My rig actually came with the MH-1B8 hand mic (the FT-980 standard 600 ohm hand mic) ... I quickly retired it somewhere. I'll try to dig it up. I would not be shocked if the mic element was not in as good a shape as it used to be. I a number of older mics: many have aged well ... but a few have not.
Note: if I set my mic gain at max (or anywhere near it) on my FT-980, I will overload the mic pre-amp resulting in poor audio. Any chance this could be it?
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-Mat Breton, N8TW
Mat Breton N8TW