Friday, March 24, 2017

Uniden America releases CB Radio BearTracker885

A new concept radio is being released from Uniden.

+ BearTracker 885 - Uniden America

Uniden BearTracker 885

The Bear Tracker 885 is successor of the BearTracker 880. The new Bear Tracker has additional new features such as digital scanner and SD card slot unlike previous CB radios.

Appearance of the BearTracker 885 is very similar to BearTracker 880. Many features that the BearTracker880 has are built in the BearTracker 885. The noise-cancelling microphone supplied is too. But there is a SD card slot that other CBs not equipped on the upper side of the front panel.

Uniden BearTrackr 885

BearTracker885 can be operated not only a 40 Channels CB radio but also Digital and Conventional (Police, Fire, EMS, DOT) Scanner with BearTracker Warning System -- Legal alternative to Radar Detectors. Plus, the BearTracker885 is built on GPS to automatically select nearby scanner channels to monitor like BCD536HP.

Uniden BearTracker 885 back

Recording function? Close call? CTCSS/DCS rapid decoder? We will get details soon though the instruction manual has not been released yet.

I'm pleased with hearing the new two-in-one radio.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Check my Rusty FM antenna

I have checked my FM outdoor antenna on the roof because of not good reception of my SONY FM/AM tuner ST-SA5ES with a 30dB FM booster. My Yagi FM antenna has 3 elements made by MASPRO, one of the famous broadcasting reception antenna brands in Japan, and was installed 20 years ago

The heavy pole made of steel and the FM antenna that have been exposed by wind and water got rusty deeply.



Each part of the antenna is rusted.


Hey, this deep red rust seems like an ancient some part.


A bottle for fixing the cable has been folded suddenly when I tried to unscrew the butterfly nut.


The cable in the radiator has screwed off from the driven element as the fixed part made of plastic in the radiator was folded. That is a reason why I came across a bad FM feeling.


Next I looked into the booster unit that was installed on the roof.


When I opened the box, then, the outer case has been torn at the connection point and broken in the end.


Furthermore, brown liquid was leaked from the electrolytic capacitors on the circuit board.


After all I decided to remove the antenna and the booster as I found the plastic part in the radiator of the antenna folded, crushing the case of the booster.


I will replace and reinstall new FM antenna.