hot microphone

plural hot microphones

1. especiallyaeronauticsA microphone that is activated (but not powered) by the sound of the user's voice, allowing it to pick up speech without having to be manually turned on, while still rejecting background noise unaccompanied by speech.

   1 more example

   When the captain asked, "What's happening? What's happening?" at 0150:06, his words were not recorded by the hot microphone at the first officer's position; however, the hot microphone recorded the captain's subsequent remarks until it stopped recording cockpit conversation at 0150:25. (None of the relief first officer's comments during the accident sequence were recorded by the hot microphone. For additional information, see the section titled, "Audio Information Recorded by First Officer's Hot Microphone.")

   2002 March 13, National Transportation Safety Board, “Events After the Command Captain Returned to the Cockpit”, in Aircraft Accident Brief: EgyptAir Flight 990, Boeing 767-366ER, SU-GAP, 60 Miles South of Nantucket, Massachusetts, October 31, 1999, archived from the original on 11 May 2022, page 62