What's in Your Radio Microphone Collection?

[Foxhunter]

Vintage Ham Amateur CB Radio or Harp Microphone Mic Collection ? Forgive the key words but----what do you have ? I know some of you guys have some mic's stashed away or are still using in the shack even. What's you're hottest mic ? What do any of you have for radio microphones ?




Here's a few pic's of my former science lab desk, with some mic scrap metal on-board. Since I just re-organized my Photobucket account into all separate subject themed albums, I just added one solely for mic's. As a result, many of my old photo links are now broken, so at some point I'll go back and add the new links to a few of the posts I'd like to most.

Anyway, here are the majority of my own mic's in my collection right now. I have a few more stashed away in original boxes etc and I have a whole mobile hand mic collection out in the shop. Most of these first posted pics here were taken on a cubical desk, at the time located in a small unfinished hallway closet as I was in the process of moving in. One of these days, I'll get caught up enough to have everything in one place----the main station desk down in "the radio bunker".

Anyone want to throw in some pics of whatever they have for mic equipment please be my guest! It's not about showing-off at all, it's about swapping photos and sharing collection gear!


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For some reason this one "blew up" lol
Astatic D104 Blow Up Parts Diagram
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Foxhunter 351 NJ


Edit: Removed a few pic's and re-titled

[OneEyedJack]

That is a crazy collection!!!

[shakuna]

hehe think you got enough microphones there? lol.
i love those d104's and the knight k eagle one of my favs for sure.

[rayray1963]

You definitely have to many, I think you should pack up at least half of them and send them to me, Heck I'll even let ya pay the shipping........

But really thats a heck of nice collection dude.

Ray

[drdx]

I must say that's one nice looking pointer finger man ring you have there. I gave linx one of those once but he said he lost it. If that ring has an L shaped letter grouping, where it has L I N X going down, and D R D X, meeting it, with the X being the common letter, with a heart surrounding it, I need to know.


-drdx

[rayray1963]

I must say that's one nice looking pointer finger man ring you have there. I gave linx one of those once but he said he lost it. If that ring has an L shaped letter grouping, where it has L I N X going down, and D R D X, meeting it, with the X being the common letter, with a heart surrounding it, I need to know.


-drdx

You aint right dude, J/K

Ray

[Sheriff Bart]

foxhunter,
I recently bought a D104 with a silver eagle backplate and in the base just to the left of the pressbar is a mini toggle which connects to the amplifier board. Is this a factory option or might it be someone added it to turn the mic from active to passive ?

[linx]

I must say that's one nice looking pointer finger man ring you have there. I gave linx one of those once but he said he lost it. If that ring has an L shaped letter grouping, where it has L I N X going down, and D R D X, meeting it, with the X being the common letter, with a heart surrounding it, I need to know.


-drdx

ROFLMAO. Awww..you shouldn't have schnookums.

You owe me a keyboard from where I just spit my coke out.

[Foxhunter]

foxhunter,
I recently bought a D104 with a silver eagle backplate and in the base just to the left of the pressbar is a mini toggle which connects to the amplifier board. Is this a factory option or might it be someone added it to turn the mic from active to passive ?

Hey sorry my friend I didn't see this 'til just now. No any of the toggle switched bases (that I've seen anyway) were Astatic factory additions. I have an older D104 G-stand (no PTT lower bar either) mic myself just like that, with an added (and rather large) toggle switch. It was bought with a lot of older vintage Ham equipment and think the old chap modified it.

Like you I have two actual D104SE Silver Eagles but again no switches. Now they did make a D104SE Silver Eagle PLUS which I think was identical to the D104NE Night K. Eagle in design and features, but don't think a switch option on the exterior of the base (in view) was ever added. Here's something about the D104SE you have:

They added the Silver Eagle all chrome version with the eagle logo on the back. They also added the Special, a black and chrome version. Then came the gold plated serialized Golden Eagle. To compete with the Turner base mics they added the push-bar making the mic more versatile. Now the mic could be keyed from the sidebar (chicken-choker) or the push-bar on the base of the mic.

Then came the Silver Eagle Plus. This was a Silver Eagle with a new PC board. This mic had an ETS (end of transmission or roger) beep and a -20dB pad as well as the mic gains control on the bottom. This mic wasn't very popular as it had some design problems. It incorporated a latching relay and triggering circuit for low battery drain. Once the battery started to loose it's power, the mic would sometimes fail to key or remain keyed after the bar was released. Otherwise, it sounded like the standard Silver Eagle

Ahem . . .
Now Linx and drdx you guys are worse than women and can't keep a secret. I thought the ring was for me and have been wearing it faithfully every day 'til his return lol. It was a parting gift left for me sort of like from the tooth "fairy" tee hee. Nothing like finding out your're the "third wheel". Well this is upsetting ----- "just how many have there been ?"

[Foxhunter]

I wanted to add a couple more photos from my Vintage Microphone Collection online photo album. "The Astatic Family Reunion" photo.

Here is a couple group photo shots my old Astatic Microphones for those who like looking at various collection images or for any of you Astatic D104 fans.


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Foxhunter 351 NJ

[Bombero]

Very nice collection.

Let me know if you need another Silver Eagle...I have one.

I need a MC-60

[Foxhunter]

Very nice collection.

Let me know if you need another Silver Eagle...I have one.

