Hi Ron and group,
Having sold more of those than I care to count, it is time for a
history lesson!
When Al Kahn left Electrovoice and formed TenTec, he took with him the
rights (and I think even the dies, etc.) for this mic. I don't
remember the EV number, but the same mic was used by Drake with a
number of their rigs. I do not recall Heath using it, but my memory
may not be complete.
TenTec sold the mic a variety of ways. The 215 is the number for the
plain mic and die cast base. The 215 P, had a 1/4 inch stereo plug on
it (P for Plug), that was used with the Trition, Argonaut, Omni, etc.
at the time. These all had a standard cord on them. Some time after
the Triton series of rigs, TenTec came out with the 215 PC, which had
a plug and a coiled cord on it. The coiled cord worked better with
the Omni, but the Triton and Argonaut need a "non coiled" cord to
reach the connector in the back.
In addition, there were 2 different color schemes. One was a gray
color. Later models were more of a chocolate brown.
The mic could also be a 214 mic. The outside looks exactly the same
as the 215, but inside is an electrolet condenser mic element. This
mic element required a small (about 8 to 12 volts at less than 1 ma)
polarizing voltage. In order to get this voltage, TenTec went to the
4 pin connector that was very common at the time. This worked fine,
with a ground pin, mic audio, PTT, and the polarizing voltage. In
some cases it was necessary to "find" a polarizing voltage. This was
usually done with a 1 K resistor to the 12 V DC supply, with the
resistor acting more as an isolation resistor than anything else. It
was also for protection, in case someone connected the 12 V DC pin to
something nasty (like the ground pin by mistake!).
To the best of my memory, all 214 mics had a coiled cord, and 4 pin
plug, and were the chocolate brown color. The 214s would occasionally
pick up RF, so a small RF choke was added inside the mic case. I do
not remember any 215s having the RFI problem.
The freq response of both of these mics were great. TenTec furnished
a sample of the curve with the instruction sheet of the mic.
73,
Ken, W8EK
Ken Simpson
E-Mail to W8EK@fdt.net or W8EK@juno.com
http://www.gnv.fdt.net/~kenmar
Voice Phone (352) 732-8400
-----Original Message-----
From: Ronald Hands <rhands@hwcn.org>
To: tentec@contesting.com <tentec@contesting.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 12:08 AM
Subject: [TenTec] Re: What is it?
>
> Thanks for all the responses to my query about my mystery
microphone.
> It appears that it's a Model 215. W2UX was kind enough to send a
>picture and others provided descriptions. From an unofficial TT web
>site I discovered that it's a ceramic mike and originally sold for
$17
>to $29.50.
> Apparently they normally have a label above the switch giving the
>Model 215 designation. Mine doesn't have that, but it does have the
>little red TT emblem.
> I don't get on phone much, but when I do I've been getting reports
of
>garbled audio, at certain times and on certain bands. Might be the
>microphone; might also be RF pickup.
> So the subliminal message I'm getting is either "fix up your
ground
>system" or "upgrade to a Model 705 . . . "
>
>-- Ron VE3SP
>Hamilton, ON
>
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