Yamazen Released a new Radio Recorder YVR-R304

Yamazen, one of the fabless merchants in Japan, released new radio voice recorder without official notice.

- Product Descriptions AM/FM Radio Voice Recorder YVR-R304 - Qriom - YAMAZEN BOOK(Japanese)

YVR-R304 is an IC recorder that has AM/FM radio, which seems to be an upgraded version of previous model YVR-R303 but some functions of YVR-R304 are inferior to YVR-R303.

There are 7 programmable timer recording functions, 2 X AAA Alkaline/Ni-MH batteries built in, 128 X 64 dot non-colored matrix LCD w/ backlight, 3.5mm stereo line-in/headphones output jacks, up to 8.5hrs continuous radio recording & 11hrs playback, automatic synchronized clock adjustment which works only in Japan, MP3 32KBPS / 4MB built-on memory and micro SDHC card slot upto 32GB micro SDHC card. The inch size is 4.05W x 2.04D x 0.57H, 1.76oz of the weight excluding batteries. The recording format is 32kbps MP3 stereo only. It depends on recording sources. Any external microphone cannot be used.

The coverages are 522-1620kHz on AM, 76-95MHz on FM stereo.


I don’t know what "MP3 32KBPS" built-on memory is, maybe it is missed by Yamazen guys.

USB mini jack of YVR-R304 can be connected only a Yamazen genuine accessory YVR-USB1 but currently not available even on Yamazen Direct shopping sites OMG.

Half of the pdf instruction manuals cannot be read on a computer but the other can. The file seems to be less compatible to some PC.

Sound quality of 32kbps stereo recording not suitable for music and so on for much of the compressed noise. I don't know why 128kbps or higher bit rate codecs not equipped with?



A year ago(in 2015) Yamazen released other voice radio recorder YVR-R600 which was sold on a famous TV shopping seller in Japan. The model also has some software or hardware bugs like YVR-R303, not work the timer recording function properly, recorded files sometimes erased naturally and so on. I think no or few products testing engineers assigned by Yamazen. This is already proven by the YVR-R304, current released product's information.

The price of YVR-R304 is about $93～$95 at the point I am writing this article.

I would recommend other more expensive Radio Recorders such as Sony ICZ-R100, Olympus PJ-35 or PJ-30, or Toshiba TY-RPR1. Unfortunately, those are for Japan only.

Electronic Parts Shop Started A Deal of Plant Bulbs

A famous seller that sells many kinds of electronic parts such resistors, ICs, electronic measurements equipments and so on starts selling bulbs of a plant.

+ Search Results:Plant Bulbs - Akizuki Denshi Tsusho(Japanese)

Akizuki Denshi Tsusho is a well-known electronic parts seller in Akihabara Japan. He sometimes sells rare items that many people never seen before. Now a legend has backed!

There are 3 kinds of Lycoris(Cluster Amaryllis) plant bulbs on the shop, ultra bigs, middles and bigs as the above picture.



Unfortunately, the shop does not ship outside Japan. If you visit Akihabara, you may see those plant bulbs and so on at the store here;

Panasonic RF-2800 5Bands Radio

I got a new radio at a real shop near my house by chance.

Panasonic/National PROCEED 2800 or RF-2800 that resembles DR29. The receiving coverage is MW(525-1605kHz)/SW(3.2-30MHz) with BFO for SSB/CW and FM(76-90MHz). No SYNC detector supplied because of an old receiver. This is a Japan version.

RF-2800 radio was made over 40years ago(at present, in 2016). This used model tends not to fail generally. My RF-2800 got today works perfectly though there are some scratches around the radio. No critical damages including the telescopic antenna found. The frequency counter does too. Only the FM analogue frequency display is slightly shifted. For Japan model, digital display does not work(properly) when operating MW/FM.

As the speaker is big, the sound is very nice. Bass and Treble volumes work well. I assume base guitar sound can be played mostly. High frequency sound seems to be played up to 10kHz.

