So I have an old CB radio and I don't have the original mic. It requires a 4 pin mic and I have several of them but I don't have a clue if any of them will work with this radio due to what I think is a bad speaker. I don't know if the radio is sending or receiving signal and I don't know much about them. My display lights up when it's connected to a power supply so I know at least that much of it works. Do all 4 pin mics work with any 4 pin cb? Do you have to find a specific mic to go with a specific brand of radio?
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CB mic question
- Thread starter New cb user
- Start date
No you don't have to match brands of mics to radios. The only thing you need to find out is if the radio uses electronic or relay. If it is a relay then you will hear a click when you key up. I know an Astatic D104m6 works with both.
Many of the 4 pin mic connectors are wired the same, but not all. On a 4 pin you'll have a wire for RX, one for TX, one for audio, and a ground. The best thing to find your radio on cbtricks and see how it is wired and then do the same for one of your microphones and compare if they are wired the same.
Also get a external speaker for your radio. There should be a spot to plug one in the back of the radio. If not then you will have to replace the internal one. An eternal will offer better audio than the stock one, if you can it would be money well spent for any radio.
Each radio has a specific mic wiring for mic audio, ground, push-to-talk, and shield. Thing is, that they don't always have the same pin configuration. That can be a problem, but there are solutions. You will have to look up your radio by a specific model and than find the wiring configurations. Probably some of your mics will work, but only after they are re-configured the right pin configuration.
Be specific to the radio model and what mic you want to use on it, that will get you where you need to go.
Be specific to the radio model and what mic you want to use on it, that will get you where you need to go.
It's a Regency cr-230 cb radio with bunch of stock cobra mics from the early 80s. I have no idea which model because all they says is Cobra. And also one JCPenny. However won Ollie the mikes I have no idea which ones.
new CB user, the easiest thing to do would be to plug each mic into the radio and see if you can key the mic and make the radio transmit.
finding the wiring info on that radio will be difficult at best.
im not sure on that particular radio, but with many of the old 23 channel radios, you could still hear sound from the speaker with the mic unplugged.
if you are not hearing any audio, there is a good chance that the radio just doesnt work.
the parts inside CB radios, and any electronic device do have a life expectancy.
that radio is really not worth fixing unless you want to mess with it on your own to learn.
dont expect too much help on the forums though. its a very old obscure radio and not many people will even have any info on it, much less want to walk someone through the troubleshooting process.
now, if you want to find out which pin on the radio's mic jack is which; we can do that.
get a multimeter and set it to read continuity.
take the bottom cover off the CB and look at the PC board.
you will notice a bunch of silver square cans all over the place.
all of the metal covers are grounded to PC board ground.
touch the negative lead of the multimeter to one of the metal cans, and touch the other lead to each mic pin until you find the one that shows continuity.
this is your ground pin.
now you need to turn the radio on, and use a small jumper wire.
touch one end of the jumper wire to the ground pin you just found, and then touch the other end to each of the other pin, making a note of what happens.
one pin should cause the radio to go into transmit mode, as indicated by the meter and maybe a light on the radio.
this will be your TX pin.
you will probably notice that touching one of the pins causes a loud squeal in the speaker.
that is your audio pin.
in most 23 channel radios, thats all there is, ground, TX, and audio.
the other pin is unused.
in some however, there is a receive pin, and if thats the case with your radio, the pin you have left over will be the receive pin.
draw a picture of the jack to help you remember whats what.
now you need to take the back cover off of a mic, and match up wire colors with their functions.
inside the mic you will see that one of the wires has no insulation on it, and is just bare copper.
you will also notice that this bare copper stranded wire is wrapped around one of the other wires, as if to shield it.
the bare copper wire is your ground wire, and the wire that its wrapped around will be the audio wire.
now, using your multimeter again, touch one lead to the bare copper wire, and the other lead to the mic plug in order to find out which pin on the mic plug is the ground pin.
when you find it, make a note of it.
now put one lead from the multimeter to the ground pin on the mic plug, and while holding the mic button down, touch the other lead of the multimeter to each pin until you find the one that has continuity.
this will be your TX wire.
now you know what pins are what and can unsolder the wires from the mic plug and move them to the correct position for your radio.
by process of elimination, you also know which pin is the receive pin, if that is needed.
good luck,
LC
finding the wiring info on that radio will be difficult at best.
im not sure on that particular radio, but with many of the old 23 channel radios, you could still hear sound from the speaker with the mic unplugged.
if you are not hearing any audio, there is a good chance that the radio just doesnt work.
