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Old 26th Jun 2022, 5:12 pm   #1
G6Tanuki
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Default Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

Acquired this for £1 at the Newbury rally today. I've never seen a green one before (they were usually Pye Blue) - could this one have had some military connection? Did the MoD use the Pye PTC-series radios?

Anyway, I need to get inside it; the mic-insert is open-circuit [I intend to replace it with a modern Electret insert and a little 2-transistor impedance-matching amplifier] and while it's disassembled I'll be polishing up the chrome-bits with some Solvol Autosol and adding a bit of bracing to one side of the tulip's 'flower' where there is a small crack. The base-part also has some corrosion so a strip, etch-prime and respray is probably inevitable.

So - how do these disassemble? There's a screw on the underside of the PTT-switch but all this does is let you remove the plastic rocker from the underlying microswitch.
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 7:42 am   #2
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

The stalk unscrews from the bottom chrome cup which holds the plastic sides. Gas pliers or similar and leather strips to stop marring of the finish.
Leave the base weight attached to the stalk. (as far as I remember)
I think green pre-dates blue or brown.
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 8:26 am   #3
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

Blue was the first version, green second and finally brown. There was a teak style wooden cased remote control unit with green front panel.
The mic signal used the screen and inner core. The other 3 wires went to the microswitch. Often, mic audio would go intermittent after a lot of use. This was due to the screen strands fracturing just beyond the retaining clamp. A quick field repair was to unsolder the wire from the micro switch NC contact and put it in parallel with the screen. Obviously changing position in plug as well.
FM inserts had 3 pin size holes in the cover. AM had several that were about 1/16" dia. There was a rarer insert that had approx 8 or 10 (?) same size holes. These were sought after for ssb use by amateurs.
Rob
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 8:33 am   #4
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

A P Besson inserts - 3x ~1mm holes - FM Mic, 12x ~2.5mm holes AM Mic, 3x ~2.5mm holes telephone earpiece.
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 8:54 am   #5
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

The ssb preferred insert part number may have been I think AE01243?? I am going back many years, so could be totally wrong!
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 10:56 am   #6
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

I could only turn up 3x AM Ones. AE01240 see below.
I wonder what hole pattern the SSB one had? AE01243 seems entirely likely!
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 11:08 am   #7
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

Jon, my memory may not be too bad after all then!
G6Tanuki. The replacement for the Tulip mic was a plastic sloping L shape thing. Electret insert. Components on the PCB could be.varied to suit am or FM use.
Early ones were very temperamental mechanically. Very lightweight and flimsy looking. Customers put blu tack under them to stop them sliding around!
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 11:49 am   #8
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

M80 series controller mic. I didn't like them either!
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 12:47 pm   #9
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC View Post
I could only turn up 3x AM Ones. AE01240 see below.
I wonder what hole pattern the SSB one had? AE01243 seems entirely likely!
"GNA" was the GPO code for parts manufactured at "Pye Scottish Communications - Airdrie" apparently, according to Bob Freshwater's amazing website.

I presume the "72" refers to 1972.
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 5:37 pm   #10
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

Pye SSB130 Stand Microphone is in the handbook as Part# 284318/14.

That would have been a tulip type and I suppose /14 would call up the SSB Insert.
I still miss that Pye Microfiche of part numbers & drawings. It knew all this.

Thanks also to Nick for previously unknown info. I have some inserts marked A P Besson on the back but that one is printed only on the front.
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Old 27th Jun 2022, 8:38 pm   #11
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

It does indeed disassemble as described upthread.

The bottom of the chromed 'stalk' has a couple of flats.

Unclamp the flex from the little metal saddle that clamps it to the base, so it can rotate inside the stalk.

Clamp the flats in a properly-fitting spanner, then unscrew the top part from the stalk, allowing the flex to rotate inside the stalk.

Then push the chromed base-part down, and use a suitable blunt glomper along the joint-line between the two plastic halves to lever them apart; there is a cross-piece just below the microphone itself - each half of the shell has a boss with a spring-clip that grips the metal cross-piece, you need to ease the two halves apart so this can pull-out of one of the shell-halves.

Now, it's apart. The mic-insert appears to be one of the lots-of-holes 'AM' versions, and is working just fine - a break in the screened lead is yet to be proven.

Meantime the little chromed grille and its underlying perforated-metal baffle are pickling in a strong detergent solution... from times-past when I dealt with commercial two-way-radio users it always seemed that the guys on 'control' had an 100-a-day Craven-A chainsmoking habit or the sort of halitosis that could descale a kettle at 100 yards, or both... so I'm not taking any chances!

From what I remember about the Pye mic-inserts the ones for AM radios had a 'rising' frequency-response whereas those for use with FM gear had a falling frequency-response [which made sense because the 'FM' was actually phase-modulation where the end-result 'deviation' was related to the frequency of the applied audio and so a degree of de-emphasis was needed before the audio reached the phase-modulator].

I'm planning to use this tulip-mic, once refurbished, with my AEL3030 80-Metre SSB transceiver; I've had good audio-reports from it when using a Pye 'AM' fist-mic in the past.
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Old 28th Jun 2022, 7:31 pm   #12
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

Pye AM Inserts have lots of shove and they are just what is needed for SSB.
I use on IC202s and FT221s.

