Monday, November 27, 2017

Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan - ham radio heaven

Japan has the world's highest number of ham radio licensees per capita, 0.343% of the population. This means that there are a good number of radio and electronics shops catering to home builders and the place to go is Akihabara in Tokyo.

I walked but there is a station at the heart of the place. (Click photos to enlarge them by the way)/.


There are literal department stores full of independent electronics shops. Some are multi-story.


Inside you'll find all the components you could desire plus boxes and boards.





There's a well stocked valve store.


There's some interesting home kit gear on show too. Here's a crystal set with a spider coil.


A 40m SSB transceiver I haven't heard of before.



Lots and lots of shops selling commercial gear with VHF/UHF handhelds in huge quantities.



All the big black boxes are on show and I notice, looking at the FT-817 price index, that prices vary significantly. 


A big store, Rocket Radio, also has a good collection of antenna parts. Interestingly they have a surprising number of loop antennas available.


Great to see that they are well stocked with morse keys.



Not a lot of English is spoken and unfortunately the shop keepers seem rather embarrassed about this. I did a bit of pointing and tried to be friendly.

Anyhow, I'm very lucky to be here this week. If you do get to Tokyo don't forget to check it out.

No comments:

Post a Comment