Kaito/Degen has done it again! I needed a small AM/FM/SW radio for travel and have compared several including the Kaito KA1105, the Kaito KA11, the Kaito 1102, the Grundig G6, the Grundig YB-550PE, the CCRANE SWP (Redsun RP300), the Tecsun PL-450, etc. I am still not done with all my evaluations, but I definitely think that the Ka1101 is a great small and very inexpensive ($~55-60 depending on the vendor) and a very excellent receiver! The identical radio is available in both silver and very dark gray/black. I am extremely impressed right out of the box how well it performs even for quite weak signals and with the antenna on SW not even extended.PROS:
1) Comes with rechargeable batteries, velcro-sealed slip case, earbuds, long antenna wire, adapter/charger and very readable manual (which fits nicely inside of the supplied slip case!). Batteries are designed to be easily recharged inside the radio.
2) Excellent weak signal reception on ALL bands including Low frequency FM or FML (starting at 70 MHz). It really performs very well!
3) Excellent bandwidth choice for the Wide/narrow switch on the keyboard on AM (MW) and SW and a separate FM, FML tone switch (labeled as Music/news on the right hand side of the radio), a Mono/Stereo switch on the keyboard as well as a Local/DX switch on the left hand side of the radio.
4) Lock switch and external antenna jack.
5) Back light controlled by available ambient lighting with an on-board light sensor system.
6) Numerous tuning methods available.
7) Very high quality and very readable display with numerous icons for charging, battery life, Mono/stereo settings, wide/narrow filter setting, etc.
8) Very long battery life.
9) Simple direct system for changing the 5 individual bands in direct order only (no reversing of the band change direction is possible).
10) Finally, it has a nice and very easy to use reset button on the front panel just in case the system acts irregularly (which I have not observed at all).
CONS: These are all very small and of no great significance whatsoever!
1) Tuning is limited to only the up/down slewing keys with only a 5 KHz frequency step which is relatively coarse, but usually sufficient given its bandwidth(Wide/Narrow) capabilities.
2) Only a total of 50 presets are available (10 on each of the 5 bands), however they are extremely easy and very intuitive to set and recall.
3) Smallish speaker (after all, I wanted the radio to be small and portable so this has to be the case!).
4) No signal strength meter available on-screen or otherwise.
5) It uses 3 AA batteries instead of a pair of batteries. Also, when rechargeable AA's are used, the full battery charge will not register on the screen (only 3 of 4 of the battery indicator icons are visible under these conditions).
Click Here to see more reviews about: Kaito KA1101 AM/FM Shortwave Radio, Black
Product Description:
The Kaito KA1101 is a portable AM/FM and shortwave radio with dual conversion technology and built-in battery charger. It has a broad FM coverage from 70-108 MHz with excellent sensitivity and selectivity. The KA1101 can be powered by 3 AA batteries or an AC adapter (included), also included are three rechargeable AA NiMH batteries. The KA1101 offers you four tuning modes including direct digit entry, manual tuning, auto scan and access through memories. Accessories also include a carrying pouch, earphones, user manual and shortwave antenna.
Get 40% OFF
No comments:
Post a Comment