 "Disappointed With Sound Quality" | 2008-04-13 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3AIJQDVMPI1AM |
| I spent several days with this radio learning how to operate it. The manual is not clearly written but it's usable. The radio feels solid and the design has a number of nice features. The user interface could stand some improvements. I wish the clock would display simultaneously with the frequency. I wish the batteries could be charged simultaneously with playing on AC. The problem I couldn't tolerate was the distorted sound. The amount of distortion was not too bad for voice but horrible for music. I couldn't stand the distortion so I returned the radio. |
| |
 "Extremely fine portable AM (MW)/FM/SW radio" | 2008-01-30 |
| - Reviewed By 123infinity |
| This is my second Kaito portable radio and it is indeed an excellent product as all the other reviewers have pointed out before me. It seems extremely well made and should last a long time if treated with care. The radio is both very small and readily transportable yet the reception is still excellent on all available bands. I also really like the highly useful system of storing presets with the ATS system on page 0 and then being able to use the copy command to transfer them to other pages after they have been thoroughly edited into a useful list. Several people have complained about the poor English Kaito/Degen manual, but if you can't figure something out, just download the Grundig/Eton G5/E5 manual (based on the recent reworking by Grundig of the poor ergonomics of the Kaito KA1103 radio) where all other relevant details are readily explained. I look forward very much to having the fun of using this radio for a very long time. |
| |
| "Feature rich and outstanding value" | 2007-11-30 |
| - Reviewed By dhcopp |
| The feature set is unbelievable. I especially like the coverage, sensitivity, PLL tuning, and ability to receive CW and SSB. I use it to check the ham bands before going to my shack, and as a sniffer for RF noise in my house and the neighborhood. As others have said, READ the manual! |
| |
 "Great radio but..." | 2007-08-07 |
| - Reviewed By jhmolinam |
| Ok I agree all the good comments but in the first day of use the volume down button was permanently depressed (even it works well)... |
| |
| "KAITO 1102" | 2007-06-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1SX9PHJWTDMF9 |
I'VE HAD MY KAITO 1102 FOR A FEW DAYS. HERE IS SOME FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
THE RADIO IS VERY WELL MADE. THE CHINGLISH INSTRUCTIONS LEAVE ALOT TO BE DESIRED. HIRING A TRANSLATOR OR A TECHNICAL WRITER COULDN'T BE THAT EXPENSIVE. THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING THE MEMORY FEATURE HAS IT'S OWN SWEET LITTLE LOGIC. BE PREPARED TO READ AND DO READ AND DO...
THE AM SECTION IS NOT AS GOOD AS MY OLD SONY SPORTS BOOM BOX [THE GOLD STANDARD FOR AM RECEPTION] AND NOT AS GOOD AS MY SANGEAN DT200V.
I'LL TELL YOU IN ADVANCE THAT SHORT WAVE ON ANY RECEIVER IS 95 PERCENT STATIC ALL THE WAY ACROSS. THERE ARE FEW "STATIONS" TO BE HAD. THE STATIONS YOU CAN HEAR ARE GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA OR "JESUS" OVER AND OVER. LOTS OF ROLLING R'S, UMLAUTS, DIPATHONGS AND "THE MESSAGE". FM IS WELL FM.
WHERE I LIVE IT'S CLEAR CHANNEL HOMOGENIZED AMERICAN "CULTURE". UGH!
SUMMED UP: FOR A FIRST AND ONLY MULTIBAND RADIO THIS ONE IS HARD TO BEAT. CHEAP AND WELL MADE. AS FAR AS RECEPTION IT'S ALL SMOKE AND NO FIRE... |
| |
| "Good quality at low price, size and weight" | 2007-02-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2CVV4MJO9VBGM |
| I own an old Panasonic RF45 Shortwave radio and a Icom ICR10. The Panasonic reached his lifetime, and the Icom is a very expensive toy to carry it from one to another place. I look for this radio at many Internet reviews and I decided to buy it. In general lines, the're four viewpoint to qualify this radio: 1) Coverage 2) Reception 3) Selectivity and 4) Sound clarity and quality. 1) Coverage: In FM start from 70 Mhz to 108 Mhz. In SW start from 2.996 Mhz to 29.995 Mhz and in MW from 520 to 1710 Khz. The reception is good to very good, In FM and AM mode there's no problem with telescopic and ferrite antenna. In SW the supplied wire antenna helps to tune weak and far stations, but it's better with a dipole cupper wire antenna 'V' inverted type with coaxial RG58 cable. Selectivity: good to very good, but in some frecuencies the filters doesn't works too fine, for ex: you can hear the noise of near FM Station in some SW frecuencies. Sound clarity: at this point I rate this radio with 5 (or excellent) altough his small size speaker, you can hear at high level of volume without distort the sound. And with the supplied earphone you can hear FM Stereo with option of bass function to amplify the low frecuency sound (a matter of taste). Cons: The volume control is via Keypad, personally I prefer the knob style. The battery life: This radio comes with 3 AA NiMh 1300 mAH rechargable battery, it provide aprox 7 to 8 hour of running. My old RFB45 (with a larger speaker) reach aprox 16 to 20 hours of running time with 4 AA NiCd 700 mAH battery. The SSB mode is available only in P9 mode, that's means that you have 9 memory areas (P1 to P9) with 19 channels each and only in P9 memory area is available the SSB mode, if you are in SW band in P1 and press the SSB button for ex, an error msg blinks on the display. In general a good buy for the price, and good size to carry it to any place. |
| |
| "Great shortwave radio" | 2006-12-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1UL2NK6LANOQE |
Well, I remember listening to shortwave radio while growing up in Eastern Europe in the early 80's and felt a little nostalgic about it, so I asked Santa to bring me one for Christmas...Well, apparently I've been a good boy as I did find Kaito Ka1102 under the Christmas tree. Initially, in my letter to Santa i mentioned that there were several good shortwave portables including Sony 7600GR, Grundig YB 400, and Kaito 1102/1103. I must admit that Santa made an excellent choice as this radio is great. At first I was amazed at the small size (a bit smaller than the post card), and was concerned about the sounds quality, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good the local Fm stations sounded with bass enabled. Other things that I like about this radio:
-backlight, lights the LCD screen including all the buttons and controls. Very handy feature if you like to listen at night (Sony 7600GR has a backlight but only for the LCD screen0.
