Kaito 1103 radio comments
 

Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

The ergonimics are kind of funky but it does perform very well.


"JS" wrote in message
.. .
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

JS wrote:
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

I have one and like it quite a bit. It feels like a solid radio, it
sounds better and receives better than my dx-402, and the ergonomics
aren't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. The analog display is
"digitized", so it seems like a gimick.You can do direct entry tune, or
use the tuning knob on the side...it doesn't chuff! the tuning knob
doubles as the volume control; just press vol, the turn the knob, then
wait half a sec. before tuning. It handles a random wire clipped to the
telescopic without overloading, and you could use something like a Sony
AN_LP1 with it easily. I live in a very (electrically)noisy town in NH
so it's hard to test out the true DX capabilities....on a quiet
day,though, I've been able to pull in Iceland, RVI via Irkutsk(when
they still b'cast in English) channel africa in the afternoon (EST) as
well as the majors all over. I wake up to R. Lider from Colombia or R.
Nacional from Paraguay in the early morning, and they come in just
fine! I haven't tried out a Grundig 400PE, but I suspect the 1103 is
every bit as good. I even found the perfect case for it.....a Gameboy
Advance case ; )

I figured I'd ask before getting one.
Have been reading sw portable reveiws for about a week now.
Theres a site that has some good writeups.
Did start out by looking at the Sangeans, but
after reading about so many problems I started
looking at some others.
Figure if we get alot of storms this year(south Florida)
it'll be nice to have something to listen to other than the local stations
covering just storm news !




wrote in message
ups.com...

JS wrote:
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

I have one and like it quite a bit. It feels like a solid radio, it
sounds better and receives better than my dx-402, and the ergonomics
aren't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. The analog display is
"digitized", so it seems like a gimick.You can do direct entry tune, or
use the tuning knob on the side...it doesn't chuff! the tuning knob
doubles as the volume control; just press vol, the turn the knob, then
wait half a sec. before tuning. It handles a random wire clipped to the
telescopic without overloading, and you could use something like a Sony
AN_LP1 with it easily. I live in a very (electrically)noisy town in NH
so it's hard to test out the true DX capabilities....on a quiet
day,though, I've been able to pull in Iceland, RVI via Irkutsk(when
they still b'cast in English) channel africa in the afternoon (EST) as
well as the majors all over. I wake up to R. Lider from Colombia or R.
Nacional from Paraguay in the early morning, and they come in just
fine! I haven't tried out a Grundig 400PE, but I suspect the 1103 is
every bit as good. I even found the perfect case for it.....a Gameboy
Advance case ; )

JS wrote:
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

I have the Kaito KA-1102 and like it very much. Very hot on just the
whip antenna and decent SSB reception. Operating the unit, however, is
not the most user friendly.

Frank
Tucson

The 1102 looks to be less user friendly than the 1103.
I think the analog style tuning on the 1103 will be better for me,
since I like to listen when I'm in bed.
Just shopping around for price now.
Universal radios, online, has it for $78 and change, so far the best price,
and reputable apperaring vendor.

wrote in message
oups.com...

JS wrote:
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

I have the Kaito KA-1102 and like it very much. Very hot on just the
whip antenna and decent SSB reception. Operating the unit, however, is
not the most user friendly.

Frank
Tucson

JS wrote:

The 1102 looks to be less user friendly than the 1103.
I think the analog style tuning on the 1103 will be better for me,
since I like to listen when I'm in bed.
Just shopping around for price now.
Universal radios, online, has it for $78 and change, so far the best price,
and reputable apperaring vendor.

Buy it on ebay. Liypn of V Com Collections ebay store will likely have
the Degen version (same radio) for around $50. He can't use the name
Degen, however, so the ad will just say "1103 SW radio".


wrote in message
oups.com...

JS wrote:
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

I have the Kaito KA-1102 and like it very much. Very hot on just the
whip antenna and decent SSB reception. Operating the unit, however, is
not the most user friendly.

Frank
Tucson





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"Jim Hackett" wrote in message
ink.net...
The ergonimics are kind of funky but it does perform very well.

My thoughts exactly. It's a very good performer for the price and the weird
volume control is tolerable after awhile.

Jackie

"JS" wrote in message
. ..
The 1102 looks to be less user friendly than the 1103.
I think the analog style tuning on the 1103 will be better for me,
since I like to listen when I'm in bed.

