Greetings all,

I just took possession of a KA1102 receiver. It arrived at my place on
Monday 3/1/04, but I wasn't able to test it out until this evening. First, a
bit of background on why I chose this receiver over a couple others I was
considering.

First of all, I wanted to obtain a small, multiband receiver that was highly
portable. I plan to take this receiver along whether the traveling distance
is 50' into the backyard, or 1,500 miles across country. I consider myself a
casual shortwave listener. I've been listening to the MW and SW frequencies
off and on since I was a teenager. I cut my MW teeth on my grand-dad's
ancient Philco tube radio as a youngster, and I've been hooked on the
"Spirit of the Radio" ever since. I have some favorite broadcast SW
stations, but I also love to try and snare some rarer stations and catch
whatever DX I can with my modest setups. I also love to experiment with
antennas and have built a couple of well-performing amateur radio antennas,
but I cannot currently employ an outside one due to my present living
situation (apartment).

One of the main reasons I chose the KA1102 was not just for its low price,
but for its SSB capabilities for the price. I think it's safe to say that
there aren't any other SSB-capable portables out there in the KA1102's price
range, at least none that I'm aware of. I have a Sangean ATS 505 with
similar capabilities, but it cost about $40 more than the KA1102 too.

The first thing that struck me about this receiver upon taking it out of its
box was its size. It's TINY... not a whole lot larger than my Yaesu VX5R
handi-talkie. I got the silver version. It looks very cute sitting next to
my old Philco Model 84 tube radio... the juxtaposed pair look sort of
anachronistic, but cool nevertheless.

The SSB capability of the KA1102 was the very first thing I tested on this
receiver, and I have to admit that I was impressed by it from the start.
Tuning in to Morse code conversations, which typically occupy a narrow
bandwidth, was not difficult with the SSB fine-step tuning. I went to 14.025
MHz and was very impressed by what I heard coming out of the small speaker.
Tone quality was superb and, dare I say, almost better than my now-defunct
ATS 803A. The KA1102 offers a fine-step SSB tuning that my ATS 803A didn't
have. The KA1102 does not allow for differentiation between LSB and USB, but
so far I've only tested it on USB, which is where most of my SSB listening
is anyway.

After listening to the 20 meter amateur band, I then went to some broadcast
stations in the 31 and 25 meter bands. The sensitivity off the whip was
really very impressive for a radio of this size. I had no problem hearing my
usual targets. At this point, I did a side-by-side comparison between the
KA1102 and my ATS 505, using only the whip antennas, and I found that the
KA1102 was able to pull in the very same stations as the ATS 505 did, and
with equal aplomb.

The KA1102's selectivity wasn't really given a thorough testing this time
out; this was strictly a first-time run with the new radio. On the lower
part of the 20 meter amateur band, there was some frequency bleed-over from
a couple of operators using Morse code down around 14.029 to14.030, but this
is to be expected if a receiver doesn't employ good CW filtering, at least
in my experience.

On FM, all of my local stations came in loud and clear, which is quite good
since my place is located in a low area, and some of the less-powerful,
far-suburban FM stations don't come in very well here. On FM, I was able to
pick up the farther-out stations as well as the closer ones to my locale. I
didn't employ the headphones that came with the radio, so I didn't get
stereo effect from the local FMs (the receiver's bass wasn't great, but it
was comparable to what I've heard in other tiny radios) but there was great
FM reception from the KA1102 overall.

On AM, the KA1102 pulled in all local and some distant stations for the
short period of time I listened ( 8 minutes). I didn't hang around the MW
band very long tonight to check, but I was hearing Chicago and Detroit
stations coming in quite clearly from my location in southeastern Minnesota
with no problem. I will try some more MW DXing once I get more familiar with
the functions of the KA1102. I am impressed by the sound quality of this
little rig so far.

As an amateur radio type, I am fairly used to small, difficult to program
devices such as triband transceivers. As far as ease of operation goes, I
found the KA1102 to be no more difficult or initially intuitive to operate
than any other small SW portable. Reading the manual, which is well-written
and clearly illustrated, does help a lot. I don't know if the English manual
for the DE1102 version of the radio is as clear as the one I got-- any
comparisons from those who've seen both would be appreciated. It didn't take
me long to find the functions I was looking for when reading through the
KA1102's manual, and the manual was clear about what you need to do to
activate a function, band, and setting preferences. All in all, easy to get
started.

As far as aesthetics go, as I said above, I chose the silver color. It comes
in black, too. The blue background lighting on its display is really quite
nice to view, and soothing to the eyes. Despite its small size, the display
is easy to read and the various icons rather intuitive to understand. I
would suggest that new users take at least an hour with the radio and manual
to get initially familiar with its functions, and you'll be listening (and
happy with your choice) in no time after that!

Good DX!

Jackie