I’ve acquired a few nice microphones over the years. They are all unique in some way. Some are practical while some are works of art, to my eye anyway. These are presented in the order in which they were acquired.
Sideband Engineers 200X
I bought this one from a friend a long time ago. Likely in this mid-1980’s but it’s been so long I can’t recall exactly. It’s a good looking and functional mic in a style typical of the era. It has a built-in pre-amp that was originally powered by a 9V battery but my general dislike of batteries saw that quickly removed and instead powered from the 8V output from the mic connector of my Kenwood TS-680S.
Kellogg T-32
This is a carbon microphone.
This old school mic came my way in 2002. I traded a BC-348Q and a 30′ TV tower for it. The radio and tower had to go to accommodate a move and the person I gave it to felt he needed to give me something in return. Although I wanted nothing in return he knew I had a good transmitter to pair with it, my Collins 32RA-8, and really wanted to give me something. And that was that.
Astatic D-104
This is a crystal microphone.
When I got back into the ham radio hobby in 2022 I started attending flea markets in the local area to fit up ham shack version 4. I wanted a D-104 to match my vintage transmitters. This one was in excellent condition and the price was right. So it cam home with me. It has a built-in pre-amp in the base but not enough conductors in the cord to allow me to power it from the radio. That will have to be fixed at some point.
Heil/Ten-Tec Studio One
This is a dynamic cardioid microphone.
A complete and like-new Ten-Tec Jupiter station I acquired included all the goodies: a green-screen Jupiter, the matching speaker, the matching power supply, and the matching desk mic which was made by Heil for Ten-Tec and called the Studio One. It’s a great mic and is the only modern mic in my shack.
Shure 520SL “Dispatcher”
This is a controlled reluctance high impedance microphone.
At a recent flea market there were several vintage mics in very good condition. This was one. It’s a very stylish unit and a very unique colour. This is basically a Shure Green Bullet mated to an integral stand with a locking squeeze-to-transmit bar on the back of the stand. It fits the hand very nicely.
Legend has it that “like other Shure classic microphones, the art deco design of the Green Bullet was borrowed from the headlight assembly of a 1935 Oldsmobile touring sedan bought by company founder S.N. Shure for $1,167 in the summer of 1935.”
Astatic 77
This is a dynamic cardioid microphone.
This mic was at the same flea market as the Shure above and it caught my eye, for obvious reasons. Microphones of this era embody solid engineering and an artful style. They are simply gorgeous, they work very well and they hold their own with modern microphones.
This mic looks to have been in studio use as it doesn’t have a PTT function. What it has is an on/off slide switch. Said switch was very hard to actuate but a shot of Nutrol with silicon sorted it out very nicely.
Astatic T3
This is a crystal microphone.
This mic falls into the same categories as the two above. Great engineering and great styling that converge in this product to give it a timeless appeal. The one is on an Astatic base with a squeeze-to-transmit bar. This one has a crystal element which will pair well with my Central Electronics 100V and 200V transmitters. Like the D-104, it looks like it belongs in a ham shack.
