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The Kenwood TM-261 2Mtr xcvr
microphone displays an annoying
feature: After you've had it for
a while, the Mike Button must be
pressed harder and harder in
order to keep it transmitting.
Eventually, the button is so
intermittent that you want to
strangle it with its own cord.
The fix is simple.
Open up the Mike case (three
screws) and carefully lift the
back off, so small parts don't
fall out onto the floor, such as
the clear plastic piece, and the
spring. Look at the mike button
lever inside, and you will see
that pressing the mike button
causes a little red piece of
rubber to press a micro switch,
which actually keys the rig.
As this little piece of rubber
gets old, it gets soft, and
won't reliably press the micro
switch, causing the transmitter
to turn off frequently. This
little piece of sponge rubber is
a little bit smaller than a
pencil eraser, so i removed it,
and replaced it with a trimmed
pencil eraser, which is not
quite as thick as the original
piece of ! sponge rubber. It has
to be a bit thinner, so you
don't apply too much pressure to
the micro switch when you key
the mike, causing the micro
switch to bend or break off the
PC board.
I used a dab of rubber cement to
hold the eraser in place, and
let it dry for a couple of hours
before reassembling the
microphone. Now it works fine,
and my fingers aren't hurting
from having to grip the mike
button in a death grip to make
it work!.
73 de Mike W8RY |
