I am not an electronics maven; that's why I'm here.
Here's my story. Motorcycle cb radios cost around $800, which is ridiculous. So I bought a Uniden 520XL to adapt to my bike. Everything works well, except the mic. I took apart the stock mic and moved the electret to a boom mounted on my close-face helmet. The mic is labeled as a "high impedance 1000 ohm" mic.
When I key the mic, it is so sensitive that it picks up everything...engine noise, etc. People on the receiving end say it's overpowering. So I was thinking about some way to reduce the output of the mic. Is that reasonable? I have spent many hours of many months doing internet research and found this site: http://www.uneeda-audio.com/pads/ . This is more technical than I can understand. But is this what needs to be done?
Then, I awoke this morning and remembered something about the whole microphone take-apart effort. I opened another Uniden mic to look. There is a horseshoe shaped chunk of metal that encircles most of the electret. There is a connection between the electret case (ground) and this chunk. Now I'm wondering if the mere existence of that metal was was providing some type of shield. When I moved the electret to my helmet, I tossed the metal horseshoe.
Can someone provide some enlightenment here? I've been at this cb project for more than a year. By now, I've probably spent more than $800 combined in parts, wire, time and aggravation. I would really like to close the book on this one. But I'd really like to make this CB work since I have so much in it already.
Can I add a couple of resistors to alleviate the sensitivity issue? What size? How wired (by the way, the electret gets its power directly from the radio)? Do I need to encircle the electret? Do, maybe, I need to wear a tinfoil hat when riding the bike?
Here's my story. Motorcycle cb radios cost around $800, which is ridiculous. So I bought a Uniden 520XL to adapt to my bike. Everything works well, except the mic. I took apart the stock mic and moved the electret to a boom mounted on my close-face helmet. The mic is labeled as a "high impedance 1000 ohm" mic.
When I key the mic, it is so sensitive that it picks up everything...engine noise, etc. People on the receiving end say it's overpowering. So I was thinking about some way to reduce the output of the mic. Is that reasonable? I have spent many hours of many months doing internet research and found this site: http://www.uneeda-audio.com/pads/ . This is more technical than I can understand. But is this what needs to be done?
Then, I awoke this morning and remembered something about the whole microphone take-apart effort. I opened another Uniden mic to look. There is a horseshoe shaped chunk of metal that encircles most of the electret. There is a connection between the electret case (ground) and this chunk. Now I'm wondering if the mere existence of that metal was was providing some type of shield. When I moved the electret to my helmet, I tossed the metal horseshoe.
Can someone provide some enlightenment here? I've been at this cb project for more than a year. By now, I've probably spent more than $800 combined in parts, wire, time and aggravation. I would really like to close the book on this one. But I'd really like to make this CB work since I have so much in it already.
Can I add a couple of resistors to alleviate the sensitivity issue? What size? How wired (by the way, the electret gets its power directly from the radio)? Do I need to encircle the electret? Do, maybe, I need to wear a tinfoil hat when riding the bike?