I don't think the 1102 is less user-friendly than the 1103... in my view,
it's the opposite. The strange volume control on the 1103 and the
non-telephonic layout of its keypad make it less intuitive under low-light
conditions than the 1102. Both radios are pretty easy to operate after
you've had the chance to use them for a little while, though. The fake
analog dial on the 1103 was really not a selling point for me, since it's
not an analog tuned radio.

They are both excellent performers in their price range.

Jackie

You might be happier with a used ATS-808a (DX-380). Available all the time
on eBay for about the same money.


"JS" wrote in message
.. .
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

Another non-SW feature is the really quite impressive sound through the
supplied earbuds on stereo FM stations.

"JS" wrote in message
.. .
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

running dogg wrote:

JS wrote:

The 1102 looks to be less user friendly than the 1103.
I think the analog style tuning on the 1103 will be better for me,
since I like to listen when I'm in bed.
Just shopping around for price now.
Universal radios, online, has it for $78 and change, so far the best price,
and reputable apperaring vendor.

Buy it on ebay. Liypn of V Com Collections ebay store will likely have
the Degen version (same radio) for around $50. He can't use the name
Degen, however, so the ad will just say "1103 SW radio".

Why can't he use the name 'Degen' if that is indeed the brand name? That is somewhat
akin to putting up an R8B on eBay and not being able to use the name 'Drake'.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

Well, I had the Kaito 1101. For the money, it really is a good little
radio. That being said, it's gone, and has been replaced by a Grundig
YB 400PE. What do you gain from the use of the Grundig? Everything.
It's a pleasure to use, sounds and performs wonderfully. Looks better
too. Just one guy's opinion. Darren

I've used one since December of 2004.

For the price I cannot think of a radio that comes even close.
Positive points:
-Very sensitive on all bands.
-Dual filters do a good job of minimizing splatter on AM.
-A tuning knob makes band scanning a breeze.
-Does a good job on ssb signals and stable enough to allow tuning
around without retuning.
-Lots of memory channels.
-Stereo FM through headphones sounds good on this set.
-Direct frequency entry.
-Audio from the speaker is amazingly good considering it's size.

Negative points:

-Images abound as you would expect on a radio at this price. Not a big
deal, just be aware that Radio Havana doesn't broadcast on 5100 khz.

-S Meter is disabled on FM for some reason...not a big deal.

-An unfortunate method of numbering memory channels restricts the
usefulness of 268 memories. For some reason Degen chose to use
hexadecimal (base 16) numbering which adds several levels of complexity
to organizing and using memories. Compounding that is a bug in the
firmware that retunes the AM frequency when an FM frequency is
retrieved from memory.

Analog shortwave dial has some retro visual appeal but the space could
have been used for something else.

I own 2 of the 1103's, one purchased in Dec 04 and the other about a
month and a half ago. Absolutely no complaints with either of them.
You can buy a better radio, but not at the sub $50 price that the 1103
goes for or anywhere near that. For more info and personal reviews and
accounts you can check the 1103 group on Yahoo groups.

Good Luck

Mark

Went ahead and ordered the 1003 this morning.
Looking forward to it, since the only radio I've been using for several
years
is an analog am/fm sony cassette walkman.
Have gotten real fond of listening at night.
Art Bell comes on too late here, 1am and I get up at 4am.
Had quite a time finding one, there were only 3 left on ebay, price was
high.
Didn't want to fool with the chinese version.
Universal was out for next 2 months.
And most places were at $100 or thereabouts. CC Crane I think wanted $109.
So I'm happy to have found one for $86 shipped.
Most money I spent on a radio ever, but figure it should be enough for
a casual listener and if we get storms, then we don't have to listen to
storm news all the time.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I own 2 of the 1103's, one purchased in Dec 04 and the other about a
month and a half ago. Absolutely no complaints with either of them.
You can buy a better radio, but not at the sub $50 price that the 1103
goes for or anywhere near that. For more info and personal reviews and
accounts you can check the 1103 group on Yahoo groups.

Good Luck

Mark

"Didn't want to fool with the chinese version. "

It's a nice radio and you will get a lot of good listening. But they
are all chinese...only difference is the label.

