Azden Pcs Meter Fm Transceiver Radio Amateur 05-1980

One of the newest arrivals on the amateur radio market, the Azden PCS-2000 2-meter radio is quite a radical piece of gear. It is manufactured by Japan Piezo Company, Limited, which has been around for some time. The company is known in Japan as a maker of audio equipment such as microphones and hi-fi tone arms. Perhaps because of its relative newness in the field of ham radio, its outlook toward our hobby has a unique slant. For example, there is no tuning dial on the PCS-2000: frequency control is accomplished by push-button switches. In fact, the only knobs are the controls for volume and squelch.

In conjunction with other testing labs, I have performed a thorough technical evaluation of this radio. This was no casual once-over, but a rigorous EIA shakedown that took days. The purpose of this exhaustive testing was to determine the suitability of this unit, both electri-caliy and mechanically, for marketing. I do not intend to reel off a long, highly technical treatise here, but rather to discuss the operation of the unit from a hands-on. user-oriented point of view.

Japan has been flooding the American market for several years with everything from ham gear to electronic games. The quality of these products is getting better and better, and in many categories the price is diminishing because of rapid technological advances. This is especially true of microcomput ers. The Japanese people also have pride in their work Many of them work twelve hours a day. six days a week in the course of the engineering work for the PCS-2000- I had an opportunity

MS COMM Associates' BTA-1 RTTY control center,

The Azden PCS-2000 separates into two units■ The transmitter and receiver circuitry is housed in the (arger, heavier cabinet, which can be located conveniently under tne passenger seat or in the trunk The small, hght. control head contains the microcomputer. The display LEDs are unusually large (Vs inch). The unit is shown in memory channel 5 using a split of 600 kHz.

to meet with Export Manager Takano and Chief Engineer Fu-jino. Their seriousness about 2 meters is reflected in the first piece of ham gear they are selling here.

Unusual Features

The first thing that strikes an observer is the 12-button key board on the front panel These twelve keys control the microcomputer, which is responsible for ail the scanning and frequency functions of the transceiver. Microcomputers (also sometimes called microprocessors^ are now available at a cost so low that they can be used in everyday consumer items. The frequency is chosen by first selecting the MHz digit and then individually setttng the digits for 100 kHz and 10 kHz. The dtgil in the 1kHz place may ibe set to either 0 or 5 Hence, the radio covers 800 channels in the range of 144.000 to 14 7.

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