The Overdrive CDL-56k Dynamic Noise Cancelling Microphone
So, this looks a lot like a CB microphone doesn’t it? Well, it is. Sometimes you find some equipment that serves multi-use environments nicely and this is one example. 
This is a roughly $20 (less than half the price) Chinese knockoff of the Turner Road King 56, called the Overdrive CDL-56k. It is a dynamic noise-cancelling element hand mic. I stress noise-cancelling as this thing is very effective to knock out background noise.
I’ve been using an Astatic 636L in my Jeep Wrangler in the nicer weather as I drive around with the windows down and music blasting and don’t want all that racket to get into my signal on the ham bands. It also works well, but has a very restricted audio passband so it makes the transmit audio sound very tinny.
I found some mentions about this Overdrive mic saying that it had a more natural sounding audio response and decided to get a pair of them to play around with and find out.
The results have been excellent, both on FM repeaters and simplex and for SSB use as well. I’m using them on an FT-857D in my mobile and on a Kenwood TS-2000 at home when I feel like using a hand mic.
I highly recommend this mic if you have a need or want for noise-cancellation. For what it does, the audio response is very good. This type of mic will require you to speak right into the mic element or your voice will just disappear. That rubber ridge on the face should be touching your upper lip while talking. If you talk farther back from the mic, this is not the mic for you, nor will you get effective noise cancellation from it.
The mic has plenty of drive to work with either one of my rigs. I’m not sure if it would work with a ‘normal’ amateur 2m/440 rig directly without an added pre-amp though, but I haven’t tried it. It would surprise me if it had enough drive for those typically 2kOhm inputs though.
Driving down the road at 60mph, windows down and music deafeningly loud, people barely even notice it at all while I’m talking…mission accomplished.
I picked mine up from Premiere Electronics and have done business with them in the past for parts and microphones. They are fairly widely available from other sources too.
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