I need a MC-60

Thank you. You should see the mobile hand mic collection

Say, I have two Astatic D104SE Silver Eagles already ha so no more for me. I only have one Kenwood MC-60 for 3 Kenwood radios, so that one's a keeper definitely. I would also like a couple other Kenwood desk mic's at some point hopefully.

With the Astatic's, I keep thinking about a Astatic D104GE and the D104PE Presidential/President Eagle---but so far have held off. In the end, either of those other versions (and there are even a few more) would be yet another (but collectable) Astatic D104. In that photo shot of the Astatics, there are many configurations of mic heads as well as---and as importantly---different Astatic mic base desk stands. Astatic G-stands, UG8 / GD-104 / T-UG8 / T-UG9 etc, all somewhat different. Basically I tried to achieve owning every type of combination, but I am still missing some of the more rare versions of heads and it would be very expensive to buy some of them. Not to mention some oddball almost one-of-a-kind parts, especially the aged original elements.


Foxhunter 351 NJ


Edit: Removed link to another thread where I was asking for information, no longer relevant. Changed title and removed pics from every post to hopefully streamline things.

[JOHNNY BE GOOD]

I just came across this old posting and thought it would be a good place to learn to send pics. hope it works. The brown mic. on the wooden stand is a Astatic Y 9536 removable top, The D104 with the chest mount is Astatic B 289763, Black chest mount appears to be military, logo on back is a orange square with a diamond, inside letters S and C inside square, small harp mic. has no id and last is a headset also unknown. Well that's my collection all came out of old basement cleanout that I did. John

[HorseFeather]

Nice collection! I can see you love 104's....

[Foxhunter]

I just came across this old posting and thought it would be a good place to learn to send pics. hope it works. The brown mic. on the wooden stand is a Astatic Y 9536 removable top, The D104 with the chest mount is Astatic B 289763, Black chest mount appears to be military, logo on back is a orange square with a diamond, inside letters S and C inside square, small harp mic. has no id and last is a headset also unknown. Well that's my collection all came out of old basement cleanout that I did. John

Nice collection! I can see you love 104's....

Thank you N4JNW---I'm not quite as fond of D104's as I used to be as far as audio-quality, but still like the looks of them. Too many highs and not bassy enough, and most of the replacement elements being sold for them are no different sounding than a typical telephone unfortunately. Some of them with the original elements don't sound too bad though, if they're kept really low driven with the preamp. Still the D104 rates high on the cool factor, no doubt!

Well first Johnny Be Good I absolutely thank you also for sharing and adding to this thread, it's greatly appreciated and am glad to see another posting about their microphones and including an image to boot! Now I'm not an authority on mic's quite yet, but have still come quite far in my understanding of some of the vintage era mic's. Maybe I could add a couple of things or ask a couple of questions ?

The Astatic Y 9536 you listed is indeed a partially wooden component mic and one of the early ones, I bid on one about 5 months ago. I was under the impression that what you listed for it's model was instead actually the "series" (Y) and it's serial # (9536). If I'm not mistaken the mic is a very early JT-30 or JT-40 microphone, the actual model should be listed on the first block on the ID tag, and the series and serial listed in the second block. If you get a chance, maybe take a close look at the tag again to see. Here's a really nice link for checking the tags and an overall great vintage Astatic site: [Please login or register to view this link]

Now the D104 in your photo is connected to the old-style handle grip which also usually threads onto standard mic stands of the era like from Atlas Sound etc. I also have an old pre-D104 antique prototype Astatic mic, that's also similarly attached to that style of grip. It has a grille on both sides, not just one. Does yours have one grille or two ? Just curious. I take your D104 to be old (possibly) and would assume it has the metal ID tag instead of a sticker/label ? That would be a clue. Again, it looks as if you might be listing the series and serial # and not the mic model itself. What does the label/tag on top of the mic head say for a model # ?

The other two I find to be quite interesting looking, the one on the lower left I have possibly seen before (or something very similar) while shopping and the one on the right I have definitely never seen, even online. There were certainly some very unusual mic's made for telegraph, ship-to-shore and the military. The headset looks nearly identical to a Bell Systems 52 Western Electric headset that I have. Yours is slightly different where the mic boom attaches to the earpiece, but other than that looks virtually the same. More than likely it is from a landline telephone operators station desk, from the days of operator-assisted phone calls utilizing a main switchboard with numerous phone jacks and jumper/patch cords. My Mom used to be a phone operator, using that same system. Odds are the mic is of the carbon element type, not the best sounding but of communications-grade typical of old telephone.

Thanks for sharing the collection and wish I could come across some good pieces such as these in a cleanout, I'm definitely jealous! I'd like to post some additional photos in this thread soon of some of my mic's I have to share---but the dogs are whining to go for a long walk and I owe someone a sizeable PM message first! But here's two photos of my latest mic acquisition that I just picked up the day before yesterday . . .

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See the ID tag? Model on left block, series and serial on right block
Or the model is found on a tag on top of the head


Foxhunter 351 NJ

[lucas]

I try to keep the collection down, but heres what i have, Astatic hand held power mic with up and down buttons and tone control (used on a TRC 492 navaho). diesel noise cancelling mic 4-10 (used in the grand am), and a sadelta echo master plus (used on the grant xl) AKA the base station

[Sporty Mike]

I've got about 10 or so misc. mobile mics, a Cobra M-75 power mic, but my crowning jewel is a Turner Plus 3, it's one loud mic.

Mike

[outlaw0814]

what no golden eagle----lol