I made a change in radio gear at the last moment, deciding to bring an Icom instead of my trusty Kenwood. I have a headset and boom mike for the Kenwood, but did not have one for the Icom. I prefer a headset and boom microphone because I can hear better and not having to hold a microphone frees my hands to write contact notes. No, I don't have any radio connected to a computer and have no immediate plans to do so.

So a quick visit to Ebay several days before I left the island for Africa found a headset wired for the Icom.  I ordered it but just forgot about a PTT switch. When I did remember, it was too late to order anything. There was just not enough time to place and order and have it arrive before I left. So I made a quick visit to the local Radio Shack store and picked up a push button switch, the kind that fits into a panel, and a short length or cable with molded miniature jacks on each end figuring I could fabricate something. Then I visited one of my clients for whom we had done a lot of work and got from him a short piece of 1/2" Sch 40 pipe. Then a stop at the hardware store to get a cap for that piece of pipe.

After I arrived in Uganda, I drilled a hole in the cap the diameter of the switch, cut the cable in two, stripped away some insulation and soldered the wires to the terminals on the switch. After threading the wire and the switch through the hole in the cap and the pipe and tightening it down, I friction fit the cap onto the pipe. There you have it, a fabricated PTT switch. Not too pretty, but it works.