Yes I just saw that one now and was going to post it, the logo is the same. There's a good chance that my cognitive deficits didn't remember the radio and this is it but I don't think so. This is direct entry on a keyboard and it's the same kind of keyboard that the pro 2004 GRE had. Regency also had similar keyboards. I just don't think this is the radio, I think the one I had was smaller but who knows, wait till you all start losing your mind, it's not fun.😆
My guess is that your memory is right on this one. The door on top / non keyboard programming is a very specific recollection. Who knows, someone here may remember the brand or even have one in their collection.
Yes same with the row of red diodes scanning I do remember. Probably weren't that many of these radios around but it certainly was an oddball.
I had the Memorex Scanocular, even wrote an article about it. Mario snags a Memorex TrackTec Scannocular!
From the physical description, maybe it was an AOR, like this AR-950? Though this radio is only 100 channels.
I had one of those! They were great for listening to baby monitors and cellphones "back in the day."The 2026 certainly was a abomination. The RS brain trust took a perfectly good 760 and turned it into an annoying POS. I still have a couple of them. Aside from the clumsy RS programming protocol, this radio had a volatile memory--it required a constant 12v source to keep the programmed channels intact.
This could be worked around fairly easily for a base install, but mobile installs required creative wiring. At least, back then, vehicle wiring was a lot simpler.
It's the reigning champ of weird scanners.
No, not even close, the radio I had had a metal case, the digits were like over an inch tall, and it had a really potent green backlight when it was on high. The digits were on a slight angle, too. Almost the whole left side was the readout and icons. It was much nicer build quality than any AOR radio. I just can't remember the brand at all.
The construction sounds commercial grade. Maybe it was made for the Japanese market only? It had 700 or 750 channels? That already makes it unusual for the era, if you bought it used in 1996-7 and it was a few years old at that time. 400 channels was a lot in those days.
I always thought these were cool as heck. I seem to remember they were deaf as a stump though. Something like 5 μV on VHF?I'll add my single-DIN Kenwood RZ-1 "wideband receiver" to the mix. Would've killed to have this in my car back in the day.
- 100 mermory channels
- Alphatags
- 500MHZ-905MHz continuous reception
- AM / FM / NTSC
- Stereo outputs and a video out for TV viewing!
They were popular in our live trucks as off-air receivers. That's where this one came from.
My number was a slight bit off. Still terrible numbers. Sensitivity on the Kenwood RZ-1 (courtesy of rigpix.com)
A better contemporary option was the Yaesu FRG-9600 (from RigPix.com). Or, if you had deeper pockets, the Icom R7000 / 7100.
| Sensitivity: | AM-N: 1 uV (10 dB S+N/N) AM-W: 1.5 uV (10 dB S+N/N) FM-N: 0.5 uV (12 dB SINAD) FM-W: 1 uV (12 dB SINAD) |
It's not it, but it's the closest I've seen. The display is too small and narrow, the buttons on it were rectangular not rounded. The angle of the digits is about right,but I would guess about half as big as on the mystery radio, and the backlight is really a potent green on bright. I wouldn't doubt that it was Japanese market only, I got it in Michigan, I'm pretty sure, and a lot of weird stuff came into the US and wound up on hamfest tables via Canada, like the Yupi scanners. I have a couple of weird Standard/Marantz Japan made aircraft scanners that are very rarely seen in the US. All the Standard stuff looks "Standard", so it's pretty easy to spot. Here is the Maycom 108, mine is a sad mustard yellow. If converted to receive all of VHF high, it's a decent radio to take to a race or airshow. No mil air, and truly awful speaker, but with an earphone, it's not that bad. I've seen it under several different names.
Radio Shack used to have a version called the "HTX-200".It's not it, but it's the closest I've seen. The display is too small and narrow, the buttons on it were rectangular not rounded. The angle of the digits is about right,but I would guess about half as big as on the mystery radio, and the backlight is really a potent green on bright. I wouldn't doubt that it was Japanese market only, I got it in Michigan, I'm pretty sure, and a lot of weird stuff came into the US and wound up on hamfest tables via Canada, like the Yupi scanners. I have a couple of weird Standard/Marantz Japan made aircraft scanners that are very rarely seen in the US. All the Standard stuff looks "Standard", so it's pretty easy to spot. Here is the Maycom 108, mine is a sad mustard yellow. If converted to receive all of VHF high, it's a decent radio to take to a race or airshow. No mil air, and truly awful speaker, but with an earphone, it's not that bad. I've seen it under several different names.
Just looked at info on the HX-200, and it isn't the same radio, it's a transceiver and the AR-108 and whatever the other one is, are receive only. But obviously, made on the same chassis.
