May 7th, 2018
Converting to 4-pin Microphone Connectors
Photo above: Diagrams of the connections for each part. (solder lugs side)
Decided to standardize my microphone connection for my two Bitx transceivers. The four 4 pin Foster connector was chosen for ease in converting cheap Baofeng Speaker-Mics or old CB microphones to the task.
Here is my second Bitx Xcvr being prepped for a microphone connector transplant. The original connector I installed a year ago was an eight pin Foster, (must have been the cheapest on the search!)
My two Bitx Xcvr's sporting the 4 pin microphone sockets. The top one has no internal speaker. It was encased in an old PC-ATX power supply chassis and was an early microphone connector transplant recipient! Originally I had installed two stereo jacks (2.5mm & 3.5mm) so I could use an unmodified Baofeng Speaker-Mic 2 prong plug. A problem arose when after leaving the mic plugged in for a long time the jack contacts would weaken enough for the plug to shift out and short the PTT contact through the speaker coil to ground, (No DC blocking cap on speaker+ line in the mic, must have cost too much in production.) This caused the powered on Bitx to transmit uncontrollably. Installing the new 4-pin mic socket and plug took care of the problem and was more secure.
In Summary:
Having the same microphone connector for both Bitx Xcvrs' is convenient and well worth the time for conversion.
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