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.