Tram Titan II with D-104 mic

[Ga Tubeman]

Hi Guys,
I have just gotten a Tram Titan II . The unit works great, however when I plugged in my D-104 the XMIT light comes on. I rewired the plug on the mic and double shrink wrapped it. I can now plug it in and it works but if I install the little screw to hold on the outside metal part of the plug the Xmit light comes on. The screw screws into a metal tab that is riveted through the plug and touches the chassis mounted female part of the plug. on the female wiring, the center pin and the 2 lower pins are all wired to ground. The center pin is connected to the rivet that holds on the tab that the screw goes into... So then I got an adapter to adapt a cobra wired mic to the tram plug...same thing...even w/o the mic plugged into the adapter it shorts and the light comes on. It will also shock the stuffings out of you !! Anybody help on this issue ??? Thanks ; Ga.Tubeman

-- Sunday, 31 May 2015, 18:24 PM --

Guys...this is my first post... I corrected the first with this one...When I plug in the mic WITH the little screw in the plug the XMIT light comes on as if I had keyed the mic. I am wondering if all I need to do is ground the chassis with a true ground... ???

[dirtyjob]

what model d104 is it ?

please verify your using :

1-audio
2-shield
3-rx
4-tx

for a d104 tug8 stand it's white/shield/black/red

if its a silver eagle/night eagle tup9/tug9 its white/shield and blue/black/red


also be carefull none of the wires are touching the mic plug case.

[MDYoungblood]

Hello Ga Tubeman,
Welcome to the forum. If the modulation light is coming on it could be just picking up background noise, try turning the gain down under the mic and see if the light goes off. I believe dirtyjob has the wiring right , he is a "Tram Man". If it's a TUG8-D104, it only has 4 wires, the wiring should be,
1 - audio - white
2 - shield
3 - receive - black
4 - transmit - red
Now depending on it's age of the mic there might be a switch in the base for electronic or relay switching, if there it should be set to relay. I would look hard at the length of the plug screw to make sure it's not too long and touching any wires inside, it does ground the plug but not connected to any mic cord wires. One other thing is to make sure the lock ring on the stand is all the way to the screw on the base, if it's up slightly it might be keying the mic audio but not the transmit.
As a new member to the forum could you write an intro and post it in the "Welcome to the Forum" topic, [Please login or register to view this link] , thanks.

3's

Greg

[Ga Tubeman]

Thanks for your replies !! The Plug is wired correctly and I have 2 layers of shrink wrap covering the soldered wiring. I also ordered an adapter to go from the Tram Plug to a Cobra mike..brand new ... When I insert it into the mic plug it also immediately shorts and BOTH the MOD and XMIT lights come on...of course I don't leave it but a fraction of a second. I believe that the problem must be in the chassis. Which wire is the "hot" wire ?? If I remove the metal cover and slowly pull the plug out it will spark from the black wire / pin. I noticed that the middle terminal on the back side of the chassis plug is grounded along with the shield and black wire. I have thought about isolating this middle pin ( disconnect from ground) .... Any other ideas are greatly appreciated..

Thanks again,

Yes, I will go to the new member section and do a little write up...

[MDYoungblood]

The lights come on with just the adapter alone, no mic, and I'm not sure did you try another mic, say a stock Cobra with the adapter, (personally I don't trust those adapters to be right). I'm thinking you may have shorted the mic wires when shrinking the shrink tube, I would check the mic plug with a multimeter.