"JS" wrote in message
...
Didn't want to fool with the chinese version.
Universal was out for next 2 months.
And most places were at $100 or thereabouts. CC Crane I think wanted $109.
So I'm happy to have found one for $86 shipped.

Well, these radios are all Chinese-made, but some of the American
distributors are offering them under the Kaito badge with the 120 V AC
adapters; plus it's easier to return them to the seller here in the USA in
the unlikely event you'd get a defective piece. The $86 is about as low as
I've heard of for an American distributor's price. I bought mine from Liypn
off eBay for about $45 or so bucks... a great deal, even with relatively
high shipping of $20 (from China)... and it only took a week for delivery to
my address. Hope you enjoy your 1103, I certainly do! It is a nice
portable... nothing else is even close in this price range for the
features/performance.

Jackie

So true. For the price, it can't be beat!




"Buzzygirl" wrote in message
...

"JS" wrote in message
...
Didn't want to fool with the chinese version.
Universal was out for next 2 months.
And most places were at $100 or thereabouts. CC Crane I think wanted
$109.
So I'm happy to have found one for $86 shipped.

Well, these radios are all Chinese-made, but some of the American
distributors are offering them under the Kaito badge with the 120 V AC
adapters; plus it's easier to return them to the seller here in the USA in
the unlikely event you'd get a defective piece. The $86 is about as low as
I've heard of for an American distributor's price. I bought mine from
Liypn
off eBay for about $45 or so bucks... a great deal, even with relatively
high shipping of $20 (from China)... and it only took a week for delivery
to
my address. Hope you enjoy your 1103, I certainly do! It is a nice
portable... nothing else is even close in this price range for the
features/performance.

Jackie

Didn't want to fool with the chinese version.
Universal was out for next 2 months.
And most places were at $100 or thereabouts. CC Crane I think wanted
$109.
So I'm happy to have found one for $86 shipped.

Well, these radios are all Chinese-made

What I meant to say was that I just preferred to get the 120 volt version.
If I was traveling alot, then the degen would have been fine.

, but some of the American
distributors are offering them under the Kaito badge with the 120 V AC
adapters; plus it's easier to return them to the seller here in the USA
in
the unlikely event you'd get a defective piece. The $86 is about as low
as
I've heard of for an American distributor's price. I bought mine from
Liypn
off eBay for about $45 or so bucks... a great deal, even with relatively
high shipping of $20 (from China)... and it only took a week for delivery
to
my address.

Thats a good price, the few left on ebay were $89.


Hope you enjoy your 1103, I certainly do! It is a nice
portable... nothing else is even close in this price range for the
features/performance.

It's nice to have had the http://www.radiointel.com/reviews.htm
site to look at.
I found the reviews easy to read.
Took some time, nonetheless to go through the radios.



Jackie

Oh, so you need a "reliable" radio?
Then cross off the Kaito's

"JS" wrote in message
. ..
I figured I'd ask before getting one.
Have been reading sw portable reveiws for about a week now.
Theres a site that has some good writeups.
Did start out by looking at the Sangeans, but
after reading about so many problems I started
looking at some others.
Figure if we get alot of storms this year(south Florida)
it'll be nice to have something to listen to other than the local stations
covering just storm news !




wrote in message
ups.com...

JS wrote:
Have looked at reviews on sub $100 portables.
This one has analog styledigital tuning and fine tuning.
Plus it has ssb.
Anyone have one, comments?

I have one and like it quite a bit. It feels like a solid radio, it
sounds better and receives better than my dx-402, and the ergonomics
aren't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. The analog display is
"digitized", so it seems like a gimick.You can do direct entry tune, or
use the tuning knob on the side...it doesn't chuff! the tuning knob
doubles as the volume control; just press vol, the turn the knob, then
wait half a sec. before tuning. It handles a random wire clipped to the
telescopic without overloading, and you could use something like a Sony
AN_LP1 with it easily. I live in a very (electrically)noisy town in NH
so it's hard to test out the true DX capabilities....on a quiet
day,though, I've been able to pull in Iceland, RVI via Irkutsk(when
they still b'cast in English) channel africa in the afternoon (EST) as
well as the majors all over. I wake up to R. Lider from Colombia or R.
Nacional from Paraguay in the early morning, and they come in just
fine! I haven't tried out a Grundig 400PE, but I suspect the 1103 is
every bit as good. I even found the perfect case for it.....a Gameboy
Advance case ; )

"JS" wrote
It's nice to have had the http://www.radiointel.com/reviews.htm
site to look at.
I found the reviews easy to read.

