Pye 4001 'Tulip' microphone
 

Just wondering if any British ATC units are still using one of these today. Leeds Bradford had a few from the 1960s to the late 1970s, before headsets were adopted there and I know Carlisle ATC had one in the VCR. Lasham also, in the radar room. They frequently turn up in the used market and I've bought and restored (cleaned and rewired) one myself. It strikes me as a durable and rugged piece of equipment but I've also heard of reliability issues, especially with the wiring in the base.

Apparently they are quite popular with Radio Amateurs using the HF bands, probably something to do with the moving iron high impedance (2400 ohms) microphone element.

This is mine:
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1f19f2cffb.jpg

Can’t recall where, but the last time I saw one it was used for the UHF comms with vehicles on the manoeuvring area (connected to a similar vintage tx/rx box). It must be 30 years since UK CAA pretty much mandated headsets for ATC positions which will have limited the use of standalone mics for control positions.

I visited the then control tower at Newcastle Airport thirty years ago. The radar controllers were on headsets but the VCR controller had use of a hand microphone for VHF. Not dissimilar to the type supplied with cassette recorders decades ago but bigger with a very business-like PTT switch. I don't remember seeing a Pye Tulip.

‘no’ would suffice

I may be wrong but I vaguely recall these mics were used in RAF control towers for the AATCs to communicate with vehicles on the airfield; the AATCs could not operate aircraft band radios just the vehicles and the system was referred to originally as 'Pye' and later as 'Storno'.

From the late 1960s to the mid-2000s, that is more or less what they were used for at LBA - so the TWR ATCA could use the UHF ground frequency. The Tulip was eventually supplanted by a more ergonomic handset which could be used on the telephone network too.