GRAND SEIKO SBGT033

The 40th anniversary model of Grand Seiko has been released today. And I bought one as my second Grand Seiko. SBGT033 is featuring in an unique dial design symbolizing the mark of quartz.

SEIKO TYPE2

I had been used a Seiko Type2, which was produced more than 30 years ago, in my school days. It's a old-fashioned quartz watch featuring a simple face and colors. I kept it in my desk for a long time without exchanging batteries. A couple of months ago, I encountered a watch shop which provides maintenance services of old watches. I sent my watch last week and received it today.

It's a real surprise to see my cleanly repaired watch indicating the correct time. I asked the shop to attach a new stainless belt to it and I found that the belt fits perfectly to the appearance of the watch.

Rainy day

It's been raining all the day today. I dared to go out to enjoy my day off. As usual, I dropped by at the Indian curry shop and had a special menu which offers a special taste with a variety kind of spices.

I often go to these kind of curry shops run by Indian people in the area of my home town. There a dozen of shops and I've visited most of them. The tastes are a bit different each other but overall I like them.

SEIKO SARB031

I purchased a new watch, SEIKO SARB031.

A present from Korea

I received a nice present from Radio Korea International. It's a small 'SENSU', which is a folding fan. I regurarly applied to the quiz of this station and almost everytime they sent me some gifts as prizes. Each of them I've recieved was related to the Korean culture or this station itself. I always appreciate their kindness.

NHK Foreign language programs

New programs for foreign languages have just begun on NHK TV and radio. I picked up some of the course. NHK offers us a variety kind of course rainging from a basic English to advanced Korean and Arabic. But despite the diversity of the programs, some courses are repeated, repeated and repeated again. For example, TV Russian course seems to have been going in regular cycles as well as the radio Arabic one.  I presume that education programs like langage learning are made on a tight budget in this recession. I hope more programs are produced for such languages as Russia and Arabic. 

Kenwood R-300

I got an old receiver again. It's Kenwood R-300. This antique receiver had been one of the receiver that youngsters those days were willing to have  for shotwave listening in the 70s. My R-300 came from the States through ebay. The condition is more than what I've expected. 

R-300 offers us an analog readout using a spread dial. It is not so accurate as the new ones equipped with digital readouts. But I'm sarisfied with the performance becase it give me a pleasure of operating the radio with dials instead of pushing buttoms. The audio quality is not so good as the other receivers of mine such as IC-R8500 and R8B. I connected an audio speaker to it and it made the sound a little better. 

An electric typewriter

I got an old typewriter frim the Web auction laterly. It's an electric one produced by Brother more than 20 years ago. I'm a fan of old typewriters that are not categorized in antique ones and prefer manual ones. The sound of typing is something that remided me a feeling I had when watching old American movies.  

FM transmitter for ipod touch

I got a new gadget, a FM transmitter for ipod touch. I always carry my ipod touch when going out everyday. It is equipped with a small speaker on the back surface, which allows us to listen without a earphone. But due to the poor audio quality of this speaker, I always use a FM transmitter which send  sound to a radio.

Moleskine notebook

I pusrshased a Moleskine notebook at half price. Moleskine is a famouse brand in the field of the notebook market.

QSL from KKOL 1300kHz

I received a QSL card from KKOL 1300kHz, Seatle. I reported my reception to this station at the beginning of December. I was not sure that KKOL has its own card or letter as QSL, so I enclosed a PFC, which is a card  desigined by myself, with my report. This is the way I usually do when sending reports because it is not easy to get QSL from stations in US.

An engineer of KKLO kindly returned my card with his sign. 

SONY ICF-5800

My first shopping this year is a shortwave radio. It's Sony's ICF-5800. This is a memorable radio for me. Because I got to know a hobby of shortwave listening through a TV commercial of this model more than thirty years ago. Catching signals of Radio Australia and BBC with this radio fascinated me very much because it  made me feel that I was connected to other countries through a tiny radio.

The one I purchsed was well restored by experts and show excellent features which are more than what I expected. Audio quality is good and it's easy to operate. On top of that, the overall design fits to my favor.