I have been having problems with the knock off of Icom microphone so I figured I would bite the bullet and get a new Icom microphone, since the original is out of production. I found that HM-133 looks like a good candidate to replace it.
If not what would you suggest?
I have an IC 207H with a HM-133. The HM-133 came in a couple of flavors starting with the 133 then 133v HM-98s etc none of which replaced the HM-98 which came with the 207H. Dispite what ICOM factory service or the makers of the knock offs will tell you it just ain't the same. So get a real HM-98. Which will allow the 207H programming to work from the mic. The 133 and others will require programming manually as per the owners manual. Good Luck 73s
There's a great reference for radio and microphone pinout diagrams here: www.qsl.net/g4wpw/date.html. That site indicates that the IC-2800H is meant to work with the HM-98 rather than the HM-133, but the pinouts are the same, so if nothing else it will work as a microphone with a PTT button. The fancy buttons on the back are quite different, and who knows if they would work with your radio.
Then there's this site, which says there are actually several versions of the HM-133; the oldest is based on the HM-98. The pictures of the fancy buttons of a couple different versions of the HM-133 look similar, but of course not the same as the HM-98.
I did a web search for "Icom HM-98" and found some for sale for US$ 18.95. That's suspiciously cheap, so it may be a knock-off, but both genuine Icom mics and knockoff Icom mics use electret elements, so a knockoff is likely to sound very similar to a genuine Icom mic anyway. I'd probably buy one of those and try it out. If not you could certainly try an HM-133, but the fancy buttons might not work correctly. Good luck, and let us know what you tried and how it worked in the comments.
The HM-98 uses a couple resistors for the up/down buttons, while the 133 uses digital signalling along with the rest of the keypad. It is MOSTLY compatible. For normal operation, it will work just fine. The only issue will be when it comes to putting the radio in programming mode. The HM-98 uses a couple resistors for up/down, while the 133 uses digital signals just like the rest of the keypad. The up/down buttons on the 133 will still change memory channels, or vfo frequencies just like the 98. As far as programming, you can make a simple "programming plug" from a RJ-45 jack. IIRC, it's as simple as shorting pins 2 and 7. You could use a pushbutton on that so it's not acting like it's constantly held.
As a general rule if the pins match it will work. They are usually a standard configuration. The real question is the quality.
