I would be very wary of attempting to connect aircraft headsets up to computers for the purposes of making skype calls or anything else. If you got the right plug - which in Maplin lingo is a standard (mono) jack plug and you need an in line socket for same for your aircraft headset (headphone). The microphone plug (assuming your headset uses double plugs for connection to the A/C) is a totally different animal. I have never come across such connectors in the general electronics field and getting them out of the suppliers of aircraft bits and pieces has been like getting blood out of a stone! However, the microphone on aircraft headsets uses a different technology to modern microphones. In days of yore, carbon microphones were the norm. If you get a small container of carbon powder and change the pressure on it, its resistance will very. Put a diaphragm on one end of the container and the resistance of the carbon will fluctuate in sympathy with the sound waves vibrating the diaphragm. O.K. now apply a small voltage (the excitation voltage) across the carbon and the current will fluctuate in accordance with the sound waves and this can be used by the associated electronics to produce the required electrical signal. These days, carbon microphones are no longer used, but the excitation voltage is still provided and is usually used to drive a pre-amplifter to improve the audio qualities of the conventional headset mic. Computers do not provide such an excitation voltage so it is unlikely that your headset microphone will work with your computer anyway. The above advice to obtain a skype headset from Ebay or Maplin is thus valid. Sorry you will probably have to carry an extra bit of junk in your flight bag.
P.P.
Last edited by P.Pilcher; 21st February 2008 at 13:17.