Has anyone come across how to connect their Aircraft Powered Bose headset to a portable radio? I had a complete electrical loss the other day and see the need for a portable radio. I would like to be able to connect my headset to the portable, but all my headsets are the single Bose connector. Has anyone seen a connector or built a connector to do this?
[quote=“tommyg8459”]
Has anyone come across how to connect their Aircraft Powered Bose headset to a portable radio? I had a complete electrical loss the other day and see the need for a portable radio. I would like to be able to connect my headset to the portable, but all my headsets are the single Bose connector. Has anyone seen a connector or built a connector to do this?[/quote]
I am not in electronics by any means, but I don’t think tranceivers were designed for headsets and having the ability to transmit via the mic boom of the headset especially when pushing the transceivers PTT? Of course you could use the tranceiver’s mic.
For listening purposes, I don’t have an answer, but maybe a visit to your local Radio Shack may help for a step down type jack to couple into your Bose headset to fit in the small “external speaker jack”?
Just curious, what caused your electrical failure?
Allen
This looks like it would work: marvgolden.com/headsets/bosemain.htm (headset adapter near the bottom of the page)
CAFlier, thanks for the link. It looks like this would work marvgolden.com/headsets/PA89adapter.htm
My alternator died (crack in casing) and I did not realize it (Piper Ammeter doesn’t do a good job telling you, and my ALT light never came on). So I was running on my battery and that finally died.
And of course, I wasn’t anywhere near home and on vacation. I was in Treasure Cay in the Abacos Islands. I had to pull the battery out of the plane, get it charged by a car rental place across from the airport, which then got me back to Freeport. Another charge and back to Florida where I found a great shop that did the repair in two hours!
I think an adapter does more then change the size, I believe it will adjust the ohms too.
When I was a DJ I tried plugging my DC’s into the stuidos jack, it work for about 60 seconds.
Ewe, not good! Never thought of that!
Bose’s way too expensive to experiment with 
Heck, my “cheap and trusty ole DC’s” (by aviation standards) would be too expensive to mess with.
Allen
A handheld aviation radio would work with the same resistance (ohms) headphones as the panel mount, so I don’t see any reason why the adapter would change that. Therefore, I would expect that the adapter has the same resistance as the Bose headphones 160 ohms monaural, 320 ohms stereo. If he is trying to use it with some other kind of radio, I’d guess that he would need to buy some type of impedance matching device in addition to the powered adapter.
I have no idea; not my expertise, not even close. I know that I killed my DC when I plugged them in at the radio station. The engineer just laughed.
I want to be able to connect my Bose X to a Sporty’s SP200 sportys.com/pilotshop/sp-200.cfm
I also sent this question to Bose Tech Support. I’ll let everyone know if they respond.
I’ve done that with no problems, however I wasn’t using the panel powered variety of Bose X. I would think that the headphones are the same and it is just the connectors that are different, however that is just my opinion and I don’t have any evidence.
Why? 
Response from Bose Technical Support:
Thank you for the inquiry. Is this a Bose(R) Aviation X headset? If so, Bose(R) does not make an adapter for this purpose. We have heard of companies that make adapters for this purpose. However, a serious concern is that the adapters we have heard of only provide nine-volts and that is below the minimum voltage we require to operate an installed headset, which is 10-32 volts. If you use this type of adapter, you will experience ANR issues as the voltage drops to the point where ANR will no longer work.
There is no acceptable converter to make a portable headset out of an installed headset that we are aware of at this time.
Another response from Bose:
Thank you for the reply.
With regard to your question, “would an adapter like this work temporarily?”
It should work with the possible exception that ANR may be unstable due to a low voltage from the battery.
Regarding your question, “I am guessing there is no concern in damage to the headset due to low voltage. Am I correct in assuming this?”
That is correct. Low voltage will not harm the headset. However, the headset will turn off the ANR when it senses the input voltage to be too low to operate properly.
Finally, regarding your question, “Also, I would think that if the 9 volt battery wasn’t installed that I would still have audio but no ANR.”
We would assume this to be true. However you should confirm this with the manufacturer of the adaptor, AND test it to make sure it in fact does pass audio and comm without a battery or with a dead or low battery.
We hope this helps you with this matter.
Thank you for contacting Bose Corporation.
Frank Fenton
Product and Technical Support Team
I think you have taken this about as far as you can. How often do you need the Bose headset to work with a portable? Personally, I would be addressing the electrical issue with my plane and be thankful I brought along a portable or a cell phone in the rare case of electrical failure.
I flew as a child with my dad and then started flying as a teen without a headset. I didn’t buy my first headset until I was about 21 (1989). I have never experienced an actual failure. I have had headset issues and tried to do what I could to resolve but my focus remained… fly the plane.
Depending on the voltage of your aircraft, it would be easy to make a 24 or 12 volt to 9 volt converter to power the headset adapter.
And this final response from Pilot Communication who makes this adapter:
*Yes this will work for you even without battery, The 9 Volt battery runs your ANR system only.Please call me at 949-748-8880 if you need more info.
Thank you
Yadi*
So I will put this on my Christmas list and will report back how it works out.
Can any one arrange me a portable adaptor or an installed interface for a series one bose aviation headset … please!