On Sat, 28 Nov 2009 02:17:58 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:27:43 -0500, wrote:

My guess is that more radio failures are caused by the cheap included
mics that come attached to most VHF radios, and the extremely failure
prone coily cord for the mic.

Funny you should mention that. I just had to replace the mic on my
ICOM SSB because of a coiling cord that suddenly went defective. It
is less than 5 years old and not exposed to the outside elements at
all. The good news is that West Marine actually stocks the mic and it
is halfway reasonably priced.

Those coily cords are constantly working the wires inside. They also
fail constantly on telephone handsets. For a period in the 1960's they
were popular for guitar patch cords. Guitarists eventually got tired
of having them quit mid-performance.