10/5/2019 Station Microphone Switch Box

Amateur Radio Station

Microphone Switch Box
Description
Like many amateur radio operators I
have a number of rigs at my
operating position. I also have my
favourite microphone, a D104, with a
source follower FET amplifier to
match the high impedance element to
modern low impedance 600 ohm
inputs. Having six D104's to service
all of my operating position HF rigs
would not be very practical so I
designed a switch box to allow the
one microphone to be used with up to
six rigs of any impedance input. I
have also incorporated CW key
switching capability.

Since most all modern rigs use powered microphones I switch the power
as well. In my case it powers the FET in my D104. For older rigs that do
not have microphone power I included an 8 volt regulator powered from
an external 12 volt source.

(Click any photo in this article to see a larger view)

Construction Considerations
The purpose of this article is to give the reader ideas. You do not have to
follow exact construction details and you can modify the design in any way
you desire. Perhaps you only need two or three switch positions or you
don't need to switch CW. Feel free to be inventive and change things.
That's what amateur radio construction is all about.

I used a 5 wafer, 5 pole, 6 position rotary switch. This switches BOTH

sides of the microphone, hot and ground, PTT, 8VDC, and CW keying but
you could greatly simplify this if you depending on what you need to
switch and how many rigs you want to switch to. I felt it was a good idea
to switch both sides of the microphone connection to eliminate potential
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ground loop problems. Note that the microphone ground and ground are
the separate connections. If they are not separate connections on a
particular rig they are connected together at the rig end of the connector.

Another consideration is how to wire the microphone connectors. I use

standard 8 pin round connectors and since I have mostly Kenwood wired
rigs I decided to keep everything as Kenwood standard for those
connectors. I made adapter cables for my older rigs and my Icom IC7000
which uses an RJ45 type connector. You may decide you want to use Icom
round connector wiring or a completely different connector. Whatever you
use you will need a bunch of connectors. Everything is done with male
chassis mount and female cable mount connectors.

Although not covered in this project there is another method that could be
used to simplify switching. If you were to use multiple FET source followers
from the microphone output to the various rigs and if you were able to
connect the PTT lines in parallel you could eliminate virtually all of the
switching. If you were to attempt that method you need to be careful
about mixing PTT voltage levels. Some older rigs have higher PTT voltages
and relay coil kickback that could cause damage to modern solid-state
rigs. I prefer to individually switch the signals as I did in this project.

Getting the Parts Together

Whether you follow this construction
as shown or make your own
modifications you still need to secure
the required parts. Shown in this
photo is the minibox with holes drilled
and finish painted. All of the major
parts for the assembly are also
shown. To make construction easier
the wiring is soldered to the
connectors before they are installed.

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Photo showing the connector wiring. The ferrite bead is over the twisted
pair microphone wires.
This was added as a precaution against RFI.

The wiring is all point to point. I use all Teflon wiring for my projects but
any hookup type wire of about 22 gauge would work. You should use
different colors for the different signals. Within the switch box I used
twisted yellow and black for the microphone hot and ground, red for PTT,
orange for +8VDC, and gray for ground. The Kenwood standard for the
connections used is:

Pin 1 - Mic
Pin 2 - PTT
Pin 5 - + 8VDC
Pin 7 - Mic ground
Pin 8 - ground.

For other microphone and rig connection standards see this web page

The following photos show interior wiring which follows the schematic.

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This photo shows a rear panel

view with the six microphone Front panel view, six position
connectors at the upper right. selection switch, Microphone
Cables are made between these input, and 1/4 inch CW key jack.
connectors and the various rigs.
Below are six mini-jacks which
are the CW connections to the
rigs. On the left top is a 12V
coaxial type connector for the
12VDC input. Left center is a
rear panel Key connection.

Schematic
Microphone Switch Box Schematic

Parts List
The hardest part to get in this project is the rotary switch. I constructed a
5 pole 6 position switch from my junk box but keep in mind that this can
be any number of positions two or greater depending on how many total
rigs you want to switch. If you don't want to switch the CW keying then a
4 pole switch would be fine. If you also don't need to switch power 3 poles
would suffice. More poles and/or positions then you need is not a problem
as you just would not use what you don't need. I referenced a few places
where rotary switches can be found below. Google 'rotary switches' for
more possible options.

Mic Connectors - Universal Radio / MCM

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Rotary Switch - Altech Electronics / Surplus Shed / Old Jock Radio

1/4" / 1/8" Jacks / Regulator / Resistors / Capacitors - Common parts -
Radio Shack etc.
Ferrite Sleeves - Surplus Sales
Aluminium Chassis (4"x5"x3" minibox) - Amazon / Allied Radio / Bud info

I built my switch box entirely from my junk box and since some of the
items may be obsolete substitution will be required. Hopefully the above
references will help you to gather parts for your project. There are many
other sources for parts including hamfests, ham friends, and the Internet.

My upstairs shack showing the six HF rigs. Top shelf - SB200, LA1000,
Johnson Ranger, Collins KWM2A. Middle shelf - Kenwood TS-590, Icom
IC7000 and LDG tuner, Kenwood TS-570, Heath HW101. Bottom shelf
right side - microphone switch box, Keyer and various keys. SDR
receiver and sound interface.

Final Thoughts
I mentioned that I use the ubiquitous
Astatic D104 microphone with all of
my HF rigs. This microphone is no
longer manufactured but so many
were sold that they are plentiful in
the amateur radio community. They
use a crystal or ceramic element that
has an extremely high impedance.
Element loading of less than one
megohm begins to be a problem and
since most all HF rigs manufactured in the last 30 years have a 600 ohm
microphone input impedance you cannot just connect a D104 to your rig.
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There are various ways to interface the D104 including a simple series
resistor but in my opinion the best way to do it is use a source follower
FET circuit. When doing this the FET gate is connected directly to the
element and a gate leak resistor of 5-10 megohms is used resulting in
very light loading on the element. The FET low impedance source then
drives the input to the rig. If you have a D104 or a microphone like it and
would like to build this FET source follower here is a link to the schematic.
This is built on a small piece of perfboard and installed in the base of the
microphone.

This was a fun project and with the combination of microphone and
antenna switching I can use any of six different HF radios within seconds.
This greatly reduces clutter and is a very worthwhile addition to the the
shack. There are commercial microphone switch boxes like this MFJ 2
Rig/2 Mic box for $119. If you have a well stocked junk box you could
certainly build a box like this with much more capability for considerably
less than the commercial versions. Even if you had to buy all the parts
new it would cost less and you would have the satisfaction of building it
yourself. Happy building and I would be glad to answer any questions.

My email is good at QRZ. 73, Doug, WA3DSP

Visit my Amateur Radio web page at www.crompton.com/hamradio

This page last updated 2/2/2014

© 2014 - WA3DSP

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