Uploaded February 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
NOTE I just noticed I had connected the diode to pin 3 of the 6AQ5 TUBE not the 12AX7 this was because of the crowded parts on the 12AX7 . My error connect the diode to the 6AQ5 tube socket .
Back in 1960 The Heathkit Sixer and Twoer were popular rigs to get on the air with especially for technician class license operators.
Cost was $29.95 when I bought mine it was fun to build and operate .This Sixer is on 50.4 MHZ the national AM six meter frequency and it is surprising how far you can talk with a good beam antenna I check in to the six meter AM net in Kalamazoo Michigan about 45 miles from the QTH here and get a good signal report every time . Years ago back in the 60's I worked a lot of stations with my Sixer when the band was open . This Sixer in the video was assembled by someone who was obviously a beginner at kit building it is a poor assembly job with poor soldering BUT it works . Not having a high output ceramic or crystal microphone I wondered if I could make an electret CB microphone work that I had .It took about half an hour to come up with a solution to connecting the electret microphone . So here is how to do it .
You can make the electret microphones work on almost any rig
tube or solid state with just a little work . Note! the parts are not critical you could use a 470 to 3000 uf capacitor if you had one small enough ,any old diode and the resistors could be 3900 to 10,000 ohms and will most likely work fine . If you install an electret microphone in a rig that has 12 volts DC like the Heathkit Sb104 then all you need is one resistor to the microphone signal wire and a coupling capacitor so the voltage for the mike is not applied to the mike amplifier in the rig so a rig with 12 volts in it you need only 2 parts
the resistor (I used a 15000 ohm in my SB104 ) and coupling capacitor I used a .1 UF capacitor . They make some very small .1 uf monolithic or disk ceramic capacitors now 73 Bob
NOTE I just noticed I had connected the diode to pin 3 of the 6AQ5 TUBE not the 12AX7 this was because of the crowded parts on the 12AX7 . My error connect the diode to the 6AQ5 tube socket .
Back in 1960 The Heathkit Sixer and Twoer were popular rigs to get on the air with especially for technician class license operators.
Cost was $29.95 when I bought mine it was fun to build and operate .This Sixer is on 50.4 MHZ the national AM six meter frequency and it is surprising how far you can talk with a good beam antenna I check in to the six meter AM net in Kalamazoo Michigan about 45 miles from the QTH here and get a good signal report every time . Years ago back in the 60's I worked a lot of stations with my Sixer when the band was open . This Sixer in the video was assembled by someone who was obviously a beginner at kit building it is a poor assembly job with poor soldering BUT it works . Not having a high output ceramic or crystal microphone I wondered if I could make an electret CB microphone work that I had .It took about half an hour to come up with a solution to connecting the electret microphone . So here is how to do it .
You can make the electret microphones work on almost any rig
tube or solid state with just a little work . Note! the parts are not critical you could use a 470 to 3000 uf capacitor if you had one small enough ,any old diode and the resistors could be 3900 to 10,000 ohms and will most likely work fine . If you install an electret microphone in a rig that has 12 volts DC like the Heathkit Sb104 then all you need is one resistor to the microphone signal wire and a coupling capacitor so the voltage for the mike is not applied to the mike amplifier in the rig so a rig with 12 volts in it you need only 2 parts
the resistor (I used a 15000 ohm in my SB104 ) and coupling capacitor I used a .1 UF capacitor . They make some very small .1 uf monolithic or disk ceramic capacitors now 73 Bob
