Ranting wrote:
Sorry for being a troll here, but I thought I had better make mention of
my situation in case other people are considering purchasing a Degen
radio such as 1103 from Ebay or Liypn

I first have to praise Liypn being professional and answering *direct*
questions anyone has. However, the products that are exported by Degen,
specifically the 1103 lacks proper testing and quality control.

Degen isn't exporting the Degen DE1103, they are exporting the Kaito
DE1103. Dealers like Liypn are in-fact re-sellers with no apparent tie
to Degen.


The
consumer should be aware of this fact, but Liypn or other Ebay sellers
make no mention of this. Of course, some may say, "why should they"?

Any how, I spent over $120 for the radio including sending it back to
China for warranty repair. I was one of the unlucky ones where there was
a tuner issue with the 1103's. I could've bought something more reliable
and with a better warranty where shipping was not an issue for less.

I bought a Degen DE1103 from Liypn in November of 2004 and it has not
failed or even hiccupped once. Seller Liypn ran out of radios, but
kept me fully informed of the next shipment and even kicked in an extra
set of NIMH batts as compensation. I would do business with him again.

My radio from Liypn cost about $68.00 or so shipped to the US with his
seller extended warranty. How did you end up paying twice as much???

There are however several design problems noted below.


As I didn't use the radio very much, the tuner issue didn't render its
ugly face until near the end of the warranty period. I contacted the
seller and I was reminded that I was responsible for shipping. Fair
enough, I knew that already. My radio was in mint shape, no scratches or
anything. I sent the radio to China and then I am informed when it
arrived that it was NOT in mint shape because one of the radio's 5 cent
face sticker was curling (cheap adhesive was used). I was informed that
since the radio is NOT mint there would be an added charge. Another way
to make a money.


I suspect there were more quality issues than a peeling sticker.


So, I pay the difference and get a [supposed] new version of the 1103. I
receive it and the first thing I notice is that the battery compartment
is a little smaller than the old radio because I had a difficult time
inserting the stock rechargeable batteries that originally came with the
1103. Then, I proceeded to use the radio. I tried the FM and tried
shortwave. FM was fine, short wave had a lot of distortion. I then
proceeded to program my favourite local AM radio stations. The AM band
has moderate distortion too.

Don't know the answer here. My late 2004 production DE1103 has
excellent audio from the tiny speaker and from the headphones on all
bands. I DX a Canadian oldies station on AM 740 and the sound is
delightful - not FM, but enjoyable.

There are some fundamental design errors however:
1. Numbering memories in hexadecimal severly limits the usefuless of
250+ memories. I can't even begin to guess at the reasoning behind
this choice....
2. Added to that is a flaw in the firmware that transfers the highest
FM frequency to the FM band when any AM frequency is selected from
memory and vice versa.
3. The horizontal keypad was a compromise to allow the analog LCD
display. It is difficult to use and is of limited usefulness.
4. The space used by the LCD analog display could have been used for
numerous useful features.
5. There is unneeded extra button to switch the single control from vfo
to volume control. One gets used to it but it is unneeded.

The DE1103 is a complicated radio that was not thoroughly tested by end
users before being placed in production. Still, for the money it
provides good listening performance.


I checked the Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kaito-de1103/
and I found out that many people are complaining about the distortion
issue with the [Degen 1103]'s.

My point is that everyone needs to be careful. I don't recommend buying
from a retailer in China, irregardless if many people are happy with his
service. The quality and quality control may be lacking as is with the
1103's. You live and learn. I shall not buy from this Ebay seller
again nor from someone overseas unless I can afford to absorb the cost of
the item if something is defective.

I know there are people here in support of Lipyn, but I had to share my
experiences as it appears not be atypical, despite the high rating the
seller receives from his buyers (he does sell other products too). After
a while, you can't change your feedback on Ebay, so that could be why the
ratings are high. There is no ratings or areas of feedback for post 6
months.

Enough of my ranting.
Cheers,