3's

Greg

[Ga Tubeman]

OK guys, I found the issue !!
When I purchased this tram II it had no mic with it. I had a D-104 that was wired for a cobra, and a friend had a Tram type plug ( used ) so I got the plug from him and wired up the mic. It kept shorting to something, so I trimmed the wires back ( again ) and re- wired the plug...same shorting.... so I took the cover off the plug again as well as the new adapter that I just bought off ebay, I saw immediately why the adapter was shorting...the wires were soldered on the outside of the pins and solder was touching from 1 or more on the metal cover...so I rewired the brand new adapter...both ends...put it in the Tram and BINGO,,, no short...OOOOKKKKKay....so I kept touching the metal cover on the d-104 with the VOM and no pins were shorting....but something was strange...if I switched to ohms, I got a reading on pin 4. ( red wire) Now this is with the plug totally unsoldered !! No continuity mind you....no buzz,,,,but I was getting 2.5k ohms ?????? I took a tiny screwdriver and scraped the back of the plug between all the pins and sprayed w/ cleaner.... and brushed heavily... bingo ! no ohms. Apparently there was arcing and a carbon trail had been formed.....I never did actually see anything but now it is all back together and working properly. Thanks for your help !! And Yes, the new adapter I bought off ebay is very shoddily made...

I do have another question for the resident Tram Expert. When did Tram start/ stop using the 6GM5 and go with using 3 x 6GK6's. The manual I have for the Titan II has the 6GM5 as well as the schematic. I have not seen any Titan II's with this tube. The 27E ( predecessor to the Titan) does not use it either ...
Thanks,

[dirtyjob]

I have had 2 Titan II radios and they both used one Modulator 6GK6 and two RF Final 6GK6.

I also own the Titan IV which is a solid state unit that uses a tube final, that final being the 6gm5.

The Titan III as you may or may not know is totally solid state. I never had a Titan IIA but that may use the 6gm5 as well, not sure.

[Rabbit Ears]

Titan IIA uses the 6gm5 as well..... "Correct Will Robinson!...."

Heh ! I had a Tram Titan IIa that I recapped years ago. It Used the same tube as yours. Nifty rig, but a drifto...... Awesome audio though.

I sold it.... after I got bit by it's B+ and sent the cat into orbit. (the cat was in my lap...she got bit also)

Hang loose.

Rabbit Ears

[southwind]

Hello Mark/ga tubeman and welcome onboard. The only thing I can tell you about your radio is that it is an awesome talker.
I think it was 1970, my friend owned a radio store, and he knew I really liked talking on my Cam 88, which was a really good cobra. He hooked me up with a Tram Titan ll with a Contex 500, I thought I was finally on the air in big way, it also had a d-104 4 pin non-amp and was very loud. I never had any complaints......you might should hang on to it, all the ones I've seen are all butchered up and there's not any left that's available. As for mic plug adapters, I had to get two before I got one that would work.
3's to you/yours from Georgia Dawg country, good evening.

[Ga Tubeman]

Thanks Guys for all the nice comments... I do like the old Trams....I really want to like the Titan II more than my older 27E, but frankly, so far the 27E out performs the Titan II. The transmit is a bit week on the Titan but receiver works well. Receive does have a background noise ( like wind blowing in a microphone ) that I have not quite figured out yet...could be a tube, could be a filter cap ( I have not replaced the 2 "can" caps yet) or I am horrified that it may be the Collins filter. I guess that I could live with the noise if everything else worked in a wonderful way... But I am still tinkering with it. I have an older gent up here who I got the 27E from that I can get to go thru the unit, do an alignment etc... hopefully that's all it needs...

My 27E is great...but I really want sideband in addition to AM. Others on air think that I am running an amp with it, it is so clear and strong. Lots of skip coming in down here lately...NY, NJ, RI, Mass. along with Tx, Ca, and OK... I chatted to a fellow in NC last night....about 60 / 70 miles away...barefoot !

Thanks again for your help, guys... Is there anybody here who might do me a complete alignment / tune up ?? I have folks from all over send me old JMI/Vox amps from the 1960s to restore/repair. I was wondering if we may have someone like that here ....

Mark

-- Tuesday, 16 June 2015, 19:49 PM --

hey Mr. Southwind... I just got in a Cam 88 off ebay...with a D-104; both needed some work and I have not re-capped as of yet, but got it running and talking... Now I'm trying to find info on Cam 88. Still planning on obtaining a Titan IIa... The 27E really kicks **Censored**... I plan to have the Titan II aligned.