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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 11th Sep 2018, 10:24 pm   #1
crestavega
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Default Pye Tulip mike connector

Anyone know what this Plessey connector might have been connected to?
it is on the tail of a nice old Pye tulip mic
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Old 12th Sep 2018, 8:57 am   #2
G3VKM_Roger
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

It would have connected to a Pye base station, something like a T30FM for example. If you swop the connector for another plug keep hold of the old plug as they are often sought-after by KW-2000 transceiver owners, they fit the KW-2000 power supply socket.

Cheers

Roger

Last edited by G3VKM_Roger; 12th Sep 2018 at 8:57 am. Reason: spelling
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Old 12th Sep 2018, 5:50 pm   #3
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

If you decide to change the plug, here is a tip.
After a lot of use, the audio would sometimes go intermittent when moving the mic or cable about. This was caused by the mic audio braiding fracturing just at the bend where it exits the base strain relief. This then required either replacing the whole cable or cutting several inches from the cable at the base and re-terminating. With a lot of use, the fault would re-occur.
Nearly all applications of this mic did not need the microswitch to perform a "changeover" function as it is originally wired with the black, blue and red wires (from memory almost 30 years ago!). Just a make to tx was all that was needed.
The trick was, (after repairing or replacing the cable), to remove the normally closed wire from the switch and the plug and then connect either end in parallel with the mic braiding.
Then, next time the braid fractured, the parallel wire would still complete the audio circuit.
It made no difference to the audio quality by the likes of hum or feedback.
It DID keep the customer happy, especially if they were paying, as it saved future callouts. If a contract or rental customer, it saved on future calls, thus saving the company money.
Rob
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Old 12th Sep 2018, 8:45 pm   #4
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

I too was going to suggest that it plugged into a base station, probably Pye, and desk top mounted. I saw a few like that. I think I have some plugs like that in a box somewhere. Some of the tulip mics I saw had those chunky 6 or 8 pin plugs with flat pins on. They were commonly found on the radio-telephone type handsets in Police and Fire vehicles. I'm also pretty certain the OP's connectors in the photos were used as interconnects between the transmitter and receiver in Pye base stations. But it's a long time ago so I may be wrong. I have a couple of complete Pye base station stations in the shed somewhere. I might be tempted to have a look at the back panels to check.
Alan.
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Old 12th Sep 2018, 9:40 pm   #5
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

The 15 way plug and socket harness connected the TX and Rx in the f30 simplex base station. The other 15 way plug was for mic or telephone type local control. Made by McMurdo I think.
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Old 13th Sep 2018, 7:31 pm   #6
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

The Cossor radio telephone control unit used in many police UHF control rooms had a similar connector for the mic. It’s been too long to remember if it was a 7- or 15-way, unless anyone can confirm? The Pye MASCOT 50/70/200 RTCs used in the same locations may have used something similar too...
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Old 13th Sep 2018, 7:46 pm   #7
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

I think its a McMurdo 700 series connector.

I remember the rotatable cable clamp and spring clip retainers. The diecast ends used to fracture if yanked.

Fitted to Nurse Call pendants in UK hospitals in the 70s and 80s

Whether that helps you is another matter!
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Old 13th Sep 2018, 7:49 pm   #8
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

Kevin, you of all people should recognise it!!!
Rob
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Old 13th Sep 2018, 8:06 pm   #9
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

We knew them as the Plessey 159 series...similar to but subtle differences to the McMurdo connectors.

Last edited by Sparky67; 13th Sep 2018 at 8:12 pm.
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Old 13th Sep 2018, 9:10 pm   #10
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

Ah yes, the Mascot 200 and also the infamous RTC controller with the olive green panel and wooden box. Most of them used to hum, grumble and rattle to themselves if I remember correctly. A combination of germanium transistors and noisy carbon resistors. The 200 was full of little plug-in amplifier modules that had to be set up for least distortion I don't remember what the mike connector was on them though. The main control rooms used Mascot 1000. I seem to remember that the Pye Westminster used those connectors for the 12V power input. Were they 10 or 12 way versions? They always seemed a bit iffy for high current applications, while trying to avoid shorts on adjacent pins. Not my favourite plug to wire up. The later Motorola sets used a nice big two pin polarised rubber power connector.
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Old 13th Sep 2018, 9:39 pm   #11
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

We knew the PTC-RTC as the 'Teak Box' with the green telephone-style handset and base. Fortunately (!) not many of those were used in the area I covered. I think the W15 used a 7-way DC connector?

The Pye SSB125T looks like it also used a Tulip Mic with a 15-way type 159 connector, so is another possibility....

Martin
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Old 13th Sep 2018, 10:50 pm   #12
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

I had a Pye RTC run on twisted pair down the garden to my T30AM/R6AM Pair in the garage which was my 70.26MHz AM base when I lived in Cambridge 1980's.

It was very good. I don't recall what happened to it - except I don't have it now!

Later items like the M87 controller just had no soul compared to the green and teak box.
Also M80 series were full of evils such as op-amp gyrators and such.

The connectors are worth keeping, they can be taken apart and made to fit other applications by adding or subtracting sections.
The folded lid can be cut down or just forgotten about. You can't make the lids longer, but you can find longer studding if needs be.
What was the thread? 8BA?

Last edited by Jon_G4MDC; 13th Sep 2018 at 11:01 pm.
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Old 13th Sep 2018, 11:07 pm   #13
Biggles
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

Without hijacking the thread (again) our Pye RTCs used DC +50V, earth, -50V signalling over Post Office landlines when landlines were available as continuous loops from origin to destination. This used to cause problems when overnight the base radio (typically an F496) went mysteriously into permanent transmit. The cause; BT had swapped line pair polarity while working on their systems. Polarity didn't matter on normal landlines, but it did on ours. The migration to AC signalling cured that.
Alan.
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Old 19th Oct 2018, 10:42 am   #14
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

Ah yes, the tulip mic also had a 10 pin round plug on them for the PC1 controller.
I used these plug and sockets on a home brew audio mixer to the power amp box when I did audio pa for my church before better systems were installed.
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Old 21st Oct 2018, 12:42 am   #15
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: Pye Tulip mike connector

About 15 years ago I passed by a taxi station and was surprised to see the operator still using a Pye Tulip. Are there any taxis left still using voice radios? There was one local firm that had the option about 5 years ago, but of the actual dispatching was done by data.
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