President Electret Microphone Upgrade

[Shadetree Mechanic]

The stock electret microphone that comes with the President radios now days is hard to beat. Changing to a dynamic mic will usually give a lower tone that sounds good, but it lacks the punch of the stock mic and consequently is not as loud. A power mic will bring up the audio level, making the dynamic element loud enough. But the punch is still gone.

There is a seller on ebay that sells a multiple element retro fit kit for the D104. Just put all the elements in parallel, giving more gain. And I just happened to have a hand full of the small electret elements that came from telephone handsets that were in the recycle at work........

Behold, three elements wrapped in tape to make a snug fit. Plus the stock element makes four.

Wow! What a difference it makes! Big clean clear audio, better than any power mic. Seriously, you gotta try it.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

What exactly is an electret condenser?

A Bit More Than A Microphone: The Electret Story

When designing a microphone assembly the other day, I reached for an electret condenser microphone capsule without thinking. To be strictly accurate I ordered a pack of them, these small cylindrica…

hackaday.com

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Found more in the recycle today, some kind of conference table, conference call console. Had three of the elements in it. Fixed up an old Cobra mic to use on my Stryker 955 V2. Right on top of the stock element. This is just too easy to get great sound. Why did I wait so long to do this?

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Just a note, the electret elements that you normally buy will probably have too much bass. The studio type elements need an equalizer to make them sound natural. The dc blocking cap that is sometimes needed will trim some of the bass, but it also attenuates the signal.

The elements that I have been using come from telephone / speaker phone applications and have a great frequency response with a natural sound. Now that I found this out, I need to go back to some of the other mics that I did and fix them.

 

[KK4JW]

I'm going to try this this evening with my President Stock Mic. There was a few old telephone handsets in the junk closet at my office, boss said to throw them out, so I'm taking them home to dissect and rob the elements out of them.

 

[sp5it]

Since the radio is bottlenecking audio bandwidth, no matter what mic cartridge you use, radio will cut it down. Those telephone mic capsules are just regular electret microphones.
Mike

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Since the radio is bottlenecking audio bandwidth, no matter what mic cartridge you use, radio will cut it down. Those telephone mic capsules are just regular electret microphones.
Mike

Sure, the radio cuts down the bandwidth, but the microphone cuts it more. I thought the telephone capsules were just ordinary capsules too. So I bought a pack of 10 elements from Amazon and quickly found out that they are not the same. An ordinary element has too much bass and sounds muddy. It needs an equalizer. The telephone element has the bass attenuated, but not as much as the Anytone or President ones. The telephone people want you to sound like you. This is what the radio people should want too.

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

I'm going to try this this evening with my President Stock Mic. There was a few old telephone handsets in the junk closet at my office, boss said to throw them out, so I'm taking them home to dissect and rob the elements out of them.

The best way to hear the difference, is to use a second radio with headphones and no antenna. I use a stock Cobra 148 as a station monitor. I do a quick check every time I power up, just to make sure nothing got bumped, etc. I thought about putting an extra push button on the mic to switch in and out the extra elements. Would make A/B testing simple. Let us know what you think, and even snap a few pictures if you can.
Chris

 

[sp5it]

Sure, the radio cuts down the bandwidth, but the microphone cuts it more.

Easy to verify. Connect capsule to PC/MAC computer, run any spectrum analyser software and see by yourself.
Since a very long time I use 50c electret capsules from local shop. Great frequency response, work with any radio I put it in.
Mike

 

[KK4JW]

Prelim testing yields good results with what seems to be a little better "low end" response. I have two President mics that I can use on the Lincoln II. One remains stock, the other is the modified one with two additional elements. There certainly IS an audio difference between the two.

I am impressed.

 

[dave457]

Experimentation is fun ether with ham or cb, that said... what sounds good to you or your buddies may sound like shit to others or dx.
It always good to try different things, if you're happy that's the bottom line

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Just did one for the Anytone Ares 2.

Anytone Ares 2

The audio on the Ares 2 sounds great, but I think I hear a little something. Maybe others can confirm, I think the TX has a slight reverb sound. With the echo and TX noise reduction off, I hear a slight reverb in my monitor radio. Nothing bad, probably cant hear it on the other end, just...

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