AOR Japan announces delay of releasing AR-DV10

AOR Japan comments "DIGITAL RECEIVER AR-DV10 that would be released by 2017 is being delay for some reasons."  on their website.

- Notice for delay of releasing AR-DV10 and the apology (Japanese)

AOR AR-DV10

ICOM IC-R30 also has been delayed to be released. ICOM does not officially say anything about it.

ICOM IC-R30

These handheld Digital mode receivers will be released within this year(2018) and will be displayed in next Xenia Hamvention.

New products released in Tokyo Hamfair 2017

I saw and checked some new products in Tokyo Hamfair 2017. Let's talk about those.

AOR

Three new digital mode receivers are revealed.

AR-DV10

AOR AR-DV10

AR-DV10 back

Charger for the AR-DV10

A handheld digital mode receiver which covers 0.1-1300MHz. It also has SSB and CW. No dual band simultaneous receiving is available but it has VFO A, B and Z which is identical to AR-DV1.

Size of the AR-DV10 is taller than Alinco DJ-X11 and the weight is massive.

With 2000mAh high capacity Li-ion battery, it lasts about six hours. Dry battery case and car adapter will also be released. No larger capacity Li-ion battery is offered.


Next we check appearances of the AR-DV10.

A large full-dots LCD with white LED backlite, keypads and a speaker on the front panel.
Squelch/monitor key, power key, and TF card slot on the left side.

Although it supports recording function, it does not exceed the AR-DV1. Once you started recording, recorded files are not divided up to limit of the system specification. That is an disappointing point. Perhaps only Uniden and ICOM are much superior ?


Earphone jack, mini USB connector and external DC jack on the right side.

Battery cannot be charged from the external DC jack. We must use the supplied charger when charging.

BNC antenna connector and volume (upper)/main dial(lower) are on the top.

Auto decoding mode such as AR-DV1 can also be equipped. It covers DMR and not trunked TETRA too. Unlike AR-DV1, no digital mode demodulator worked under high-VHF band.
No band scope feature and no IF output supported.Control software will be released.



Here are comparison between the AR-DV10 and Uniden BCD436HP.

Well, you noticed the AR-DV10 looks like Yaesu FTA-450, FTA-550 or FTA-750 etc.? True!

YAESU FTA-450

AR-DV10

These are the evidence. "YAESU" logo is marked under the round "PS E" on the center left (click the following photo to enlarge).

And the lock feature on the bottom is also very similar to current Yaesu handhelds such as VX-3R and VR-160.

The case might also be supplied by Yaesu. I asked an AOR staff for it and he said "No comment!".



Available date of the AR-DV10 is late December within 2017. The price is a little cheaper than AR-DV1.

AR5700D

AOR AR5700D

A wide band desktop receiver which covers 9kHz - 3700MHz with digital mode decoder like AR5001D plus ARD300. The displayed model covers only 25-3700MHz but has actually decoded P25, DMR and D-CR. Appearance of the back panel has two N-type connectors, one SMA connector for GPS, DC IN, IF output etc..

Mode selection assignment also has AUTO and DALL. AUTO sets mode and frequency step. DALL detects received digital mode and sets automatically. FM stereo demodulator will also be equipped.


The AR5700D will be available next year or later.

AR-ALPHAII

AOR AR-ALPHAII

The AR-ALPHAII is successor of the discontinued AR-ALPHA. It covers 9kHz-6000MHz. No more details available as the development not started yet.

An AOR staff also said "Many many functions have been added to our AR-DV1 since released. Further additional features might not be equipped anymore. It might approach a limit of the memory capacity."

AZDEN

AZR-1000

AZDEN AZR-1000

AZR-1000 top panel picture

A 1.8 - 50MHz 1kW linear amplifier. Six antennas can be connected. It operates via front color LCD with touch panel.

Each antenna can be assigned to each frequency. That means, if you preset antenna and the frequency into the AZR-1000 and when transmitting, the AZR-1000 recognizes the TX frequency and switches antenna as preset. That is not all. The AZR-1000 will adopt silent switching mechanism. Some conventional ATUs alter relay sound noise. The AZR-1000 will reduce the noise sound drastically. The show model is only for displaying. "Concept of the AZR-1000 has been finished. Now we make samples and test." A staff said.