On the small holed FM inserts I think they would have a rising response. I recall something about the type approval test method using an AF Gen as input and so completely flat with frequency. A rising mic insert got some extra pre-emphasis so more happened in practice than was allowed and it helped intelligibility. Have I got that right?

The relatively low output from an FM insert always seemed to need extra emitter bypassing on W15FM W15U etc mic amp stages. Otherwise you just had to shout!

PS That Mic Insert came from same place as mine then, an AE01240 - just two years earlier,1970 not 72

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Old 29th Jun 2022, 5:21 pm   #13
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

I've spent some time cleaning it up with detergents; the two plastic halves of the Tulip were nslightly scuffed in places but this has buffed-up nicely with Turtle Wax car-polish.

The chrome on the bottom shell of the tulip and on the grille-you-speak-into has some micro-pitting an d blemishes; I am hoping that a going-over with Solvol Autosol will remove the white 'bloom' that always seems to surround these pits and improve the overall appearance,.

I've investigated the cable and it did indeed have a break where it entered the base-stand; I've cut it down by a few inches. Ideally I would have replaced it but don't have any 5-core-with-one-core-screened cable.

The base looks a bit tatty - it's an aluminium diecasting and - as so often happens - the paint has lifted in places, allowing moisture in and causing the typical snail-trails under which is white powdery oxide. I am tempted to strip it and etch-prime/respray it - if only I can find the right green. Plasti-Kote 'Oxford green" is too dark - someone has suggested it might be Land Rover Green.... investigation continues.

Alas the little circular 'PYE' badge is missing.

As to the microphone insert itself, the underneath of the stand is marked

PTC4001
Type E.M.
Z 2400 Ohms.

and I don't forsee any issues using it with my AEL3030.



Fascinating that the Science Museum has one such microphone [albeit differently-coloured] in their collection...

https://collection.sciencemuseumgrou...one-microphone
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Old 30th Jun 2022, 9:43 pm   #14
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

A bit of work with Solvol Autosol has brought-up the chrome-plating on the bottom-part of the tulip, and the little grille-into-which-you-speak rather well.

Despite lots of Turtle-Waxing, the plastic upper parts of the tulip are now shiny but still show signs of where the cable was wound over it and plasticiser has invasively leached-out of the cable's jacket to dissolve little grooves into the tulip's plastic.

Don't put microphones [or anything else] into storage with the flex wound round the plastic-parts!
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 6:06 pm   #15
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

The plastic bits would improve with T-cut and selective polishing of the grooves.
Clean it off well and polish again.

I'm wondering what happened to my brown one. It's likely buried in the shed and going rusty and doing much the same.
It would be a pity.
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Old 1st Jul 2022, 6:40 pm   #16
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

I may try the T-cut thing...

Right now I'm wrestling over what to do with the tatty diecast base-bit; keep it as it is, or strip and repaint? I've not been able to find a paint that matchesd; Plasti-Kote 'Oxford Green' is too dark, it's not 'Landrover Green' either. Closest I've been able to find is Ford "Forest Green" but it's still too datk.

A friend has promised me some NATO-Green paint but it's brush-on not spray, and to be honest I've never really mastered the skill of brushing paint to get a decently-smooth finish.
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Old 2nd Jul 2022, 9:55 am   #17
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

I have had paint custom made for colour match. The car places do it for you for a pretty penny.
They will make you a rattle can.
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Old 2nd Jul 2022, 5:59 pm   #18
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

I've also had paint made up by a 'match and mix' business for use on a vehicle where the original paint was weathered/faded after 40+ years. Like you say, it was not cheap - and the 'matched' paint faded quickly!

Given that this microphone cost me less than the price of a pint, I'm not minded to go overboard on its restoration; hence I'm stripping the existing paint and will give it a blow-over with rattle-can "Forest Green" bought today for under a fiver.

If in some future-time a better colour-match emerges, at a sensible price, I may rework it; meantime I'm happy to sacrifice preciseness-of-colour-match for a quick so-it-no-longer-looks-like-a-tatty-skip-find blowover.
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Old 11th Jul 2022, 5:37 pm   #19
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

And here it is finished;

I went for the Ford 'forest green' in a rattle-can to respray the base; it's not that good a match but I can accept that when compared to the flaking/missing/scabby-but-original paint on the base which just made it look like something dragged out of a skip.

If/when the 'right' paint shows up I might get round to giving it a second respray, but the audio-signals are colour-blind!

Bright parts polished up with Solvol Autosol; the 'gob-guard' fabric under the grille replaced with a piece of cloth cut from an old pillow-case, the cable somewhat shortened [to remove the last foot or so where it goes into the base - there was a break in at least one of the cores] and a Pye 5-pin locking-DIN connecter fitted at the outer end.

Should work nicely with my AEL3030 on 3.5MHz.
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Old 18th Jul 2022, 4:35 pm   #20
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Default Re: Pye "Tulip" mic - how to get inside??

just need a Pye logo button now by the look!
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