Recently, as some of you know, my wife and I had our first child. Amongst all the things we bought was the Sony MTN-910 “Baby Call” Nursery Monitor. We got it at Baby’s R’ Us for $99. In my opinion it is probably one of the best purchases we made.

What is the Baby Call?

The Baby Call is a transmitter and receiver monitor set that allows parents to keep an ear on their child. Say your child is sleeping his/her room. Now let us put you, the parent, in a room where you couldn’t normally hear your child. The Baby Call will allow you to hear you child if he/she wakes up and starts crying or is just simply making noise. Pretty much the Baby Call is a way to parents to try to keep their little ones nice and safe.

What comes in the box?

The package comes with a transmitter, a receiver, two 9 volt power supplies, a rechargeable battery pack, and instructions. The power supplies are what they are. The important parts are the transmitter and the reliever.

Tell me about the Transmitter and the Receiver.

Both parts are about the same size and about the same weight. Since I lost the instructions I can’t give specifics on size and weight. If I were to give an example of the parts they are, each, the size of a large Red Delicious apple. They are similar weight to that apple too.

They are very similar in shape too. The bottom is flat, the top has a plastic loop and on the face is the microphone (transmitter), speaker (receiver), a power switch, a port for the 9 volt plugs to power the devices, and switches for changing the channels (I’ll discuss that later).

Since the units are different from this point on, I shall describe them separately. The
Transmitter operates on one of the 9 volt power supplies. This is the simpler of the two units. It is either on or it is off. When it is on, every little sound made will be picked up. I have noticed that sounds made up to 15 feet away can be picked up by its microphone.

The receiver is a bit more complex. The power switch has three modes; off, on, and voice activation. Off and on are what they are. The voice activation (vox) feature allows the microphone to only pick up sound when the baby makes a sound or when someone else does. Besides running on the 9 volt power supply, this part has uses the battery that I mentioned.The battery sits inside a compartment on the back of the unit. It takes 15 hours to charge and will last for 22 hours. When not plugged in the unit uses the battery. On the back there is a belt clip for carrying the unit with you. The clip is a strong piece of plastic. On the front, above the speaker, are five lights. When a sound is made they illuminate. The stronger the sound is the more of them that glow. For example: If the sound is a whisper the first light may flicker. If the sound is a loud cry, they will all illuminate. A moderate sound will get some lights. On the back of the unit is the volume control. Finally there is a light to the upper left of the speaker. This light is the range alarm. If for some reason the receiver gets interference or out of range of the transmitter, the light illuminates and a siren will sound. Once back within range the light goes off and the siren stops sounding.

How does it work?

Operation of the Baby Talk is very simple. The units work at a 900 – 910Mhz range. To use them set the transmitter up where the baby is. Keep the unit within about 10 feet of the child and make sure that the power cord is out of harms way. Turn the unit on and leave the room. Next, make sure that the receiver is turned on. No go about your business. When your child cries, you will hear it. If you don’t hear any sounds then turn the volume up. If you are in a noisy area, you will have the lights to let you know that your child is making noise. Just make sure you can see the lights. That’s it, operation is this simple.

Channel Surfing

I stated that this unit has 27 channels to choose form. This cuts down on interference for possible other units in the neighborhood. Both the receiver and the transmitter have three switches on the base of the unit. Just below the microphone and speaker there are windows that are just above the switches, one window per switch. In the window is one of there colors. The colors are red, yellow, or green. The units come defaulted to all windows showing yellow. Three yellows is one channel. To change the channel move one of the switches. The moving of the switch will change the color in the window. Once you have selected a channel on the transmitter, make sure you set the receiver up the same exact way. If you don’t set the receiver up properly, you will not hear your child.

What I feel about the product.

We have used the Baby Call for about two and a half months and I have to say I really like the product. The sound quality coming from the unit is crystal clear. There is no distortion at all. I have heard other monitors where the sound is distorted. This product blows the others away. The sensitivity of the microphone has been able to pick up our cat purring at times. The slightest sound made from my daughter can be heard. Thanks to the Baby Call I know if my daughter is being fussy, giggling, crying, or just playing in her crib.

Even thought the receiver is portable, I have not used this feature. When I do start using this feature, I know it is there.

The lights are great. There have been times where the volume was tuned down to the point I couldn’t here my daughter. The lights allowed me to know what was going on.

There is one thing I don’t like about the product. The battery back up is where I have an issue with it. Only the receiver had two power sources. It would be nice to have a battery back up for the transmitter. If the power goes out the then the transmitter is useless. At that point, if I want to keep an ear on my daughter, I will have to move where she is or I will have to move her to me. Also, the directions don’t mention how far the range is. We have the unit about 30 feet apart with walls, pipes, and wires between them. It would be nice to know the maximum range of the product. Besides that, this product is excellent.

Final Thoughts

The Baby call is an excellent product that I would recommend to anyone who is about to have a child or has a small child. The clarity and ease of use make this a wonderful product. I highly recommend it.


Thank you for reading,

Brett


Recommended: Yes