Release date will be 2019. Price might be less than $7000.

ICOM

IC-9700

ICOM IC-9700 concept model

IC-9700 rear panel

A 144/430/1200MHz desktop transceiver. It will equip SDR. Size is almost similar to IC-7300. It is assumed that we use with IC-7300. No details and no price mentioned.

IC-R30

ICOM IC-R30

A handheld wideband receiver with Digital mode. It covers 0.1-3304.99999MHz with SSB/CW on main band and 108-520MHz on sub band without SSB/CW. Minimum step unit is 10Hz. Digital&digital reception not available but digital&analog is. It has simultaneous receiver recording function.The standard battery pack is BP-287, 3280mAh.

Squelch, volume up/down, power button and a micro SD card slot on the left.

Earphone jack and micro USB connector on the right.

 

Why is the antenna connector SMA, not BNC?



I use the prototype IC-R30 and checked the digital mode function. My impression is...
- Demodulated sound sometimes muted
- Too small decoder sound
- No independent main and sub volume control
- Direct frequency input is enabled after F-inp key pressed
- No scope available yet
- Not stereo type earphone jack

Maybe some of those issues are improved after on sale.


Here are comparison between the IC-R30 and Uniden BCD436HP.

Release date expects late December. Price will be about $1300(not announced officially).

Oh, I forgot the new all mode rig of IC-7610!

KENWOOD

KENWOOD TS-590SG70

TRIO branded TS-590SG (100 Watt model), TS-590SG70, only 70 sets limited edition, is displayed. No internal specification upgraded from the TS-590SG.

Diamond Antenna

Three new HF/50MHz antennas, “HFV217” 7/21MHz Dualband V-type dipole, “KW50” 50MHz 1 lambda delta-loop and “HFV6” 7/14/18/21/28/50MHz six band short V-type dipole, are displayed.





That’s end of report. For more information, it will be available soon.

Summary of ICOM IC-R8600 before purchase

IC-R8600 communications receiver is now available in my place.

IC-R8600 in ICOM Ham Festival on Dec., 2016

 
The instruction manual can also be read but written in Japanese. The Japanese price is 228000 Yen, about $2000 excluding tax. Quantity of the first lot is about 250 sets. Now I have picked up some brilliant features and compare with some features of AOR AR-DV1.

AOR AR-DV1 receiver (with SONY ICZ-R250TV behind)

In short, the IC-R8600 is a wide band receiver with digital mode decoder. Comparing to AOR AR-DV1, there are some functions such as IP+(IP3 distortion reduction) to improve unwanted interferences, variable NOTCH filter, Digital twin PBT(Pass Band Tuning with double sharp filters provided with DSP), variable Digital IF filters for SSB/CW/AM, variable Noise Blanker and CW-Reverse(which exchanges receiver sideband LSB/USB) that AR-DV1 with 1702D firmware does not have. Those are built on the IC-R8600. These features are especially for VLF, LF, MF and HF.

Anything else on IC-R8600? Yes of course! dPMR and NXDN descrambler(may not equipped with US version), digital reception history log (up to 50 logs), history csv saving, screen capture, voice recording, data saving onto a SD card like IC-7300 and ID-51 series, network clock synchronization, tone control, FM de-emphasis, speech, FSK decoder, IF output, remote Ethernet control via internet, analog S-meter output jack to connect your 9VDC of maximum voltage meter and so on.

But, no DMR, TETRA, Alinco and YAESU SYSTEM FUSION(C4FM) decoder currently on the IC-R8600. In my country, DMR, TETRA, dPMR, APCO P25 are not commonly used, while domestic digital SCPC format with A-CELP and M-CELP vocoders is mainly used by our government, which cannot be decoded because he restricts to hear his communication easily. There is no thought of "Public Safety" in my country like the US.

Still, the IC-R8600 attracts us because it has 4.3” large color LCD with touch screen and real time smooth & fast spectrum scope, high spec features for VLF – HF and digital voice decoders…. Compared to AR-DV1, the IC-R8600 seems cost effective. Will expect to upgrade much functions with newer firmwares.

I have ordered one and expect to get soon.