the parts inside CB radios, and any electronic device do have a life expectancy.
that radio is really not worth fixing unless you want to mess with it on your own to learn.
dont expect too much help on the forums though. its a very old obscure radio and not many people will even have any info on it, much less want to walk someone through the troubleshooting process.
now, if you want to find out which pin on the radio's mic jack is which; we can do that.
get a multimeter and set it to read continuity.
take the bottom cover off the CB and look at the PC board.
you will notice a bunch of silver square cans all over the place.
all of the metal covers are grounded to PC board ground.
touch the negative lead of the multimeter to one of the metal cans, and touch the other lead to each mic pin until you find the one that shows continuity.
this is your ground pin.
now you need to turn the radio on, and use a small jumper wire.
touch one end of the jumper wire to the ground pin you just found, and then touch the other end to each of the other pin, making a note of what happens.
one pin should cause the radio to go into transmit mode, as indicated by the meter and maybe a light on the radio.
this will be your TX pin.
you will probably notice that touching one of the pins causes a loud squeal in the speaker.
that is your audio pin.
in most 23 channel radios, thats all there is, ground, TX, and audio.
the other pin is unused.
in some however, there is a receive pin, and if thats the case with your radio, the pin you have left over will be the receive pin.
draw a picture of the jack to help you remember whats what.
now you need to take the back cover off of a mic, and match up wire colors with their functions.
inside the mic you will see that one of the wires has no insulation on it, and is just bare copper.
you will also notice that this bare copper stranded wire is wrapped around one of the other wires, as if to shield it.
the bare copper wire is your ground wire, and the wire that its wrapped around will be the audio wire.
now, using your multimeter again, touch one lead to the bare copper wire, and the other lead to the mic plug in order to find out which pin on the mic plug is the ground pin.
when you find it, make a note of it.
now put one lead from the multimeter to the ground pin on the mic plug, and while holding the mic button down, touch the other lead of the multimeter to each pin until you find the one that has continuity.
this will be your TX wire.
now you know what pins are what and can unsolder the wires from the mic plug and move them to the correct position for your radio.
by process of elimination, you also know which pin is the receive pin, if that is needed.
good luck,
LC
Can't find a schematic or the mic wiring for the 23 channel AM mode only Regency CR-230
But I'll guess that it would work with a Cobra mic something like this.
Could be wrong, so maybe someone else can chime in and correct this if it is wrong:
WHITE - pin 1 (mic audio)
SHIELD & BLACK - pin 2 (ground)
No Connection - pin 3
RED - pin 4 (push-to-talk)
But I'll guess that it would work with a Cobra mic something like this.
Could be wrong, so maybe someone else can chime in and correct this if it is wrong:
WHITE - pin 1 (mic audio)
SHIELD & BLACK - pin 2 (ground)
No Connection - pin 3
RED - pin 4 (push-to-talk)
The speaker works but I try to mess with the volume and it only stays on the lowest setting that I can hear. So it's just very faint background static. I'm hoping the speaker is just bad. If I barely squeeze the mic I can actually hear it back feeding into the radio. The mic won't make a sound until I squeeze it all the way. I understand a radio that old is going to have an issue in the way of help but I thought it would be a good way to get started.
According to my Astatic manual the mic pin assignment for that radio should be:
1 - White
2 - Shield and Blue
3 - Black
4 - Red
newcbuser,
do not go by the colors listed in that post.
dont get me wrong, littlewhiskey provided you with some good information that is hard to come by, its just that the wire colors only apply to Astatic brand microphones.
to translate what you need to know, its is like this:
pin 1: audio
pin 2: shield/ ground (a stock mic will only have one wire for this, the bare copper one)
pin 3: receive
pin 4: transmit
this particular configuration is the most common one, which means that a cobra stock 4 pin mic should already be wired this way from the factory.
if you were to order a new mic from somewhere and have them wire a plug to it, you would tell them to wire it for a "4 pin cobra".
LC
do not go by the colors listed in that post.
dont get me wrong, littlewhiskey provided you with some good information that is hard to come by, its just that the wire colors only apply to Astatic brand microphones.
to translate what you need to know, its is like this:
pin 1: audio
pin 2: shield/ ground (a stock mic will only have one wire for this, the bare copper one)
pin 3: receive
pin 4: transmit
this particular configuration is the most common one, which means that a cobra stock 4 pin mic should already be wired this way from the factory.
if you were to order a new mic from somewhere and have them wire a plug to it, you would tell them to wire it for a "4 pin cobra".
LC
