Talkback on a Relay, Why?

[TheRealPorkchop]

I’ve ran across this twice. I’m probably overlooking the reason behind this but I just don’t get the purpose of doing this. What is it supposed to serve to do this? Who is the guy doing this?

This one is done inside a General Lee. There’s a switch to cut off the talkback so I don’t get why it’s on a relay. Is it to reduce feedback from someone what? It looks to me like it’s just something to get your money and make you feel like it’s accomplished a great deal.

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

And this ones been modded a good bit too. Look beside that trimmer and you’ll see a capacitor added there thatbive not figured out why also. The guy that worked on this has added a lot of stuff that the factory seemed to have left out, haha.

 

[Rwb]

Its a $$$ grab for the brite polished GOLDEN SCREW UP DRIVER. Honest people like you point this junk out

 

[sonoma]

the relay helps to cut down on the feedback plus some tap into the audio line with a cap to increase the audio and the relay helps to clear up the sound of the talk back.
I have always liked the relay talk back mod. simular to the add on talk back board but a lot cheaper.. some just lift the diode to get talk back and in most cases it sounds terrible. the radio owners want clear clean talk back.. if you are just seeing this mod is unusual. this mod has been around for years.
if the radio has a mirror board in it you can tap the relay into it with a cap to clear up and get more audio.

 

[Slowmover]

Had it done at Clays Radio Shop (San Antonio, TX) with several radios, most notably a Galaxy 99V2 purchased in 2014.

As above, cleans things up.

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

I’ve only seen it twice in my entire radio career, haha. I disconnected it, the talkback sounds the same honestly, so I just put it back. My job was to do an alignment on the radio, nothing else, so I didn’t remove it.

It’s interesting but yeah, looks like a gimic to me but I’ve never seen it around here but twice now. The most notable shops in this area are just clip artists so I don’t expect to see anything useful out of them.

 

[Handy Andy]

When Galaxy did away with the 1 - 4 pin on the Mic Jack - Pin 1 was Ground, while Pin 4 was Speaker return. The Pin 1 to 4 is, and has been, a dead short for a long time. So other methods were and are used to obtain talkback, but you still "don't hear all" of what gets piped down the AM Regulator line feeding the Driver and Final - so that relay lets the user hear, something - at least, what the audio chip is getting sent.

This "1-4 Dead short" makes the radio similar to older 3-wire style connections - so the Relay helps the user get back the older style 1 - 4 pin speaker return - doesn't do much for the simpler resistor-from-here-to-here for speaker mods, but it does bring back a more honest sound for the operator.

The older speaker return even for Grants and 148's - gave you options - so the relay in these Galaxy-class radios is for the enthusiast that wants to hear themselves.

But again, my stance is to use a monitor radio and the operator can then hear how their radio sounds. It's far more brutally honest than a simple talkback.

 

[sp5it]

AM mod to the max... some idiot put his hands before...

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

Well this cane from a big truck so you know that talkback is a must have in that situation. Odd thing is the radio has talkback in it out the box but I guess the cleaner sound was the reason for it then. Then again like I said, removing it the talkback sounds pretty much the same to me.

At least now I understand what the reasoning is behind this, though I’m not sure I’m buying into it. If it helps to calm it down though, then by all means I’ll say it’s worthy. I agree completely with using another radio to monitor how you sound.

I don’t like looking at myself, let alone hearing myself more than I already have to. So I definitely ain’t a fan of talkback but it does help sell mics and speakers. And various other tricks with holes in them to attempt to calm that crap down.

Andy, toss up a diagram showing how to put talkback on a variable control for volume in the radios that didn’t come with volume control, like this one. It’s a 360014B board.

 

[sonoma]

porkchop they should have cut the speaker trace by the external speaker jack to make the relay talk back work as it should. most of the radios with the 2sb817 reg chip has a wire jumper under it for the speaker so you can even pull the jumper to take place of the cut trace. Andy brought that to my attention a few years ago

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

Like that? That’s where they have the wires going from the relay to or to the relay, however you want to look at it.

The jumper is removed. Wires are in each vacant hole.

 

[Handy Andy]

There ya' go, trace your blues wire to the relay - one side to speaker terminals other to JP Mirror board

 

[Tallman]

I don't understand why people want talk back in the first place.
Is it an EGOMANIAC thing?

 

[TheRealPorkchop]

It’s a truck driver thing. Beats me. I use it to set my echo up and turn it off. I only use a little echo, reverb I guess is a better term. I don’t like my signal to repeat itself like I’m Mel Tillis.

Truck drivers love to hear themselves. I think it’s to make sure their radio is still working. And that’s stereotyping I guess, not all are like that, I’m not and I drive a truck too.

 

[sonoma]

My brother-in-law use to drive a truck and he had to have very loud talk back. he wanted it on all the time. his favorite radio was a Cobra 29LTD with echo, A+ kit installed plus very loud talk back. . forgot he had to have at least a 100 watt kicker with it also.
any expo would fine he just liked the cobra 28 for some reason. in fact here in Oklahoma in the late 90's to early 2000's the truck drivers wanted the cobra 29 with channels.
I have never been a big fan of talk back either . just turn it on to verify the echo was set right and turn it off and go.