Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, April TimeLady, who shares her latest collection of Japanese language WebSDR recordings–this time, for November 2020.
Feel free to listen to her recordings via the clickable playlist below, or on her Archive.org page.
Thank you, April for once again uploading and sharing your recordings!
Click here for a link to this and all of April’s archived recordings.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, April TimeLady, who writes:
In this email is a link to recordings I made from Japanese SDRs over the course of October 2020 and have uploaded to archive.org. This is the link:
https://archive.org/details/JPSDROCT2020
The original files are in .wav, archive.org converts them to mp3 and flac. Files with sas in them are supposed to be in stereo. There are many shortwave recordings in it, as well as mediumwave.
For anyone who is hunting IDs, Japanese radio stations definitely announce their full ID at 5 AM Japan Standard Time each day. On the top of the hour commercial radio stations ID. On Mondays between 1 and 2 AM (commonly given as between 25:00 and 26:00 Sundays on Japanese radio schedules) many Japanese radio stations go off the air for transmitter maintenance and give a very full, 5 minute long ID. I believe I have included one that I clipped for 1008 AM in Osaka in this month’s collection; 1008 AM, JONR is definitely in full AM stereo.
A good reference for Japanese AM radio call signs is on MWList at http://www.mwlist.org/mwlist_quick_and_easy.php?area=2
Thank you for reading this, and please take care.
Thank you, April for uploading and sharing your recordings! I’ve enjoyed browsing these each month!
Click here for a link to this and all of April’s archived recordings.
The Commando R-777 Self-Powered Digital World Band Radio
Mike Kitchen, a volunteer at Ears To Our World, purchases and tests radios for us. Mike does an excellent job evaluating radios and simply keeping tabs on newly introduced self-powered products.
Mike has kindly allowed me to share the assesment he sent of the Commando R-777; a radio that, performance-wise, leaves something to be desired.
Mike writes:
This thing is pretty awful, in an ugly/cute way. FM mode works quite nicely. In AM mode, LCD screen shows as much as 8 KHz off of actual frequency. SW1 and SW2 modes failed to detect anything on the shortwave bands. The WWV time signal on 10MHz, 15MHz and 20MHz was no joy.
Steady charging with crank handle for 2 minutes provided 20 minutes of low volume listening time.
From a depleted battery pack, one minute of cranking/charging will keep LED bulb lit for about 10 minutes of usable light, then dim light for few more minutes. [As a point of comparison, the Grundig FR200 could provide almost an hour of light from one minute of cranking.]
The carry handle makes for a good grip while cranking what is described as the “Shakeable Generator” handle.
This radio has roots from the Grundig FR-200, being same dimension and weight. This R-777 had a sturdy feel to it. The charging handle feels very much like any other FR-200’s while one is cranking, except this R-777 is much quieter. None of the funky whining sounds as with older versions.
I’m going to keep this R-777, as a reminder of how a good idea can be half heartedly attempted, resulting in such a poor product.
Still on the market as the Tecsun Green 88, the Grundig FR-200 is one of the best sel-powered radios I’ve ever tested.
I believe Mike and I both miss the Grundig FR-200.
With that said, we still have the Tecsun Green-88 available on eBay; a radio almost identical to the FR200.
You can click here to search eBay for the Tecsun Green-88 or the Commando R-777
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Mike, thanks for sharing your mini review!