[Elecraft] MC-85 Kenwood Mic to K3

[Don Wilhelm]

Brenton,

The Elecraft microphone pinout is *compatible* with Kenwood, but it is 
not the same.
The difference is in the pin used to supply 8 volts over the microphone 
cable.  Elecraft uses pin 6 while Kenwood uses pin 5.

That means that the Kenwood dynamic microphones will typically work, but 
any Kenwood microphone that wants the +8 volts from the transceiver will 
not work.

I checked the G4WPW website 
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rg4wpw/date.html which contains a LOT of 
microphone information and schematics, and discovered that the MC85 does 
desire power from the transceiver, but there is provision for using 
batteries - for those transceivers that are not able to provide power at 
the mic jack, but with Elecraft transceivers, there is still a conflict 
because the battery voltage can come back to the K3 to pin 5 and cause 
"strange happenings" and even damage to the K3.

If you are capable of modifying the microphone plug - remove the wire 
from pin 5 and connect it to pin 6, then that microphone will work on 
the K3 (without internal batteries in the microphone.
If you choose to install the batteries instead of taking power from the 
K3, you still must modify the plug wiring to remove the connection to pin 5.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 2/16/2013 5:57 PM, Brenton Meadows wrote:
> HI, I have an Elecraft K3 with P3 etc and wanted to inquire if any one has
> tried a kenwood MC85 desk microphone on the K3 with any success.
> I seem to remember elecraft use kenwood wiring configuration so it should
> be a plug in with no wiring alternation.
> Any comments welcome
>
>