The AM Forum

It seems as if you have ten different transmitters your likely to have ten different microphone connectors. What do you fellows do to make some sort of a standard? Do you change them all over to a common connector or have some unique way around this problem?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Hi Terry,

Years ago I designed a product called a "Mic Multiplier" which I was going to market through my Company but I shut down the business before I could bring it to market.

Basically you picked you favorite microphone to use on all your rigs.  It had one input for the mic and 4 separate outputs to drive various rigs.  You could also slave the boxes together to drive more rigs in increments of 4.  

Each output channel had its own EQ so you could taylor the frequency response accordingly based on how you wanted to make each channel sound.  On the Mic side internal to the unit I had a DIP switch which selected various values of microphone termination resistance.  So the box would handle properly anything from a D-104 to a low impedance mic.  It also had a built in properly done compressor which was just a gain riding AGC type of deal.  If you did not want to use it you could simple deselect it.  A bi-color LED showed Green when the AGC was active and the color changed to Red if you were over-driving it.  The box also would handle various PTT requirements for pretty much any rig on a per channel basis.  It was certainly a neat little box!

73,
Joe, W3GMS

I use short pieces (2 feet or so) of mike cord with a female XLR on one end and the mike plug for each transmitter on the other.  These stay permanently connected to the transmitters.

I then wire up my mikes to a male XLR, making sure the PTT and audio wires are standardized.

I can the use any mike on any transmitter.

I like this idea. 

Homebrew and broadcast transmitters in my shack all have line input to the speech amp ......The transmitter in use gets the rack audio plugged in to the line input...I use tip ring sleeve 1/4 inch plugs on all transmitters....Except......My boatanchor transmitters each have a dedicated mic and plug unique to each unit...

That's a very well-thought out and capable little system you came up with, Joe. Pretty much a one-stop shopping answer to all the other options.

My station uses more of the basic approach which I only started implementing in the last couple years. I have a junction box with the necessary terminal strips and jacks attached which works between mic, EQ, stomp-to-talk switch, & transmitter. I hardwired the foot switch into the box but use 1/4" stereo jacks for the rest (Dick's XLR approach would be preferable, just didn't have enough on hand). This allows me to just make up a cable with appropriate connector for the transmitter mic input if used, also any outboard processing, simply by using a stereo plug on the junction box end. You can set up all the mics with a universal 1/4" or XLR plug and have a lot of flexibility this way. In my case, the mic goes into the back of the JoeMeek EQ box and the EQ goes to the junction box. It can be bypassed with a mic in the event of problems or for testing purposes. Change the transmitter jumper and it's ready for another transmitter.

Hi:

I break everything out to XLR's for easy mix and match.

Dan

Same here.

Thanks guys! Looks like the pig tail arrangement will be what I'll use here for now. I like Joe's "do all box",  that would be ok for the stuff at the camp but not here where I would only have one rig set up at a time do to lack of space.

I guess when I get a piece of new equipment the thing to do is decide if it will be a keeper or a flipper and then build the pig tails. Right now I have a lot of pig tails to construct :'( :'( :'(

Well Terry, It should keep you out of trouble for a while...

I use EV638s and D104s here.  Each rig has its own mic.  I took a Blue studio mic apart and put the guts inside an old D104. So I have decent sound but still can relax in a chair with the d104 feel. 

I see alot of guys use a headphone amplifier to run many transmitters off one microphone or audio preamp.

headphone amps are dirt cheap and will take one input and multiply it 2, 4 or or 8 times.  They are made for a studio to run many different headsets from the audio output of one. 

My good friend uses one to send audio to a valiant, J500, desk and 20V2.  He sounds incredible on all. 

You can get one for less then $20. 

C