The fine tuning function is also available. Sensitivity is perfect. FM, MW and SW of all exceed my expectation. It also has bulb backlight built in, very cool at the dark place. The look is powerful. Touching and operating, to say nothing of, I have an appreciation of.....oh WONDERFUL!

The big radio like Eton Satellit 750(Tecsun S-2000) makes me start a fever after I met the RF-2800. Want to try to get more and more radios.

Half price of Eton Field on Amazon

Eton GRUNDIG Edition Field is currently about $85 on Amazon!?

Actually 65% off...wow "amaz"ing!

The Eton Field has no SSB though the SW coverage is upto 30MHz. FM is only 87.5-108MHz? Could we hear starting from 76MHz on FM?
Even not so, the super affordable price bothers me.

Reply from Uniden America

Encountering the RTC problem of BCD436HP, I have requested the BCD436HP REAL-TIME CLOCK BATTERY REPAIR CAMPAIGN. Now Uniden America have just received my request.

Fortunately, Uniden America accepts outside US! He does prompt works, cool. I'm gonna start a shipping procedure to send my BCD436HP.

Whistler announced digital scanners TRX-1&TRX-2

As announced at Hamvention2016, TRX-1 and TRX-2 will be released by Whister Group.

<> TRX-1 - Radio Scanner - Whistler Group Inc

<> TRX-2 - Radio Scanner - Whistler Group Inc

TRX-1

A new handheld digital scanner. The appearance is not same as WS1080 and WS1088 because "Case and 2 colord inserts(Green and Gray)" are equipped with that are included. When put off them, the look is same as WS1088.

Internally,"The Whistler TRX-1 is a handheld digital scanner capable of DMR and Motorola TRBO." as described. As mentioned here on May 17, 2016, "Motorola P25 Phase I, X2-TDMA, Phase II and DMR" "Hytera XPT", "MotoTRBO™ Capacity Plus", "MotoTRBO™ Connect Plus", "MotoTRBO™ Linked Cap Plus systems" (unencrypted channels/systems only) can be heard. Plus, they say " the TRX-1 and TRX-2 will include NXDN as a FREE upgrade when available."  I also heard WS1080 and WS1088 cannot be upgraded at the Hamvention.

The price is about $650, that is $50 higher than WS1088. It means the value $50 is available of DMR and NXDN (will be supported) and the cases supplied.

TRX-2

A new base/mobile digital scanner. The appearance is almost same as WS1098. The differences between WS1098 and TRX-2 are same as those between WS1088 and TRX-1 as above. TRX-2 looks like an internal upgraded WS1098.


The price is about $730, also $50 expensive like TRX-1 than WS1098.


BCD436HP and BCD536HP from Uniden America can also upgrade DMR decoder for $50 and NXDN format not announced yet.
TRX-1/TRX-2 seem to be superior to BCD436HP/BCD536HP so far.

Whistler said they would release on the market on June 2016 but currently not released yet. Universal Radio says "they will be released on August". We(I) must wait until they are available. By the way, why Whistler change the products name WS**** into TRX-* ? Why not WS1089/WS1099 ?  The suffix of "TRX-" reminds me of CQ Publishing(Japan)'s SDR transceiver DIY kit TRX-305A/TRX-305B(here). It costs about $2000 of total.

I already built the kit and have one of course. And now my TRX-305 is in my garage next to JUNK box of course! May pick up here someday.

BCD436HP clock setting lost

Finally my Uniden BCD436HP scanner has come across...

"Clock Settings have been lost." like above.


I own two BCD436HPs and one of them always works through 24hrs using USB cable. The other had been shutting down for 1month. That is it! After that, now, the problem has been encountered. I have a feeling the BCD436HPs that RTC problem not updated should be powered on every 1week at least. In addition, my BCD436HP had not used up the batteries yet.


The time has come! It seems to have to apply for "REAL-TIME CLOCK BATTERY REPAIR CAMPAIGN"..... at last. This is my TURN.


OK, I have filled out the application form and submitted. Come on, Uniden's reply!