[ARC5] WWII Microphones?

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

In a message dated 5/20/2010 5:19:58 PM Central Daylight Time, 
macklinbob at msn.com writes: 
> Do the T-17 microphones ever show up on eBay. I have never seen one.

Rarely.  They were once quite common but difficult to find today.  And 
harder still with good cords.

> 
> The microphones I remember from the WWII and Korean war periods were the 
> T-17, the THROAT mikes, and the carbon buttons that were in the oxygen 
> masks. I believe the buttons in the oxygen masks were the same as in the THROAT 
> mikes.

The T-30 throat microphone began to be replaced in late 1942 by the T-45 
lip mic.  The T-45 works much better audio quality wise than the T-30 (both 
personal experience and reports from several armored vehicle restorers in the 
past few years).  Audio from the T-30 is muffled and difficult to 
understand, because of where it comes from more than due to any fault in the 
microphone.

The (or an) early oxygen mask microphone was the ANB-M-1.  If there was an 
earlier Signal Corps T-n nomenclatured one, I never came across it.  The 
ANB-M-1 is contemporary with the ANB-H-1 headset receivers.

> 
> I had all of these in my younger days. I was a USAF NCO during the Korean 
> war period.
> 
> 

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480