[Milsurplus] T-17 microphone

[hwhall at compuserve.com]

Hi, everyone.

We have a T-17 mike at the museum that they want to use with the Link Trainer. I've determined that it won't work (no surprise there). I've disassembled it down to the unit pictured in these two links.

https://picasaweb.google.com/115890116694220051659/HamRadio#6052387851025477794

https://picasaweb.google.com/115890116694220051659/HamRadio#6052387847114802610

(Hope those links work or maybe I need to find another place to put up the pictures.)

It unit acts like it's an open circuit, my VOM shows no needle movement even on an Rx10K scale. When wired in series with a small battery voltage, up to 9v, and a 10K pot, no current is seen to flow. Banging it on the workbench doesn't improve it any at all.

Googling T-17 discussions, I saw that someone had once transplanted carbon granules from a telephone element into a surplus mike (not a T-17, though) which leads me to wonder if that might resurrect this one. I'd like to know if anyone else had stripped a T-17 down past where I'm at and what I'd need to do next to get at the carbon without doing something I won't be able to undo. I don't have another one to experiment on and throw away if I make a serious error.

Thanks for any and all input!

Wayne
WB4OGM