Review: $12.95 Coby 9-band AM/FM/SW receiver
 

I ordered a Coby 9-band AM/FM/SW receiver from http://www.target.com/ last
week. $12.95 + about $6 shipping. (I think this is the same unit that
someone else mentioned being at a "Big Lots" store for $9.99). It
came yesterday.

Analog tuning, digital frequency display, built-in clock/alarm.
Band coverage from the sticker on the back:

FM: 87.5-108.5
AM: 530-1700
SW1: 5.6-5.8
SW2: 7.15-7.40
SW3: 8.60-9.10
SW4: 9.85-10.65
SW5: 13.35-16.05
SW6: 15.15-15.40
SW7: 20.85-23.20

Actual band coverage from the frequency display on the front:

FM: 87.0-108.1
AM: 528-1769
SW1: 5.49-6.02
SW2: 7.05-7.89
SW3: 8.33-9.29
SW4: 9.69-10.96
SW5: 12.95-16.16
SW6: 15.35-17.70
SW7: 20.72-24.69

My opinion? A piece of junk. Even on MW, local stations splatter all over
each other. There's a DX/Local switch which doesn't help any. Local
MW stations image and splatter all up and down the SW bands too. The SW
selectivity is abysmal and my patience to try to pick out a couple of
strong stations was very much frustrated by the MW images up and down the
SW bands. The SW signals were there, just unlistenable due to all the
MW images.

It's moderately usable on local strong-signal FM signals. But I swear,
from the way that each FM station appears twice about 0.9MHz from each other,
that it uses a 455kHz IF even at FM frequencies.

Maybe if you're out in the middle of nowhere, with no local MW stations,
it would be sort-of useful. It's small enough, maybe I'll take it on a
trip and see if it becomes useful.

Tim.

Tim Shoppa wrote:

My opinion? A piece of junk. Even on MW, local stations splatter all over
each other. There's a DX/Local switch which doesn't help any. Local
MW stations image and splatter all up and down the SW bands too. The SW
selectivity is abysmal and my patience to try to pick out a couple of
strong stations was very much frustrated by the MW images up and down the
SW bands. The SW signals were there, just unlistenable due to all the
MW images.

Let me guess..it's made in communist China by an American subsidiary of
a Bush controlled off shore cartel designed to scam the Internal Revenue
Service and thereby put the tax load on the rapidly diminishing middle
class..

(just a guess)




mike

--
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
/ /\ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /\ / /
/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /\ \/ /
/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/ \/_/

..let the cat out to reply..

©Densa International
'Think tanks cleaned cheap'

Yiiikes! $18.95 for a COBY! Ouch.
Your assessment was correct. COBY is junk. And I also agree with respondent
"Mike" --- COBY is probably a company as he described. Isn't it nice that
our leadership has decapitated U.S. ingenuity and manufacturing to help its
offshore friends? Now we're left with crap technology everywhere.
I might have been the guy you were refering to who had a posting here almost
a year ago about the COBY. I bought the non-digital version at a Big lots
for $4.99. As an airline pilot I wanted something that could get banged
around in my bag but yet provide a modicum of listenability. I primarily use
it for shows like the Power Hour, Alex and a few others like that. But my
COBY is a lousy shortwave portable. Its full of images and the dial numbers
are a meaningless decoration. It works well enough for what I use it for but
I would hate to think it was my first shortwave set I bought. I would have
left SWLing years ago and it would have been on my garage sale table for $1.
So, Tim, just use your COBY for what it is, casual listening when you don't
want to carry much weight or size. And if it should inadvertently fall
between the grates of a sewer, 1- It's where it belongs and 2- You don't
need to beat yourself up about the accident. Even at $18...how many times
have you had a really lousy meal at a restaurant that cost $18? And it
eventually passed through and ended up where it is supposed to. Think of the
COBY as that lousy meal.

Smokey

"Tim Shoppa" wrote in message
om...
I ordered a Coby 9-band AM/FM/SW receiver from http://www.target.com/ last
week. $12.95 + about $6 shipping. (I think this is the same unit that
someone else mentioned being at a "Big Lots" store for $9.99). It
came yesterday.

Analog tuning, digital frequency display, built-in clock/alarm.
Band coverage from the sticker on the back:

FM: 87.5-108.5
AM: 530-1700
SW1: 5.6-5.8
SW2: 7.15-7.40
SW3: 8.60-9.10
SW4: 9.85-10.65
SW5: 13.35-16.05
SW6: 15.15-15.40
SW7: 20.85-23.20

Actual band coverage from the frequency display on the front:

FM: 87.0-108.1
AM: 528-1769
SW1: 5.49-6.02
SW2: 7.05-7.89
SW3: 8.33-9.29
SW4: 9.69-10.96
SW5: 12.95-16.16
SW6: 15.35-17.70
SW7: 20.72-24.69

My opinion? A piece of junk. Even on MW, local stations splatter all
over
each other. There's a DX/Local switch which doesn't help any. Local
MW stations image and splatter all up and down the SW bands too. The SW
selectivity is abysmal and my patience to try to pick out a couple of
strong stations was very much frustrated by the MW images up and down the
SW bands. The SW signals were there, just unlistenable due to all the
MW images.

