At 06:09 PM 09/12/09, you wrote: >what microphone will work with msf5000?
See <http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/msf/msf-index.html> and look for the paragraph that starts with "The HMN1001B microphone" But are you sure you want a microphone? The MSF has no speaker and as such was designed to use a test handset. Using a microphone gives you no way to monitor the receiver. Since the MSF has a 6-wire headset / microphone / programming jack you can use a workaround to use a more common (and hence cheaper) Maxtrac microphone. I've seen a test jig made up of a 6-wire phone cord feeding a 8-pin Ethernet style jack that was wired to match the Maxtrac mic. The pinout for that microphone is here: <http://www.repeater-builder.com/maxtrac/maxtrac-index.html> The 8-pin baseboard style jack housing also had a DB-25 pigtail hanging out of it that connected to the RIB box for programming the station. See this article for info on the programming cable pinout: <http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/msf/msf-prog-cable.html> The 8-pin baseboard style jack also had enough room in the housing for a 1/8 inch headphone jack, and you could plug a Radio Shack Model 277-1008 Mini Audio Amplifier (about $20) into it. Or instead of the Radio Shack amplified speaker you can build your own by taking a common mobile speaker and adding this circuit inside the housing: <http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/audioamp.html>. If you used a volume control with a switch on it you could switch off the DC power to the speaker amplifier when you weren't at the station. Then cable the amplified speaker into the drawer; connect the audio input to the audio pins on the 6-pin cable, pick up +12vDC for the amplifier from any of several places in the drawer and have a full time speaker. Mike WA6ILQ
