CONFUSING TIMES...





Remember back in the good 'ol days of 11m radio when buying an Astatic D-104 was so confusing?? Most of us are familiar with the late 80's and 90's where it was just a matter of which microphone style you wanted (i.e. - Silver Eagle, Night Eagle, etc.), and then you were going mostly on which D-104 looked best attached to your rig (ed. - okay, for some, THAT was a hard decision). But I'm talking about something even more confusing, especially as a teen-age youth.

Back in the olden days, you could walk into a CB shop (actually most were part CB, the rest - TV Repair) and tell the man behind the counter -

"I want to buy a D-104"

The crusty old man, with tobacco stains on his beard and shirt collar, would peer down at you and give you the once over, then furrowing his brow and appearing to be in deep thought (ed.-trying to figure out a way to get rid of this new breed of pest). A cynical smile would form as he put his cigarette out in the tray with 100 others and he'd say,

"Oh, you'd like a D-104 would ya?"

"Tell me this", he'd say,

"Do ya want the UG-8, TUG-8, 'G', or TUP-9 stand with that?"

and then for good measure,

"Also do ya want the D-104 ceramic, crystal or 10-DA head to go with your selected stand?"

By then, any rookie radio operator would have his hair standing on their ends! "Did I have to study and take a test for this?" many might have thought.....

Yes, sometimes, buying a D-104 back in those days could be complicated. If you picked the wrong one, many, MANY hours would go into trying to get the microphone to work and sound correctly before someone who had gone through this before told him that he had bought either the wrong microphone stand, or microphone head. Nonetheless, Astatic D-104's were very popular; especially so with the Browning crowd. They offered crisp audio which leaned towards the higher end of the spectrum, often making a radio sound loud with a lot of treble in the audio. Also, it was not uncommon for someone to buy a D-104 and end up with a squeal in the audio!!

I hadn't really thought much about D-104's back then, but after the Turner article and comments I got to thinking about the trials and tribulations of my first D-104 desk microphone....

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'NUFF SAID

WOODY

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