narayan@BBN.COM> (01/12/90)
I heard on Media Network of R. Nederland of a new Sony receiver, the SW-700. Apparently it is a very simple to use receiver meant for the non-technical or those who don't like to tune their receivers! Anyway it covers MW and SW (up to the 16m band) and has some kind of a direct entry LCD panel on which you can punch your frequency in directly. There is no FM and no LW (much to the disappointment of the Europeans). It scans in 5kHz increments and has also a switch for 9/10 kHz MW scanning. The novel feature of the receiver is it accepts cards about the size of a credit card which has pre-programmed frequencies for various stations. Sony hopes (sic) that radio stations of the future will use such cards to inform listeners of frequencies and changes, if any. These cards are re-programmable and can be stored with the receiver. Sensitivity is reasonable for a portable and it costs about Y14,000 or about $100. The set is currently only available in Japan as Sony has not decided about world-wide distribution yet. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sriram Narayan 810446 Texas A&M University | INTERNET: narayan@photon.tamu.edu | Go Alain Prost! US Mail: X4 Hensel #K, College Station, TX 77840.|