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Carbon microphone revitalization
Maybe we need to discuss what you really want to accomplish.
My experience with T-17 microphones 50 years ago is that they are just not very sensitive. I assumed this is deliberate - to make yourself heard over the noise in an airplane you have to yell into the mike. Now if you want to preserve an authentic T-17 then I guess something like baking the transmitter is about your only hope, and you can only hope to make the mike as good as it was when originally manufactured. I remember lots of guys in the old days, who were not interested in historic preservation, simply took the carbon element out of the T-17 and attached the wires to a Western Electric F-1 element and taped it in place. F-1 was the element used in the 302 telephones, forerunner of the later T-1 used in the 500 type sets. If you want to preserve the appearance of the T-17 but not the authenticity, then maybe you could get the original element out and replace it with either a T-1 or an electret mike behind the faceplate and nobody will know the difference (except you will sound a lot better on the radio). I was working with some military handsets a while back that use the equivalent of a T-1, and replaced the old transmitters with new T-1s. I also got an electret T-1 replacement from Mike Sandman - it was designed for use with a modular-corded handset, but with a little hacking I got it to fit into the older kind of handset. Has anyone worked out the circuit to use an electret like you get from Radio Shack - they have 2 and 3 terminal models - to replace a carbon element? Jim W6JVE |
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