Hi all thought I'd share this as you may find it interesting and also wanted to know why they might have done this. I purchased a nearly working unit from a previous BBC reporter who used the WM-D6C for that purpose. Apparently the unit of choice. But before they were given them the units went to the BBC electronics department who made an alteration to the mic input. On my unit theres a sticker below the serial number under the battery compartment that says MIC POWER REMOVED. I've taken a couple of photos but if anyone would like to see any others let me know and the areas and I'll add those. I was wondering why this might have been done, was it maybe a safety measure or did they have specific mics they had to use and want to make sure they were not powered? link here to some photos
A quick google search found me https://www.golden-agetv.co.uk/equipment.php?TypeID=6 Thinking that the ECM51 seemed to be the right era I found http://www.angelfire.com/funky/plinkoman/sonyecm51.html which indicates that the Mic takes a battery itself. I'm guessing that whatever microphones they used were like that so didn't need Mic power from the recorder.
Ah very cool Longman, thanks for this. Do you think they took it out to cut down on recording errors so a reporter with limited tech experience didn't mistakenly get the levels wrong?
I have to admit I am just guessing. However, I do know that different microphones need different power supplies (50V in the case of professional microphones used in recording studios) or nothing, when they have a built in battery like the one I linked to, and could even be damaged if the wrong supply was applied.
If anyone wants to go looking for one, that rental shop has got the model number wrong. The item marked as an ECM-51 in the first link is actually an ECM-50. The correct ECM-51 is shown in the second link which is the telescopic version of the ECM-50 lapel type.
