[ARC5] [Milsurplus] T-17-D Mic Question

[ac2eu at yahoo.com]

If you plan on tossing any more T17D mikes. Please let me know!


Sent from my undisclosed bunker location

On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 11:52 PM, Mark K3MSB via ARC5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

Hi Ken
Thanks for the info.  I suspected the case on the D was one piece, but wanted to check before I tried to pry them apart.
73 Mark K3MSB
On Tue, Aug 11, 2026 at 7:54 PM Ken Kinderman <scr274 at gmail.com> wrote:

The T-17 D is a real pain. From my experience, the two screws on the bottom are just for cable strain relief. The element is easy to get to. But by destroying one, I discovered that to gain access to the switch (if needed) you need to unscrew the black button from the large knurled ring. No matter how I try, I just can ‘t do it. 

The case itself is one molded part, not two pieces glued together, unless you found differently.

Anyway, that’s my experience.

I have 86’d more -D’s than I have saved

Ken
W2EWL

> On Aug 11, 2026, at 7:41 PM, Mark K3MSB via Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> As reported a few months ago,  my trusty T-17 mic with replacement mic element suffered an internal breakage, fortunately at the very end of the Reading Air Show.
> 
> A very kind fellow sent me a box of old carbon mics, one of which was a T-17-D.   He said the audio was very low, and indeed it was.
> 
> Today, just for fun, I disassembled the mic element. Some of the carbon grains were indeed clumping.  I removed the grains and put them under a 60W lamp for several hours.
> 
> <image.png>
> 
> 
> I reassembled the mic and the audio is better, but still low.   I had no idea how to put the grains back in, so I just filled the little bowl (top in the above picture).
> 
> One half of the T-17 mic (that has the busted internal part) can easily be removed via 3 screws.  
> 
> The T-77-D that I worked on today has only two screws at the base of the handle, on opposite sides of the mic.   I can see no way to access the inside of the mic, unless you remove those two screws and yank the two halves of the mic apart.... and I thought I'd check before I did any yanking as the two halves appear to be bonded.
> 
> Have any of you done this?
> 
> Resistance has dropped from 50K or so to between 2K and 9K.  Still very high than the several hundred ohms I'd like to see, but better than 50K.  I think the varying resistance may be due to needed cleaning of the switch.    
> 
> In any event, if I can get the shell open, this D variant will be seeing a replacement mic element in its future.
> 
> 73 Mark K3MSB
> ______________________________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

______________________________________________________________
ARC5 mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: https://www.qsl.net/donate.html


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20260812/bfe38ee5/attachment-0001.html>