It's moderately usable on local strong-signal FM signals. But I swear,
from the way that each FM station appears twice about 0.9MHz from each
other,
that it uses a 455kHz IF even at FM frequencies.

Maybe if you're out in the middle of nowhere, with no local MW stations,
it would be sort-of useful. It's small enough, maybe I'll take it on a
trip and see if it becomes useful.

Tim.

m II wrote in message news:nDpSc.1809$S55.968@clgrps12...
Let me guess..it's made in communist China by an American subsidiary of
a Bush controlled off shore cartel designed to scam the Internal Revenue
Service and thereby put the tax load on the rapidly diminishing middle
class..

Well, yeah, but there are a lot of Chinese portables out there that are
fairly decent for their price. They cost 4 to 8 times what this
thing did :-).

Aren't *all* the Grundigs made in China at this point?

Now, I do have some really nice US-built radios, but others here have
mocked me for buying them too, mainly based on their price :-).

Tim.

m II wrote:

Tim Shoppa wrote:

My opinion? A piece of junk. Even on MW, local stations splatter all over
each other. There's a DX/Local switch which doesn't help any. Local
MW stations image and splatter all up and down the SW bands too. The SW
selectivity is abysmal and my patience to try to pick out a couple of
strong stations was very much frustrated by the MW images up and down the
SW bands. The SW signals were there, just unlistenable due to all the
MW images.

Let me guess..it's made in communist China by an American subsidiary of
a Bush controlled off shore cartel designed to scam the Internal Revenue
Service and thereby put the tax load on the rapidly diminishing middle
class..

(just a guess)

Bush controlled cartel? Where do you ****ing 'tard Canadians get your information
from?

Do you eat CBC **** for breakfast?

dxAce

dxAce wrote:
m II wrote:
Let me guess..it's made in communist China by an American subsidiary of
a Bush controlled off shore cartel designed to scam the Internal Revenue
Service and thereby put the tax load on the rapidly diminishing middle
class..

(just a guess)

Bush controlled cartel? Where do you ****ing 'tard Canadians get your information
from?

I think up there they only have a cheap imitation Vast Right-Wing
Conspiracy. Kind of a Pretty Big But Not Too Much Right-Of-Stalin
Conspiracy. Wonder if tinfoil works right at low Canadian temperatures.

--
Both Kerry and Edwards announced their candidacy near the beginning of September,
2003, so let's only count votes before then. From January, 2003, to August, 2003,
Senator Edwards didn't vote 69 out of 320 opportunities (~22%) and Senator Kerry
didn't vote 182 out of 320 opportunities (~57%). http://www.mwilliams.info/archives/001349.php

"Smokey" wrote in message ...
Yiiikes! $18.95 for a COBY! Ouch.

Well, I don't hold the shipping charges against COBY...

Your assessment was correct. COBY is junk. And I also agree with respondent
"Mike" --- COBY is probably a company as he described.

Actually I've been amazed by some of the products they turn out. They sell
5" B/W TV's for $14.00... they aren't good (no DC restoration) but they
mostly work.

So, Tim, just use your COBY for what it is, casual listening when you don't
want to carry much weight or size.

In the past week I've found that it's somewhat usable. It gets the
"big name" SW broadcasters well enough (when they don't happen to land on
an image of a local MW station). The frequency display is pretty much
on the money (I've owned a long string of SW portables over the years and
while I can tune around knowing where the big boys are by ear I can certainly
see how a newbie with just a frequency listing in a book would be lost without
a digital frequency display). Still the images of local MW stations
throughout all the ranges frustrates me.

Tim.

"clifto" wrote in message
...

[snip]

Wonder if tinfoil works right at low Canadian temperatures.



Canadians have all the anti-psychotronic luck:

"Canadian coins should also be considered as they are high in nickel
content. Nickel, while not having the psychotronic deflecting properties of
aluminum (or even tin), can act to refract psychotronic beams, thereby
helping to scrambling the mind control signals as they are deflected off of
the underlying aluminum surface of the AFDB. This will result in a lowered
chance of retransmission of the signal."

"However, you should avoid American and European coins at all costs as they
contain aluminum based mind control circuitry. Canadian coins are free of
this threat mainly due to the Canadian government's choice of neglecting
psychotronic research in favor of research into giant robotics."

http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html

Frank Dresser