Radio
Boy
Grundig Satellit 700 scrolling
text
The Satellit 700
has a scrolling text feature, using the 8 character alphanumeric display
section of the LCD. To activate this facility, switch off, key in 123456,
and switch on. The radio will play the last station tuned to, but the display
will scroll the set's name and details like an advertising display, as
shown below.
(In case you are
on dial up, and this video is too big, here's what it says):
(Note
that your browser needs to be advanced enough to show the scrolling text,
otherwise it will just show it as large text. You need IE5 / NETSCAPE 5.0
or greater)
This facility may
have been included for display in shops and trade exhibitions. One advantage
is that while in this mode, all keys except on/off are disabled, making
it a useful software lock to stop prying fingers knocking the set off station,
for example while recording. The tuning knob can be used to scroll faster,
or backwards, or to temporarily stop it, it will restart scrolling after
about 2 seconds. This facility remains in operation until disabled, which
you do by switching off, keying 123456 again and switching on. Just turning
off & on again will not remove it.
However, following
contact between the person who wrote the control software for the Satellit
700 and Thomas Baier, webmaster of the Satellit 700 website at www.satellit700.com,
it has been discovered that this text can be replaced with custom written
text stored in a memofile chip. The memofile used for this text can no
longer be used for frequency storage, and can’t be written using the Satellit
700, it has to be written on software/hardware made for the purpose, which
the software writer still has. He has kindly made such a chip for Thomas,
with the following text:
(Again, in case you
are on dial up, and this video is too big, here's what it says):
The text shown above
occupies 9 of the 64 memofile positions, which suggests that the text could
be a lot longer if required. While the 700 cannot compile the chip, it
can copy it using the copy function, and so now I have a copy too. All
you have to do is fit the chip in any memofile position, and do the “123456
switch on” routine, and the display will show this text instead of the
standard text. It doesn’t have to have that memofile currently selected.
Also, removing the chip while the text is scrolling stops the text, refitting
it restarts it, proving that the chip is being read “live”. Thomas tried
fitting a copy in the memofile 1 position, (the internal soldered-in chip)
and it doesn’t work when installed there, presumably because memofile chip
1 is on a different circuit board from the 3 extension memofiles, and is
actually on the same circuit board as the main software chip which holds
the factory installed text.
While the above holds
no real practical use, (except maybe at radio shows and the like) it’s
an interesting window into the complex internal workings of the Satellit
700.