colt midnite special

[lemmychatter]

Does anyone know what microphones will work with a base Colt midnite special? i picked one up at a flea market, real nice shape but no mic. Thanks!!

[jessejamesdallas]

Couldn't find anything on the Midnight Special, but if it's a 4 pin, most all of the other Colt radios are wired like this:


Mic Wiring

Stock
1- Audio
2- Shield
3- Receive
4- Transmit

Astatic (4 wire)
1- White
2- Shield
3- Black
4- Red

Astatic (6 wire)
1- White
2- Shield & Blue
3- Black
4- Red
Yellow NC

Daiwa EM-500
Cobra CA Series
1- Red
2- Shield & Black
3- Blue
4- White

Galaxy DC-521S (4 wire)
1- Yellow
2- Shield
3- Black
4- Red

Galaxy CB-660EI
1- White
2- Shield & Black
3- Blue
4- Red

Sadelta
1- White
2- Shield
3- Green
4- Brown

Turner
1- White
2- Shield & Red
3- Black
4- Blue
Yellow NC
---------------------------------------------------------
If 5 pin:
Mic Wiring

Stock
1- Audio
2- Transmit
3- Shield
4- N/C
5- Receive

Astatic (4 wire)
1- White
2- Red
3- Shield
4- N/C
5- Black


Astatic (6 wire)
1- White
2- Red
3- Shield & Blue
4- N/C
5- Black
Yellow N/C

Daiwa EM-500
Cobra CA Series
1- Red
2- White
3- Shield & Black
4- N/C
5- Blue

Galaxy DC-521S (4 wire)
1- Yellow
2- Red
3- Shield
4- N/C
5- Black

Galaxy CB-660EI
1- White
2- Red
3- Shield & Black
4- N/C
5- Blue

Sadelta
1- White
2- Brown
3- Shield
4- N/C
5- Green

Turner
1- White
2- Blue
3- Shield & Red
4- N/C
5- Black
Yellow NC

These are different wiring from the standard Cobra/Galaxy radios, so if you buy a New Mic, your going to have to rewire it....

[MDYoungblood]

Cool looking radio. First I would see if a Cobra 4pin would work, that is the most common wiring or maybe someone rewired the jack to use Cobra, (that is what I normally do). If the Cobra mic transmits when plugged in the TX/RX needs to be switched. there is only 2 different wiring pinouts for a 4pin Colt,
Pin 1 is audio, pin 2 is shield (and switching ground if a 6 wire mic), pin 3 is TX and pin 4 is RX or pin 1 is audio, pin 2 is TX, pin 3 is switching ground, and pin 4 is TX (I would try this one first since it is a tube radio, is definitely relay switching).
If you need more help tell me which mic you are trying to wire up.

3's

Greg

[lemmychatter]

Thanks for all the information. Its a 4 pin ,guess i will have to play around with that. i fired it up today and just threw a mobile mag mount up on my metal shed with a 5 ft firestik to try it. it worked great at first but as it warmed up the recieve signal started to come in and out. i lost static noise all together. somtimes someone would come in strong out of dead silence and then slowly fade away. not sure whats going on there, its my first tube rig. thanks!!

[jessejamesdallas]

Probably weak tubes....

[lemmychatter]

ya, i think the tubes might be weak or ones bad, heres another weird thing about this rig. i get a little shock when i touch the case. (not opened up, lid screwed shut) its not a big shock but a definite tingle. its too bad its a nice old rig but im not sure its worth having repaired.

[jessejamesdallas]

ya, i think the tubes might be weak or ones bad, heres another weird thing about this rig. i get a little shock when i touch the case. (not opened up, lid screwed shut) its not a big shock but a definite tingle. its too bad its a nice old rig but im not sure its worth having repaired.

I have a old tube amp that was doing that...Turned out on the bottom side of the board there was a capacitor that was rubbing the case, and had started leaking...Found out when it started sparking...replaced three cap's that were side-by-side, and put some electrical tape on the case where the original had been rubbing, just to give the new ones a little more insulation from the case...that took care of the shocking.

Just be super-careful messing around inside that radio! Most things inside will literally "Light you up!"

[lemmychatter]

thats what i thought it must be. a leaky cap or somthing. dont worry im not pokin around in this one. i know tube radios can be dangerous. im gonna hang on to it, maybe someday have a pro tech restore it. Thanks!

[MDYoungblood]

Your right, those old tubers can make you lay on the floor for a while wondering what you touched. If you can take a pic and post it, there isn't many AM tuber's out there like that, the clarifier control makes this one more interesting.

3's

Greg

[Scipio Kid]

Sheesh, when did they make those? I thought by the time 40 channel radios were on the market, nobody was making tube chassis anymore. Or were the top of the line models still using tubes for a while?

Well, that's just one more thing to add to my "didn't know" list. Man, that dang list just gets longer and longer. Then when you add it to the list of things I've forgotten, well I could write a book (except it'd be pretty hard to write about all the things I forgot or don't know ... Now I've got a headache).

[MDYoungblood]

Sheesh, when did they make those? I thought by the time 40 channel radios were on the market, nobody was making tube chassis anymore. Or were the top of the line models still using tubes for a while?

Well, that's just one more thing to add to my "didn't know" list. Man, that dang list just gets longer and longer. Then when you add it to the list of things I've forgotten, well I could write a book (except it'd be pretty hard to write about all the things I forgot or don't know ... Now I've got a headache).

There were several popular models, Robyn, Teaberry, Sonar, and Tram (not sure the 40 channel model passed FCC scrutiny) had a AM radio just to name a few, the Cobra Cam88 didn't get 40 channels either I believe, now I am talking about AM mode only.

3's

Greg