ICOM announces release date of IC-R8600

ICOM Japan has announced to start selling their new communications receiver IC-R8600 on late March in Japan.

+ New Release : IC-R8600 that widely covers 10kHz - 3GHz with digital modes - ICOM  (Japanese)

ICOM IC-R8600

As you know, IC-R8600 is successor of the IC-R8500. The IC-R8600 covers from 10kHz to 3000MHz with D-STAR, NXDN, dPMR, P25, D-CR(AMBE+2) digital modes and some conventional analogue modes with variable band width filters. Appearance of the surface is almost same as I have seen before.

The IC-R8600 adopts FPGA + DSP and also has as follows;
- 4.3 inches color TFT LCD with touch screen
- Real-time smooth & high accuracy spectrum scope and waterfall display
- 11 selectable band pass filters for HF
- 13 selectable band pass filters for VHF / UHF
- can be controlled by PCs and so on via USB or Ethernet
- I/Q output (available soon)
- 2400 channels memory
- high speed scan ( 100ch/sec. )
- three multi functional dials
- SD card recording
- absolute value of the reception signal strength (RSSI) can be displayed
- firmware upgradable


At ICOM amateur radio festival 2016, the prototype IC-R8600 had some birdies around 2500 - 3000MHz. Those should be eliminated.

IC-R8600 prototype at ICOM amateur radio festival 2016

List price (excluding tax) of the IC-R8600 will be about $2000 (calculated value) in Japan. Optional speaker with power supply SP-39AD is sold too. Available date is late March in my country. It might be available by early Summer which might be in time the first Xenia Hamvention in the US. Hope to be coming soon.

Matsuzaki's Japan Great Boombox Exhibition 2016

Last Sunday I visited Dai Radi-Casse Ten held at Ikebukuro Tokyo. Dai means Great, Radi-Casse means an abbreviation of the Japanese word of boomboxes and Ten explains exhibition in Japanese, not a number of "10".

There are about 100 boomboxes at the Ikebukuro Great Boombox Exhibition. The planner is Junichi Matsuzaki, a Japanese famous collector who collects many consumer electronics. He especially tends to gather boomboxes around the world. And part of his 100 collections are displayed here.



Let's check it!

This is the Japnese first boombox, AIWA TPR-101 produced in 1968.

These are basic boomboxes produced in 1970s - 1980s.

Next, we see Casual Booth;

At Distinctive booth;

This is one of the most unique boombox. We don't know who produced. This is called UFO SOUND.



At Big Boomboxes Booth;

The National/Panasonic RX-7700 stereo boombox covers 1.8-28MHz on Short Wave band. It has recording volume and balance knobs.

The AIWA J88 has feather touch operation, big stereo V/U meters, PLL synthesized stereo receiver with big stereo speakers.

At High-functioned Booth;

The Toshiba ACTAS 2800 is also nice shape that has short wave receiver and supplied external microphone with a mixer.

The SHARP CT-6001 is built on CRT TV.

The Toshiba T-4100 looks massive.

At Touch & Try Booth, we can listen the cassette sound with vintage boomboxes.

Cassette Towers is worth watching too.

December 18th 2016 was a special day. He speaked history of the boomboxes and the attraction of radio cassette recorders in Japanese.

Collections of a Japanese famous artist;

The stereo micro cassette boombox is interesting.

A Panasonic portable radio cassette recorder.

If my memory serves me correctly, it cost about $450 and it has AM/FM/TV tuner. This is what I used to want to get but finally I got SONY's recording Walkman, not Panasonic.....


The cool recording Walkman WM-GX90 was a flag ship model in 90s. It was about $500.

Many many cool and unique boomboxes are showed off here. The Great Boombox Exhibition lasts until December 27th 2016 in Ikebukuro PARCO Museum in Tokyo.

And We can see new Future Boomboxes route-01 HERE.

Unfortunately, only Japanese people can make reservations for these products at present because of shipping fee, import duty, tax and so on. You may able to buy the route-01 boombox when on sale.



Matsuzaki plans to hold new boomboxes exhibition in Malaysia in 2017. Being a Malaysian, you might be able to see these nice guys in your country.

His new challenge is ongoing. For more information about him and his activities, visit his website, DUG Factory (only Japanese).