How to change Japanese Sony WM-FX822 radio tuning to US region?

Solved! See posts below.
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Hey guys, I hope everyone is having a safe holidays. Not much time for me to work on my various hobbies this time of year.

Anyway, a friend recently gave me a Sony WM-FX822 (similar to the EX622 I repaired a little while ago which you can read about here---> http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/sony-wm-ex622-repair-time.2052/).

As expected, the belt on the 822 is stretched too, but all the pulley's are clean (unlike my 622), so it should be way less work to get this one back up and running. The internal battery compartment is also clean as a whistle.

I didn't have my camera on me, so here's a pic that I found on the net of the same model.




Anyway, I came across an issue that I can't seem to correct. I could of sworn that later model Sony Walkmans with the built in tuners could choose/pick the tuner's region/reception (ie, Japan/US/Europe) with a set of button pushes. Is it safe to assume the FX822 can do the same thing? I ask, because it looks like it's set to the Japanese tuner settings which only goes up to 90. I can't get any US/Canadian FM channels from 90-108 to tune in or pre-set.

Another issue, I can't do a manual search/scan for some reason. It only hops between the 4 FM presets it's found when I press the "+" and "-" buttons. I've already tried looking on the net for answers to this. I also searched the forums here. Nothing came up.

I can easily find the repair manual, but the owner's manual is a different story. I can't find a single link for it. Does anyone here have one at home or on their computer that they can share or take some pictures of, and/or help figure out if this 822 can have it's tuner region switched from Japan to US...? If it's possible, I figure it would be mentioned in the owner's manual somewhere. And yes, I already tried looking at similar owner's manuals/models, but their info didn't work.


A website post I did happen to find last night, suggested that it may only be possible with a certain solder/pin settings on the circuit board itself, because Sony would have probably made it easy on themselves to use the same board for all regions, with only a simple solder change setting needed depending on which region it was going to be sold in (which would make sense), but I didn't look for that connection when I had it opened the other day.

Can anyone help out?

Thanks.


Btw, the 4 FM channels I can receive/auto save, come in fine. Too bad they're all talk radio. lol

 

And for those of you wondering, the manuals I did find all had the same thing listed (as seen below), which didn't work. The 822 doesn't have an "Enter" button. It only allows me to choose the AVLS, Local, Dolby, BL Skip (ect, ect) settings.

It doesn't let me choose/tune in the radio stations manually... and, it doesn't stop for 5 seconds on each locked in radio station it does find when letting it do the auto find/save thing as mentioned in this owner's manual image.




That image was taken from the PDF for the FX890. You can see the full size version here.
https://docs.sony.com/release/WMFX890.pdf

 

Found this you can try---
I have a walkman with the same problem
ill have to try this

Receiving Stations Outside Japan
1
Press BAND•RADIO ON to turn on the radio.
2
Press ENTER. The frequency digits, "PRESET" and a preset
number flash in the display.
3
Press BAND•RADIO ON for more than 2 seconds. "AREA
1" flashes in the display.
4
While "AREA 1" is flashing, press PRESET+/– repeatedly to
select either area "USA" (USA and Canada) or "Eur"
(Europe and other countries) and then press ENTER.
5
Press ASP to store the radio stations (both AM and FM)
automatically.
The Walkman starts searching and storing stations.
6
Press BAND•RADIO ON to select the desired band and
press PRESET+/– to select a station.

 

I was going to suggest that (like the instructions say) you might need to hold buttons for a long time.

Transwave's answer above specifies 2 seconds.

They didn't intend this to be something you did accidentally.

 

I can't find an enter button on the 822. There is a "Set" button, but that didn't seem to work.





Btw, those instruction are similar to the ones listed for the FX622 (which I already tried). No dice.

The closest I can get is the word "Area" showing up for a second or two on the screen, and that only happens after the radio has been turned on for the first time, and only after pressing the "ASP" button for a second or two (the small right button below the screen).....but soon after pressing the "ASP" button, the screen flashes once and then it automatically starts scanning for channels to save to memory (ie, FM, TV, then AM). The + - buttons next to the screen but don't do anything when the word "Area" shows up.

I can FF/RW the the cassette in tape mode with those + - buttons. Even the AMS (auto music search) works too, so I know they're not faulty.

