You are shorting out one of the input resistors and increasing Vcc on the input darlington pair.
This is not a good idea, since it increases the current drain and heat generated. Pin 2 is for
"Bypass" and is meant to go to ground through a capacitor to filter out line noise. Your method
upsets the voltage balance of the internal transistors. Interesting idea though...
The best solution is probably a FET mute such as that commonly found to mute CW
receive during key down. It should be at the input and might have to be somewhat heftier than a 2N7000 (which is commonly used)
but I think a BS170 should handle it.
john
AD5YE