-good quality radio, at least feels very sturdy and well built. Buttons have a nice click to it, they feel comfortable, and are just the right size.
-great sound, even better with headphones.
-built in charger will re-charge your batteries while the radio is off, but plugged in to AC adapter.
-signal strength indicator
-frequency can be manually entered or scanned using two +/- scan buttons
-comes with 3 rechargable batteries, AC adapter, travel case, external antenna, earphones.
-pretty good shortwave reception (I live in the San Joaquin valley)I am able to pull in Family radio (FL), Radio Taiwan, Voice of Russia, and some other stations from China and Japan. Too bad Radio Free Europe is not broadcasting anymore ;-)
I noticed that one of the previous reviews stated that you had to read the manual...This seemed kinda silly as in order to fully understand how the radio works and to fully appreciate its functionality you should read the manual, at least once. Also, the "page" system that this radio uses works very well. You can scan AM/FM/SW on pages 1-6 and you can save any preset. Scanning works in 10mhz on pages 1-6, and it works in 1 mhz increments on pages 7,8, and 9. SSB can only be used while on page 9....That's pretty much it.
Im very happy with it and if you are looking for a nice portable shortwave radio I would personally recommend this one. A definite winner at less than $70.00! |
| |
| "Fell in love with this little radio within 5 minutes of using it" | 2006-10-14 |
| - Reviewed By breiel |
The Kaito KA1102 (Degen DE1102 in Asia) is absolutely fantastic! It certainly lives up to all the positive things reviewers have said about it.
It is as good as my 14 year old Panasonic RF-B45. The Kaito outshines the Panasonic with its 'wide' and 'narrow' bandwidth. The shortwave frequencies match the Panasonic for selectivity, although, perhaps, it's reception is a bit clearer. MW is a bit better overall. In Malaysia however the selection of MW stations is not as numerable as in the US; nevertheless, I was able to pull in a station in Vietnam that I could not get on my Panasonic, plus several Thai, Indonesian and Chinese stations. FM is more selective than the Panasonic as well. Bass and stereo reception may be heard with the earphones on FM.
Some reviewers fault the ergonomics (i.e. paging system), but I find it no more confusing than some 3G cell phones. As for the push button volume control, well, again, it's like so many cell phones; you get used to it. I only find that it's not as loud as the Panasonic, but I suppose after-market speakers could remedy this. The blue backlight and rechargeable batteries are an asset too.
As for cons, it overloads when an external wire antenna is hooked to the whip aerial, but this may be because it is amplified. When using an internal wire antenna of similar length plugged into the antenna jack there is no overload. With the Panasonic, it does not matter whether it is hooked to the whip or jack.
The radio is about the size of a postcard. Reminds me of the old pocket transitor radios back in the 1960s. It will definitely be a keeper whenever I travel overseas.
As for the price, it's definitely worth it. You get a lot of radio for the buck. I bought mine (Degen DE1102) from China and it was a lot cheaper than what you'll find elsewhere on the web. If you opt for this and you live in the US, you might consider getting a 110 volt power adaptor.
My only hope now is that it gives me as many years of listening pleasure as the Panasonic RF-B45.
POST-SCRIPT (30 March 2007)
Six months on and this little dynamo is still functioning...and I have been pretty aggressive with it. From Malaysia, I have have logged shortwave stations from Austria, Canada, Egypt, Turkey, the Netherlands, Sweden, North (Voice of Korea, Pyongyang) and South Korea, New Zealand, Iraq (Kurdish speaking station), Voice of Africa (Libya), Iran and Taiwan -- all rather difficult to receive at times. Of course, BBC, Voice of Russia, China Radio International, NHK, Deutsche Welle, Radio Australia, Radio Thailand, Radio Indonesia, Voice of Vietnam, Radio Singapore, All India Radio are flame throwers in this part of the world. The single greatest asset of this radio remains its wide/narrow filter; it does a superb job of reducing powerful stations next to weaker ones. This portable SW PPL radio is still No. 1 in my book!!! |
| |
| "Excellent little radio" | 2006-09-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3MSA5OYI58L0A |
| Best radio in the world you can get at this price. Mine lasted only a year though. I think it has some software issues. I can't get it to work with batteries anymore. I like it so much I ordered another. This is something I normally wouldn't do when a product fails but these are so good I'm hoping they have been improved. |
| |
| "I was astonished!" | 2006-08-11 |
| - Reviewed By asecure12 |
When this radio arrived in the mail my heart sank. I thought it couldn't possibly satisfy my desires for good quality radio reception. It was too too small.
But then I turned it on and ran it through its paces. I was astonished! How could such a small receiver do so much so well - and cost so little?
Okay, the speaker is too small to give really good FM sound quality even with amplified bass; but its not bad and the sound quality is really good with the provided earbud headphones - even better with my Koss PRO4AA Titanium headphones.
With the included external antenna I immediately pulled in Australia, Japan, China, and many Latin American stations. This was from my downstairs apartment in the Rogue Valley, Southern Oregon.
It takes a little study to learn all the functions, but it is well worth the effort.
This little radio is real high quality. Buy it and you will never want to part with it. |
| |
Expedited Available
