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From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Injury via Phone
Message-ID: <1964@kitty.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Aug-87 10:42:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: kitty.1964
Posted: Tue Aug 25 10:42:02 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Aug-87 06:25:12 EDT
References: <414@gtx.com> <24300015@silver>
Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY
Lines: 39
Summary: Yucch!

In article <24300015@silver>, commgrp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu writes:
> The  big danger of plastic ear tubes,  as in Plantronics headsets,  is 
> transmission of ear infection if headsets are shared.   Wearing such a 
> device,  even  if  clean,  for long periods might  help  incubate  ear 
> infections.  Plantronics' latest models use a lightweight conventional 
> external earphone instead of the ear tube.

	Yucch!  If you have even seen the earwax that accumulates in the
plastic tubes, that is a truly disgusting thought... :-)
	Any place where I have seen shared headsets, the operators had
their own plastic ear tubes.
	Personally, I dislike the Plantronics headsets with the ear tube.
Some switchboard operators just refuse to wear them, and would rather
use the somewhat ancient 52-type headset or a conventional telephone
handset.
 
> I  like Plantronics headsets,  especially the old model MS-50 with the 
> headband  (as  worn  upside-down by Clint  Eastwood  in  the  airplane 
> hijacking  scene in "Dirty Harry").   Plantronics headsets  configured 
> for  telephone  service  are  available for $10  to  $20  at  hamfests 
> (regional  gatherings  of  ham  radio  operators).   They  are  easily 
> modified  for  radio service.

	If you "shop around", you can find these headsets in a version
that has a push-to-talk switch on the amplifier housing.  Actually, there
are two versions with a switch; one version uses the switch to open and
close the microphone circuit, while the other version leaves the microphone
on all the time but uses the switch to close the circuit on an auxiliary
wire pair (this version uses a double plug with tip, ring, and sleeve on
each plug).
	If you have the kind which uses a switch to open and close the
microphone circuit, you can still use this for transmitter keying if
you sense the DC current flow in the microphone circuit when the switch
is closed.

<>  Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York
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