I love my AnyTone D578UVIII Pro radios. I initially had a ton of buyer’s remorse when I purchased my first one. Now I have three of them.
While the stock microphone works perfectly fine and the BT-01 gives a lot of flexibility, I found that for busy times working the radio for SAR or SKYWARN that I wanted to have my hands free to write notes or log calls.
I found a great resource that had the pinouts for making a cable to use a desk mic (and a host of other AnyTone mods) but I didn’t like that I would have to change the programming. My radios sometimes get picked up and moved from place to place and the ability to hot swap a mic is important to me. I thought all hope was lost for finding a desk mic.
Enter Retevis. Now I have a Retevis GMRS repeater and two GMRS handhelds so I was familiar with the brand. But I stumbled upon their SM01 Desktop Microphone and found that it had an option for a K2 Connector. Hey doesn’t the BT-01 have a K2 connector on it?? Surely this won’t be that easy.
Well the order was placed and a week or so later a package arrived from China with the SM01 Desktop Mic as well as the Ailunce FS01 Footswitch. I unplugged the stock hand mic, grabbed a cat5 cable, and hooked up the BT-01. Quick radio check on Parrot and I had audio. For the moment of truth, I hooked up the mic and the footswitch. Now, I’ll admit that like any good ham and most men I did not read a single document resembling a manual. How tough could it be? It took me five minutes to realize that the little knob on the desk mic is a volume control for the speaker on the bottom of the mic. Oh and that on/off switch? Switch that to “On” and your PTT is held open in perpetuity. Yikes.
My overall impression here is positive. I have some nits to pick though. First would be the on/off switch. I don’t really understand the need for this and would prefer it did not exist. My second nit pick is the speaker. Why is it on the bottom of the mic? Can I have it on top or the sides so that the audio isn’t muffled?
That said, this was a good purchase for me. The microphone is highly directional as I learned on my first QSO. Keep the thing pointed right at your mouth. BTW that boom detaches and appears to have an XLR connector so maybe it is replaceable. The foot switch will come in handy for sure. Looking forward to my next SKYWARN activation for this thing.
Final thoughts: I wish the AnyTone had a bit more flexibility for a desk mic. Having to use a BT-01 as a fancy adapter makes this cost prohibitive unless you already own the BT-01. That said, the Ailunce SM01 works really well. Oh and those aren’t affiliate links – I’m not getting compensated for this review and I had to pay full price for the hardware so these favorable remarks are honest and unbiased.