhaps the 5K resistor(s) are
part of the 'float'.

What kind of signal are you going to transmit
if you aren't using the mic? Just answer generically
if you're an Al Qadea operative or something. ie where
on the gizmo will you connect the audio(?) that you
want to transmit?

If you're injecting the signal somewere else besides
that mic jack, try just temporarily clipping a 48"
piece of wire to the OUTSIDE of the mic jack or whatever
terminal connects to the shield of the mic cable (your coil?).
If that seems to work, then consider your rubber duck or other
options.

The mic jack may be designed to shut power off when
disconnected. You might need to plug a dummy phone
plug into the jack to get it to power on.

Just connecting random wires or antennas to the thing
won't damage anything as long as you only connect to
one point (don't short two terminals together). I don't
think I'd be connecting any antennas to power ground
unless I was really sure of how the thing works.

The outer ring of a rubber duck does essentially
nothing on most rubber ducks.

As others have mentioned, you're probably going to
get LESS of a signal by going to the shortened
duck antenna over the original 48" wire.

Is there a schematic somewhere?


Lumpy

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Yes. White tux, huge sideburns.

www.LumpyGuitar.com