Kaito Electronics Inc. KA1102BLK Digital AM/FM/SW World Receiver with SSB
by Kaito Electronics Inc.
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List Price: Our Price: $69.99 You Save: $9.96 (10%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $44.98 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Kaito Electronics Inc. KA1102BLK Digital AM/FM/SW World Receiver with SSB
Customer Review: Good price but poor reception (may have got a lemon)
Summary: 1 Stars
I got this radio at a good price for my dad who is a an avid shortwave listener. It arrived when the sellers said it would. Unfortunately when we unpacked the radio we found that the (pull-out) antenna was slightly bent and the FM reception was barely acceptable at best (and that too for the strong stations like NPR). SW reception was close to non-existant. A lot of playing around with the tuning (both the auto scan & the manual one with the fine tuner) only produced static hiss for the most part. The only station that we barely received (here in the NE USA) was what we thought may have been a station from Mexico. I was surprised by this whole experience because I had read a lot of good reviews for this radio and really expected it to be a good buy for me too. It makes me think that I may have got a "lemon" or the radio (the reviews not withstanding) is really not that good. One thing that I can say for sure is that the user manual that comes with the radio is also not very good. It is unclear in places and in others it seems to be written for countries with 220V AC power when the radio is being packaged for and sold in the USA. That says something about the attention to detail and quality of the product. I returned it for Grundig G4000A which has been much better so far.Customer Review: Best Pocket Sw Receiver for the Buck !
Summary: 5 Stars
This is it! Performance of this little gem is outstanding! No other radio that I know of at this price will receive single side band signals (most "hams" use this mode).
The 1102 has a wide/narrow bandwidth switch, with well chosen bandwidths, allows fine tuning of AM in 1Khz steps and FM in 10 Khz steps, provides an indication of signal strength, and outputs STEREO to earphones in FM.
Sound quality is decent (for its size) through the built in speaker, with a "music/news" switch provided to shape the audio response for best results. A "bass boost" function is also provided, but it only works on FM...odd.
Alarm and Sleep functions are provided, and the display has a pleasing blue backlight, that is not activated in a bright ambient (to save batteries).
Speaking of batteries, a set of three NiMH rechargeable cells is included!
On the downside, the 1102 is NOT an easy device to operate, and the instruction manual is NOT well written/translated. Some of the functions (such as SSB or fine tuning) are activated by selecting certain "pages" of station memory. If you are willing to spend a bit of extra time reading the manual while experimenting with the functions of the various controls, you will be happy with the results!
Customer Review: A little disappointed
Summary: 3 Stars
I received the Kaito KA1102 a couple of weeks ago, and although it seems to be very well made and easy to use, I am a little disappointed. It may be that my expectations were too high. I bought the radio primarily to use the AM and shortwave bands. I like to listen to sports events at night as I am relaxing in bed and I was hoping to be able to pull in some AM stations from outside of my area (I live in the Detroit area and sometimes the local stations don't carry national games). However I have not had much success in doing that. I was also hoping to listen to some shortwave stations. I have never had a radio that receives shortwave so I don't have any experience with that. However so far I have not been able to pull in any English speaking stations clearly enough even with the supplied external antenna connected and strung outside a window. Maybe I'm just in a bad location. Based on my experience, if you are considering buying this radio in hopes of getting great AM reception and a variety of shortwave stations, you may want to look at another radio.Customer Review: Poor manufacturing
Summary: 2 Stars
I have this radio for about a month. As a radio, it is much better than Grundig G6 Aviator and Eton 100 (that I also own). Unfortunately, it seems that manufacturing quality is pretty poor: after about a month of use the radio started having problems with the keyboard. It is necessary to press some buttons twice or more, with force. Pressing "power" to switch the radio on sometimes switches it on for a second and swithes it immediately off. Pressing some keys causes loud "click" noise in the speaker.
Manual is EXTREMELLY poor and confusing. It cannot be dwnloaded from manufacturer's page. Make few copies and save. If manual is lost, you are lost :)
Month later, March 9th, 2011. It is harder and harder to switch the radio on or off. Most frequently, pressing the Power button switches the radio on for a second and switches it immediately off. It seems that even for something that cost 60 bucks it is deteriorating too rapidly...
Customer Review: I was astonished!
Summary: 5 Stars
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.