New Microphone

I noticed this base microphone on Ebay about a week ago, its a Yaesu MD-11ABJ. After doing a little bit of research (thanks Google!) I found that it had the same pin outs as my Yaesu FT857. As the price was very reasonable I thought I would give it a try. Its a fairly odd looking piece of kit, I think it was aimed at the PMR market, but it works well enough and I am told the audio from it is quite good. Since I mainly use the FT857 on 2 metres FM at the moment I don't know if the mic would be suitable for SSB work. One odd thing about this Microphone-if you look at the picture there is a "PTT "button, a "Lock" button and a "Monitor" button.
We all know what the PTT does, but if you push the monitor button the rig powers down and  switches off. The "Lock" button is not to lock the PTT it is to lock the "monitor" button down, as if you do not keep the "monitor" down the rig will not stay on. Not a problem of course-but I wonder what the purpose of this was?

My new inverted V dipole seems to work well enough. On 80 metres I have worked several G on SSB with good reports  and into Germany on 80metre PSK with 25 watts. If anything the dipole seems better than my old inverted L, particularly for inter UK on 80. On 40 metres I have heard VK and a couple of stations in the USA it seems quite lively and the background noise is noticeably lower than the end fed inverted L. I still need to get the match on 80 metres sorted out and one leg of the dipole needs to be brought  higher and into the clear.