Last night, I received my Degen DE1123. My opinion of the radio follows.

For a small radio, it seems to do an adequate job of receiving the high
power SW stations. FM reception is just fair.

MW reception is interesting. It doesn't seem to handle high signal levels
very well. This could be content-related, though. It does do a fair job on
medium level signals. The strong signal issue relates to a locally generated
signal from a small AM transmitter here at my shop. The transmitter sounds
perfectly clear and good quality on most of my other radios (primary
exceptions are the 20's model TRF radios with no ALC), but on the Degen,
it's very choppy with audio levels changing constantly. This may, again, be
content related. The DSP may not be able to handle the relatively wider
dynamic range of my little transmitter over that of a commercial station.

Setup is not difficult, but not too intuitive, either. I like the 12/24 hour
clock and the switchable 9/10 KHz channel spacing on MW. SW tuning is not
fast, but is helped to a degree by being able to step through the
international SW broadcast bands with a push of the band button.

The internal recorder is handy, but they really should have added a built in
mic for the voice recorder, rather than having to plug in an external mic to
the headphone jack.

The audio quality with the internal speaker is, understandably, very poor.
With the stock ear buds, it's worse still. I received a pair of "upgrade"
ear buds with my radio, these are perhaps the worst sounding in-ear earbuds
that I have ever heard. I need to dig out the $3 cheapies that I got with
my Toshiba Gigabeat and see if they sound any better. ANY response under 500
Hz would be nice...

The radio comes with a USB cable that supposedly will allow recharging of
the included AAA NiMH batteries through the USB port on your computer. This
has so far not worked for me. The computer sees the device when plugged into
the USB port, and the AC/charge icon on the radio comes on, but after 18
hours, the battery level indicator remains unchanged. It does not come with
an AC adapter, though one is shown in the manaul, which is written in both
Chinese and English.

Overall, for such a small radio, which would fit very well into a shirt
pocket, it does fairly well, but don't expect it to perform like a Grundig
YB400 or equivalent radio. I kind of like it, for it's size and relative
utility, and for it's extended (64-108 MHz, which includes the Russian and
Japanese FM bands) FM band. Not so sure it wouldn't be a better radio
without the DSP, though.

--
Say no to institutionalized interference.
Just say NO to HD/IBOC!

"Brenda Ann" wrote in message
...
Last night, I received my Degen DE1123. My opinion of the radio follows.

Overall, for such a small radio, which would fit very well into a shirt
pocket, it does fairly well, but don't expect it to perform like a Grundig
YB400 or equivalent radio. I kind of like it, for it's size and relative
utility, and for it's extended (64-108 MHz, which includes the Russian and
Japanese FM bands) FM band. Not so sure it wouldn't be a better radio
without the DSP, though.

Sounds to me like the 1102 is still the best bang/buck in a small AM/FM/SW
radio. I have 2 (along with dozens of other radios) and still find them
handy for travel.

You should have sent your contribution to the Christian Childrens Fund
instead of the Chinese Communist Party.

wrote in message
...
You should have sent your contribution to the Christian Childrens Fund
instead of the Chinese Communist Party.

Just about impossible to buy a radio of any type anymore that doesn't
"contribute to the Chinese Communist Party"

"Brenda Ann" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
You should have sent your contribution to the Christian Childrens Fund
instead of the Chinese Communist Party.

Just about impossible to buy a radio of any type anymore that doesn't
"contribute to the Chinese Communist Party"

Besides, the "Christian Childrens Fund" doesn't make radios, so screw em!
:-)

On Nov 20, 6:42*am, "Brenda Ann" wrote:
Not so sure it wouldn't be a better radio
without the DSP, though.

Without the DSP it wouldn't be a radio! After the mixer is one DSP
chip that digitises the IF signal, does all the filtering,
demodulating, audio frequency shaping, and conversion to analog audio.

Tom

On Nov 20, 7:42*pm, "Brenda Ann" wrote:
Last night, I received my Degen DE1123. My opinion of the radio follows.

For a small radio, it seems to do an adequate job of receiving the high
power SW stations.

Ann, does that mean in comparison to DE1102 / 03, SW reception of the
DE1123 is not satisfactory?...

wrote in message
...
On Nov 20, 7:42 pm, "Brenda Ann" wrote:
Last night, I received my Degen DE1123. My opinion of the radio follows.

For a small radio, it seems to do an adequate job of receiving the high
power SW stations.

Ann, does that mean in comparison to DE1102 / 03, SW reception of the
DE1123 is not satisfactory?...

I don't have experience with those radios, so can't venture an opinion of
those vs. the DE1123. Once I have more time in on this one, I can give a
better idea of reception. Basically what I am saying is, vs. a larger,
better featured radio, this one seems to be lacking. But this isn't a big
surprise, really, as one can't expect a tiny shirt pocket sized radio to
perform up to big radio specs. I'll try some decent headphones/earphones
later today to see if the audio improves. As it sits, the audio is not
pleasant to listen to.

Headphones Always help;
-- How is it with some random wire hooked to teh Antenna ?

Thanks,

Chester



On Nov 20, 7:37*pm, "Brenda Ann" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Nov 20, 7:42 pm, "Brenda Ann" wrote:

Last night, I received my Degen DE1123. My opinion of the radio follows..

For a small radio, it seems to do an adequate job of receiving the high
power SW stations.

Ann, does that mean in comparison to DE1102 / 03, SW reception of the
DE1123 is not satisfactory?...

I don't have experience with those radios, so can't venture an opinion of
those vs. the DE1123. *Once I have more time in on this one, I can give a
better idea of reception. Basically what I am saying is, vs. a larger,
better featured radio, this one seems to be lacking. But this isn't a big
surprise, really, as one can't expect a tiny shirt pocket sized radio to
perform up to big radio specs. I'll try some decent headphones/earphones
later today to see if the audio improves. As it sits, the audio is not
pleasant to listen to.