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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. |
#2
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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' |
#3
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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 $9.99). It came yesterday. Analog tuning, digital frequency display, built-in clock/alarm. Band coverage from the sticker on the back: FM: 87.5-108.5 AM: 530-1700 SW1: 5.6-5.8 SW2: 7.15-7.40 SW3: 8.60-9.10 SW4: 9.85-10.65 SW5: 13.35-16.05 SW6: 15.15-15.40 SW7: 20.85-23.20 Actual band coverage from the frequency display on the front: FM: 87.0-108.1 AM: 528-1769 SW1: 5.49-6.02 SW2: 7.05-7.89 SW3: 8.33-9.29 SW4: 9.69-10.96 SW5: 12.95-16.16 SW6: 15.35-17.70 SW7: 20.72-24.69 My opinion? A piece of junk. Even on MW, local stations splatter all over each other. There's a DX/Local switch which doesn't help any. Local MW stations image and splatter all up and down the SW bands too. The SW selectivity is abysmal and my patience to try to pick out a couple of strong stations was very much frustrated by the MW images up and down the SW bands. The SW signals were there, just unlistenable due to all the MW images. It's moderately usable on local strong-signal FM signals. But I swear, from the way that each FM station appears twice about 0.9MHz from each other, that it uses a 455kHz IF even at FM frequencies. Maybe if you're out in the middle of nowhere, with no local MW stations, it would be sort-of useful. It's small enough, maybe I'll take it on a trip and see if it becomes useful. Tim. |
#4
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#5
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m II wrote in message news:nDpSc.1809$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. |
#6
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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 |
#7
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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 |
#8
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"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. |
#9
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"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 |
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