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So I got bored again and threw together another small project from assorted parts from my junk bin and Home Depot. This is a simple PTT switch for keying my amateur radio gear.

So The Egg as it were, is a DPDT switch with a double cable coming out the back of it terminating in a pair of RCA plugs. I use it to key a Dow-Key relay and the PTT of my rig which is on a multi-radio switchbox. This replaces or more accurately is an alternate to my foot switch. I find it more convenient to use the handheld switch while standing up and operating vs trying to toe a foot switch. Having a few momentary switches rigged can come in handy for a few things when playing with radio.

The parts list is simple

• 2 x 1″ PVC pipe caps
• 1 x 1″ PVC pipe nipple cut to about 1.5″
• 1 x DPDT momentary switch (you want normally open for this)
• 1 x stereo paired RCA plug cable (I bought one from RadioShack just to have a relatively soft and flexible cable)

I simply drilled out one cap to fit the switch diameter, cut a nipple to mate/join the two pipe caps, and for the bottom cap, I just used the Dremel tool to cut an opening for the RCA cable.

Tips…don’t forget to thread the cable through the parts before you solder on the switch contacts. Don’t forget to tie a couple wire ties on the cable inside the housing to prevent the cable from pulling against the switch contacts inside.

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It would seem that this is my year for buying broken items. A bit about the Behringer DEQ2496 and the two failed units I wound up with.

So the processor itself is a fantastic design on paper. This is a multi effects processor for doing signal processing of audio. Among many features it has, the unit has fantastic EQ options with a graphic style display or a parametric style display. The main reason I wanted the unit was for its ability to store EQ profiles in memory. This way I could have many different style EQ profiles and just recall them for use at a touch of a button. The unit also has downward expanders and compressors built in as well, both of which work very nicely too.

I purchased the units from GuitarCenter.com who were absolutely fantastic about handling the customer service issues I had. I’d buy from them again for sure. Fast and easy response, pre-paid shipping labels sent through email, they just couldn’t have handled it any better.

The first unit I got off the ground, patched in and programmed in about 20 minutes or so. As soon as I hit save on the first pre-set, the unit bricked. The firmware was faulty or the CPU I suspect as the unit was boot looping over and over. Multiple power disconnects and a few technical taps, the unit wouldn’t come back. So I exchanged it.

After waiting out a backorder on the unit, I finally got unit number 2. Got this one dialed in with multiple profiles, got all the features sorted out and it was smooth sailing. Then two days later, the display died on this one. The unit was functioning fully, but had no display. With the completely menu driven interface it has, this means it’s pretty much DOA.

As I said, the features are simply perfect for my use in ham radio. I had audio profiles configured so they were nearly indistinguishable from radio to radio. This is quite a feat considering the vast variations in audio front-ends from radio to radio. This is a very irritating issue to solve for those of us with multiple radios with a shared microphone between them. The downward expander is very effective and has great ranges of adjustments available. The compressor even works well and generally digital compressors are very finicky to deal with.

Unfortunately the quality control from Behringer seems to be nonexistent at this point. I did live sound and toured using Behringer equipment for a number of years. This gear took loads of abuse getting tossed around in road racks etc and never gave me a bit of trouble. It would appear in the last 10yrs or so, that Behringer has drastically dropped off in their overall quality.

The truly annoying part of this is that the DEQ2496 is the only product on the market that will store EQ profiles the way it does. The only other product I have found is in the $4k price range which is just ludicrous for my use.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

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So, this looks a lot like a CB microphone doesn’t it? Well, it is. Sometimes you find some equipment that serves multi-use environments nicely and this is one example.

This is a ~$20 (less than half the price) Chinese knockoff of the Turner Road King 56, called the Overdrive CDL-56k. It is a dynamic noise-cancelling element hand mic. I stress noise-cancelling as this thing is very effective to knock out background noise.

I’ve been using an Astatic 636L in my Jeep Wrangler in the nicer weather as I drive around with the windows down and music blasting and don’t want all that racket to get into my signal on the ham bands. It also works well, but has a very restricted audio passband so it makes the transmit audio sound very tinny.

I found some mentions about this Overdrive mic saying that it had a more natural sounding audio response and decided to get a pair of them to play around with and find out.

The results have been excellent, both on FM repeaters and simplex and for SSB use as well. I’m using them on an FT-857D in my mobile and on a Kenwood TS-2000 at home when I feel like using a hand mic.

I highly recommend this mic if you have a need or want for noise-cancellation. For what it does, the audio response is very good. This type of mic will require you to speak right into the mic element or your voice will just disappear. That rubber ridge on the face should be touching your upper lip while talking. If you talk farther back from the mic, this is not the mic for you, nor will you get effective noise cancellation from it.

The mic has plenty of drive to work with either one of my rigs. I’m not sure if it would work with a ‘normal’ amateur 2m/440 rig directly without an added pre-amp though, but I haven’t tried it. It would surprise me if it had enough drive for those typically 2kOhm inputs though.

Driving down the road at 60mph, windows down and music deafeningly loud, people barely even notice it at all while I’m talking…mission accomplished.

I picked mine up from Premiere Electronics and have done business with them in the past for parts and microphones. They are fairly widely available from other sources too.

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