Intercom question

[Dmath]

I'm a complete noob on this board, with a question about an ancient intercom I'm trying to resurrect.

It's an old Hush-A-Com intercom set that I've had but haven't touched for 25 years. I've been flying single-seaters mostly down the years but I'm planning to go back to a two-seater so my wife can fly with me. So I dug the old set out, removed the long-since-dead 9-volt battery (never should have left it in there, I know, but it didn't leak.) Anyway, I replaced the battery with a new one, plugged the two headsets into the intercom box, turned the power on, volume up a bit, and they worked just fine with each other. With too much volume it squealed like a banshee.

When I tried the system the next morning, there was no life in the system at all – on, off, volume up, volume down. Tried another fresh battery, and still nothing. I know zilch about electronics, but then I saw one of the tiny wires from the battery was broken. When I touched it to the frame, I suddenly had crackles and pops in the headsets. Okay, so the battery connections are poor. That I can probably fix.

But beyond that -- anybody got any ideas about what should be done to revive this thing? And has something this old been so superseded by new electronics that I should just keep the headsets and throw out the intercom box?

[saxdiva]

But beyond that -- anybody got any ideas about what should be done to revive this thing? And has something this old been so superseded by new electronics that I should just keep the headsets and throw out the intercom box?

Welcome.

Where are you, and where is the manufacturer? It might be worth getting the unit bench-tested. Did that recently for one that was made by a local outfit, and the work (including repairs) set me back a whole $60.

[Dmath]

But beyond that -- anybody got any ideas about what should be done to revive this thing? And has something this old been so superseded by new electronics that I should just keep the headsets and throw out the intercom box?

Welcome.

Where are you, and where is the manufacturer? It might be worth getting the unit bench-tested. Did that recently for one that was made by a local outfit, and the work (including repairs) set me back a whole $60.

I lave in a small town in Minnesota, and the manufacturer, Hush-a-Com, has been out of business for a lot of years. I would be happy to get it bench-tested, but where do you go to have that done? All of our local Radio Shacks have gone under.

[Merlinspop]

A quick trip to Sporty's (I know, not the cheapest) shows a 2 place intercom for $187 and then you have to get at least 1 PTT switch (assuming you want to talk on the radio) for $25 each. So, not a killer amount of money, but not trivial, either, at least for me.

IF you really do want to play around with your old one to get it working reliably again (a fun idea), I'd google around for a local HAM radio club. Some hams, especially the more er... senior ones, have built rigs in the past and know their way around electronics. You may find someone who would be happy to fix up the battery connection and test out the unit.

[Dmath]

A quick trip to Sporty's (I know, not the cheapest) shows a 2 place intercom for $187 and then you have to get at least 1 PTT switch (assuming you want to talk on the radio) for $25 each. So, not a killer amount of money, but not trivial, either, at least for me.

IF you really do want to play around with your old one to get it working reliably again (a fun idea), I'd google around for a local HAM radio club. Some hams, especially the more er... senior ones, have built rigs in the past and know their way around electronics. You may find someone who would be happy to fix up the battery connection and test out the unit.

Thanks! I will look into that.

[Dmath]

I would throw it all out and start over with a new pair of noise cancelling headsets.

Golly, why didn't I think of that?