Dumb Question - XTS1500 & Speaker Mic

[N2DFire]

O.K.
I have an XTS1500 issued to me by work,
I have purchased my own Remote Speaker Mic (McKay Products MK-4FM-3202) off e-bay. The item was sold as a new surplus item & still had all tags / stickers attached on arrival.

After getting the thing connected I have speaker but no mic. Pressing the mic button has no effect on the radio.

While I have no problem believing I got a dud mic, I'm curious if there is any setting in the radio programming that has to be enabled to make this work.

Any and all advice is appreciated (including options for a low $$ speaker mic to replace this one).

Thanks in advance.

[escomm]

Ouch.

Don't use knockoff junk with a work radio. Especially if your line of work is public safety.

As for your problem, playing with accessory mic gain might help out, but I doubt it. Compare with a known working mic and see if the problem stays the same. My gut reaction is a bad mic but without more data it's not possible to say for certain.

[HLA]

try a couple thing, the easiest is try it on a different radio. next take a pencil eraser to the side terminals on the radio. you can also try it on a ht1000 or mt2000 and see if it works on one of those. and i agree, stick to oem or otto.

[MT2000 man]

Yes, Escomm summed it up well. ALWAYS buy Original Motorola accessories for your radio. Especially batteries, and speaker Mic.'s. Many years ago (since I didn't want to pay $95 for a new Motorola speaker mic.) I decided to get one from a Radio Shack. BIG mistake. The speaker mic. did exactly what you describe (was meant to be just as a speaker). Needless to say I promptly ordered the Motorola OEM Sp. Mic. Even if you don't want to pay the price for a "new" Motorola mic., there is usually always used Motorola Mic.'s for sale in E-bay all the time. Just be careful with some of those as well.

Good luck !

Mike

[Will]

next take a pencil eraser to the side terminals on the radio.

Make that a SOFT eraser, you do not want to ruin the plating on the contacts.

[N2DFire]

Thanks for the info. guys. I pretty much knew I had a dud the second it didn't key up.
I was just hoping on the outside chance that there was some oddball software config that needed to be set.

The radio is pretty new (~4 months) and I put the cover over the contacts when I first got it and they are still nice & bright so I don't think that's the problem - I think the mic is just dead.

I'm planning on trying to swap mic's and radios next time I can catch one of the other guys who has one just to make sure (Remote Mic's are not company issue so not everybody has one plus I work part time so it may take a while before I run with someone who has one).

Guess it's back to market for a new mic too.

[The.Manic.Medic]

Thanks for the info. guys. I pretty much knew I had a dud the second it didn't key up.
I was just hoping on the outside chance that there was some oddball software config that needed to be set.

The radio is pretty new (~4 months) and I put the cover over the contacts when I first got it and they are still nice & bright so I don't think that's the problem - I think the mic is just dead.

Bright & shiny is anot always a visual method of telling i a contact or contacts are good; many manufacturers will put a thin film of anti-corrosion protectant on contacts, even those "gold in color" (they may not be gold, but a gold alloy). As has been suggested in many posts, taking a CLEAN pencil eraser (rub it on a cloth first to remove any traces of lead and/or carbon) and clean the contacts.

I have seen, first-hand, "new" items which, unless this thin gilm is removed, may keep a set of contacts from being as close to zero ohms once they are touching each other.

Usually, the film is made to "wipe off" once it rubs against the mating contact, but this generally only hold true if the connector "slides" into/against another. The speaker-mic pins on the "PS" mics on the HT/JT1000, etc. simply touch one another, and no real movement is accomplished; hence, if there is a protective film, it may not have been "removed".

It is almost certain that the unit you purchased is defective. The PS mic you bought also may not be the usual 4uF capacitor which is in series with the PTT switch. Many brand of radios require this capacitor, not onlt to "limit the audio frequency of the mic element", it may also be there (on certain brands of radios) as a protection device against very small voltage spikes when the PTT switch is keyed quickly (usually by accident).

You can generally check to see if the mic element is working by putting a voltmenter into a low kilohm value (3k or less), WITHOUT THE MIC BEING ATTACHED TO THE RADIO, and "speaking" into the area where the mic element works. If you do not see a change in the ohms initially, reverse the test leads (in case the capacitor is an electrolytc type), wait for the ohms reading to become "steady" again, and try talking into the mic once again. If you do not see ANY change in the ohms reading, the odds are the element is bad.

You can also use the voltmeter, in the ohms scale, to check to see if the PTT switch is indeed functonal.

I hope this little bit of info may help you, and possibly others, in the near future.

[KG4LHQ]

I have sent you a PM with information sir.

Thanks

[nmfire10]

There is no CPS setting to disable the remote speaker mic. So yea, you're screwed.