Hmm, I also noticed another word that shows up on the screen when I was trying different button combinations... ""Copy M".

That word shows up when I hold the "Band" button for 2-3 seconds when the radio it first turned on. After that it goes back to the presets it's already found before. I have no idea what "Copy M" signifies.

 

The ENTER button is in the inside of the door
a 'secret' button
open the cassette door on top center left

 

I was able to switch it! No more talk radio. lol

Why would Sony put those buttons inside the door?

It's a bit of an inconvenience to manually tune in a radio station though (ie, having to open the cassette door, change/tune it to a station I want to hear, and then set it to a one of the 8 FM presets if I don't want to do those steps again), but I can live with that since I can now get 87-108 FM.



Thank you for the "secret" button info transwave5. I didn't even see those things. lol



Hmm, I noticed that when I was finally able to switch it to US, that there was more than just JP, US and EUR. There was also "Area M", and also Area 1 to 8. I wonder what those other settings are for. ?

 

Thank you for posting this, PULOVR! I have the same model and was finally able to change from Japan to the US/Canada FM range

 

You should thank/like transwave5, they were the one to tell me about those stupid "Secret" buttons. lol

 

Hi guys,
Recently, I faced the same situation for my WM-FX2 which was only hitting lower numbers when tuning or autosearching radio stations.
Solution;
1) open cassette door cover.
2) whilst pressing the ENTER button inside on the cassette door panel (there are 3 secret buttons inside- ENTER, + and -), press BAND RADIO ON BUTTON on the front side.
3) AREA starts flashing. Choose between options 1 to 9, M, USA and EUR. make the selection using the + or - secret buttons on tje inside panel and ENTER again to confirm.
4) you can either use the unit itself to hunt for strong signal radio stations by pressing the ASP button (long press) or manual tune from the two secret buttons inside.
Hope this helps somebody!

 

please for f701c??????i don't succed on change band from japan to uk!!!!!!

 

Please for wm-f702 , not able to switch from Japan to US or UK

 

In my FX808, on the inside of the cassette cover, there is an instruction on how to change the area code (in Japanese):
1. According to the table below, decide the area code you want to listen to (if Tokyo, that's area code 3)
2. Turn on the radio, press the ENTER button to see "PRESET" blinking along with a number in the screen
3. While blinking, press and hold the + button until "AREA" is blinking along with the current area code
4. Use the + button to cycle through the area codes (12345678UE) until your desired code is shown, then press the ENTER button to commit your selection
5. Use the BAND button to select a band and call a broadcasting station with the PRESET +- buttons

Sapporo 1
Sendai 2
Tokyo 3
Nagoya 4
Osaka 5
Hiroshima 6
Fukuoka 7
JR 8
North America U
Europe and Asia E

Cheers!

 

Thank you I will try but I think shoul change some electronic parts . I will post you a message from a specialized technician

 

Sony uses PLL synthesizer IC pins for some bootstrap options. Try holding down the - button when inserting/connecting/securing the battery, and holding down the button a bit more, then release the button. The screen might be blank but the bootstrap is done. Turn on the radio using the BAND/RADIO ON button to see if the region change is successful, seeing the TV tuning gone, or by tuning to your local stations. If the - button does not work, try other buttons, one at a time.

This bootstrap is not a permanent or non-volatile change, and the AGC is not optimal so tuning quality might be impaired in your location.

 

Hi, please, read this post =
http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads/change-wm-f701c-tuner-region.3946/#post-38961

 

For the Walkman WM-F701c =

Take out main battery and backup battery from cassette cover.
Press and hold Radio ON and Tun(+)
Insert main battery
release Radio On and Tun (+)
Radio switched on 87,5 mhz
Insert backup battery

 

Hello Pulover,
glad you found out how to switch countries !
Sincerely Rich

 

I have same problem with FX811, it seems it's really close to FX808 but when I try to change Area (band/radio on, enter , press band on for 2 seconds), there is Copy M (memory?) Info, and not Area. Only moment when Area shows is when I use ASP and it's searching radio automatically. If anyone know how to set it up I would appreciate.

 

hi
for F701 C the only possibility is to change the position of a component on radio board and works