Wiring Diagrams

New to wiring a microphone?
Located on this page you will find a collection of Tips and instructions on how to wire your own microphone.

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    Before you get started its a good idea to have a nice clean area to work. Make sure you also have a few essential tools to make things easier.

Suggested Tools:

Cord Preparation

    It is always best to start with freshly stripped wires, this makes for a neater job with less chance of messy wires shorting together. Prep the cord by first stripping the outer coating about 3/4 of an inch from the end. Be careful not to nick the wires inside, lightly score the outside to remove. Separate each wire and unwrap and gather together the shield (The bare wire wrapped around a coated wire). Strip each wire about 1/4 of an inch from the end then tin each wire. Basically "Tinning" is nothing more than applying a thin coat of solder to the surface, this makes soldering the connections together a lot easier and faster (Do Not Skip This Step!!). Trim the end of each wire so about 1/8 of an inch of bare wire shows. You are now ready to start attaching to the plug.
**NOTE** When tinning the wire, do it quickly, you don't want to melt the wire coating.
**NOTE** Be sure all the wires a roughly the same length! The shortest wire has more strain on it and will always break first!

Plug Preparation

When installing a New plug be sure to tin the pins first. When Re-using an old plug remove as much of the old solder you can. You could use some de-soldering braid or suction tool, another good way to do this is while holding the plug in one hand and the Iron in the other, heat up the solder connection on one pin, then quickly take the hand holding the plug and hit it against a hard surface in a downward motion. This will cause the solder to fly off of the pin, leaving a tinned surface.

Strain Relief

    Depending on the size of the cord you may need some kind of a strain relief. The thicker cords generally need nothing more than a small piece of heat shrink tubing. The smaller cords need something a bit thicker, multiple layers of heat shrink tubing would be best. You could also use a 1" long piece of tubing or the outer coating from a piece of coax and cover with a bit of heat shrink tubing. NEVER USE ELECTRICAL TAPE or any other tape for that matter, it will not last and it just turns into a sticky mess after it gets warm a few times.
**NOTE** Heat shrinkable tubing can be found just about anywhere now days. Just about anywhere you find solder or wiring supplies you'll find heat shrink tubing, Look for Polyolefin type if you can find it, it does not burn and has a satin type finish.

Connections

    Identifying what wire does what is not always that difficult. The easiest and best way is just to pop open the head of the mic and look at the switch. Take note of what color does what and use that info for the plug end. Two wires that are almost ALWAYS constant are the modulation line and shield. The shield is always the bare wire and the wire its wrapped around should always be Modulation. Not all Microphones use the same wire color code, so it is best to double check before you connect them. So how do you know what each color is? Below are diagrams of the two most popular mic switch layouts. The arrow indicates the direction of movement to TX.

    When the switch is at rest (RX position) pins 1 & 2 are connected and pins 4 & 5 are connected. When the switch is in (TX Position) pins 2 & 3 are connected and pins 5 & 6 are connected. Pins 2 & 5 are the common pins for each set, most cases the ground and shield will go to these. One set handles the RX and TX and the other will handle the modulation, it generally does not matter which one is which, UNLESS you have an offset switch. With an offset switch one row will switch just before the other, this is used to slightly delay the activation of the modulation line after the transmitter was activated. This type of switch was only used in older units and is not that common today. The row that switches the TX and RX needs to have a ground wire as the common (Pin 2), the shield can be used here if you don't have extra wires. The RX line goes to the pin connected to ground when the switch is at rest (Pin 1) and TX line goes to the pin connected to ground with the switch pushed in (Pin 3). For the modulation part of the switch they can switch either the Positive (+) or the negative (-) line of the mic element. When switching the negative (-) side you will use a ground as the common (Pin 5) and the negative (-) side of the mic element to the pin connected to the common when the switch is pushed in (Pin 6). When switching the pos (+) side you use the modulation line (the one that had the shield wrapped around it) as the common (Pin 5) and the pos (+) side of the mic element to the pin connected to the common when the switch is pushed in (Pin 6). Sometimes you will have a wire connected to the pin connected to the common pin when the switch is at rest (Pin 4) this wire generally does not go to anything and does not have to be there for CB applications.

    That should give just about all the info you need to figure out what wire does what in you mic. You can find pin layouts for most radios located on the Pin Layouts page. You will also find some common color codes for the more popular microphones.

Go to Pin Layouts Page

Soldering Tips

    Soldering may seem difficult at first, but with a little practice it won't bother you at all. Follow these simple tips and it will make your soldering efforts less tedious.

1. When soldering wires or components ALWAYS use Rosin Core solder or some kind of rosin flux. NEVER use Acid Core for anything electrical, it does not flow as well and it will deteriorate your wire and connections.

2. Keep the tip clean. Use a wet sponge or piece of wet paper towel to wipe the tip on before soldering. A clean tip solders faster and easier.

3. Tin all surfaces before making your connections, wires, pins, components, etc. Often, if you apply a little extra solder to both surfaces, you wont need to add any when making the  connections, just melt the tinned surfaces together.

4. Use your solder sparingly. To much is not always a good thing, blobs can cause problems. You should have just enough solder to cover the wire.

5. Have at least one part secured so it does not move around. Trying to solder with all your parts moving around makes for bad connections, not to mention it's a lot harder too!

6. Do not re-heat the same solder over and over. You can typically re-heat the same solder 2 or 3 times before you burn up all the flux. If the solder turns a dull gray or becomes clumpy simply add a little fresh solder (This adds a little more flux) or remove the excess and start over.

7. Hold the soldering iron on the connection long enough to get the solder to flow to the edges, but not too long to burn the flux out of the solder. Do not keep touching the connection with the iron for a sec then remove, then apply, then remove, then apply, etc. Keep the iron there until all the solder has flowed to where you want it, then remove. Mic pins typically only need 2 to 4 seconds. Larger surfaces will take longer to heat up and can cause a lot of flux loss, simply add a little fresh solder at a time, you can watch it spread out as it heats up just keep adding enough to keep it flowing until the surface has good coating.

8. After you remove the iron from the area you are soldering Do Not Move the connection until the solder has cooled (4 to 6 sec). Moving will cause a weak joint, it is easily spotted by its dull gray finish.

9. A good solid solder connection will be smooth and shiny. When you have a dull clumpy finish, remove excess solder and try it again, Practice makes perfect!

10. Wires Do Not need to be hooked or looped through holes. Let the solder do the work. For electronics it is just fine to lay the wire over a pin and solder it down.

Go to Pin Layouts Page