Happy camper, er, radio operator

[wa8yxm]

Well, Finally got around to installing antenna mount on my "new" towed (2001 Dodge Neon) once I looked at a few videos (For ford trucks) and such the job turned out to be much easier than anticipated. Put an antenna on it and tuned it up (VSWR not worth mentioning, <two to one across the entire 2 meter band <1.1 to 1 at the sweet spot). Hooked up one of my 2 meter radios and .. OH, NO transmit audio.

So I rebuilt the mic, both ends (I am much better at mic plugs than I used to be) The speaker mic for this rig is a home made, contains a small speaker and an electret condenser mic along with the needed battery, resistor and capacitor.. After 20 years, the battery was...... Toast.

new battery, No joy
Complete rebuild with scavanged parts,, No joy

Finally,, I was fairly sure the element (I scavanged from a Cell Phone earpiece I can no longer use with my new phone (like 3 phones ago I used this one)) was good.. but the resistor was clearly suspect as was the capacitor so I got new ones at the shack,, Less than 2.00 per package, 2 .01uF and I think 4.7K quarter watt resistors (They pass next to zero current so should work)

Put in a new cap and resistor.. Put the other cap on the end of a 1/8" mono phone plug pittail along with some heat shringk other wire and such to make it into a probe.. Plugged the probe into a small digital recorder I have (Several of those, big time audio recording some years back) and heard the sounds of the room in the headsets.. SUCCESS at least as far as the mic is concerned.

Plugged it into the radio,,, Same result only now I'm listening to a different radio .

Hooked it up and QSO time.. Good audio reports (EC mics no matter what Bob says have good audio in my expierence), though I too prefer Dynamic)

That radio, is a Wilson WE-800, Production run #3 (Do not buy anythign till revision 3) purchased, as I recall, in 1978 (might have been '79) but for a radio that's 35-36 years old,, Just checked E-Bay one sold for 69.95, (I think it was like 2x that new) It works very well...

I'm happy, got 2 meters back in the car.

[Radio]

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

That radio, is a Wilson WE-800,

Holy !!!

The first radio I ever bought, used at a hamfest. was a Wilson WE-800. I still have it, used it for years. I loved it because it was portable. Somewhere between a handy talky and a mobile rig.

Alas, mine will not modulate. And all the local repeaters have PL tones now and I never but xtals in the radio.

Congrats on resurrecting a fine old rig...enjoy!!

How about a picture?

[wa8yxm]

Well around here the repeater TRANSMITS a PL tone, but does not require one, Mine has 100Hz in it if I need it (Since I lived in the land of 100HZ Pl tones when I got it).

Nice radio.. IN my case the problem was primarlly a dead mice battery, got to change those every 10 years or so.. I soldered in a new one but something else was bad.

So I ended up completly rebulingind the mic

The mic is not the orignal Wilson mic.. This is one I built myself.