And heavily biased!

Is there such a thing as an unbiased review? Or said another isn't a
review nothing more than an opinion?

That's how I take reviews, no matter the source. It's one guys opinion
and nothing more.

And I gave you mine.

"John S." wrote in message
ups.com...
Is there such a thing as an unbiased review? Or said another isn't a
review nothing more than an opinion?

That's how I take reviews, no matter the source. It's one guys opinion
and nothing more.

Well, differences aside.
Got it last night, didn't get to try it yet.
Still has to be better than what I'm using now.


"Li,Chanchun" wrote in message
...
And I gave you mine.

"John S." wrote in message
ups.com...
Is there such a thing as an unbiased review? Or said another isn't a
review nothing more than an opinion?

That's how I take reviews, no matter the source. It's one guys opinion
and nothing more.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised at both the number of stations
that radio will catch on just the whip antenna as well as the quality
of the sound. Degen really packed a lot of performance into a nice
looking radio that is priced very reasonably.

Well, in spite of China's plans to take over the US.
I am enjoying the little radio.
It is real easy to use.
Haven't used the single sideband feature yet.
Listened to it last night in bed, and woke up this morning with the radio
still going, with the backlight on,
and nothing but static.
The fm stereo sounds pretty good, not like a Sony but still nice.
AM reception is not bad, I went through all the bands, not hard to remember
the
button locations, and I like the dial, just feels better than a push button
to me.
Didn't use the whip antenna, but maybe will try it tonight.




"John S." wrote in message
oups.com...
I think you will be pleasantly surprised at both the number of stations
that radio will catch on just the whip antenna as well as the quality
of the sound. Degen really packed a lot of performance into a nice
looking radio that is priced very reasonably.

I just got one yesterday for CDN$90 from Durham Radio (that's about US$72).
Good, accurate review by John S. I would add:

- the PLL is rather squishy meaning that, when you are tuning in SSB mode
and can hear the heterodynes caused by the BFO, they don't snap in 1 kHz
steps but sort of fast swoop with a tiny warble until locked
- scanning speed is slow
- it's a little annoying that when you start scanning outside one of the
'meter' bands, the scan ultimately gets captured by the first meter band it
encounters. It would be nice to be able to set two frequencies for scanning
to run between.
- I'd like a bit more range on the Fine Tuning control than the +/-1.5kHz
(estimated). +/-2.5 kHz would probably be optimal with the 'narrow' 4kHz
filter. To shift the filter to favour the lower or upper sideband, you tune
the radio higher or lower in frequency and shift the Fine Tuning control to
restore the pitch. This provides modest 'single signal discrimination'.
- the sharp filter is surprisingly good at suppressing adjacent channel
interference; if interference is on one side only, tuning to the other side
by 2kHz knocks it down quickly.
- images and intermod interference abound, even with the telescoping
antenna. I have not checked everywhere but the 26-30MHz range has
combinations of many SW and probably MW stations.
- I was pleased to see its automatic memory remembers not only the last
frequency tuned in each meter band but also the mode - if it was SSB, it
recalls SSB; the user stored memories also recall the mode.
- there is no autoscan of memories, seems to default to the band that the
current memory frequency is in.
- tuning seems accurate - in SSB mode, tuning to reliably accurate stations
such as WWV on 15MHz and local MW broadcasters, set the Fine Tune to zero
beat or a low pitch audible tone on one and then switch to the other (memory
tuning is great for this). The beat note should be the same. It was for
mine.
- I wish it would not revert back to AM mode every time you key in a new
frequency. Of course, it stays in SSB when jog tuning. I guess I'll have to
program in one frequency in SSB for each one of the ham bands to be able to
jump between them and stay in SSB mode.
- I agree that the retro analog dial is a waste of space that could have
been used for better button layout.
- I'm impressed with the 'fit and finish'.
- great value for the money!

Tom

"John S." wrote in message
oups.com...
I've used one since December of 2004.

For the price I cannot think of a radio that comes even close.
Positive points:
-Very sensitive on all bands.
-Dual filters do a good job of minimizing splatter on AM.
-A tuning knob makes band scanning a breeze.
-Does a good job on ssb signals and stable enough to allow tuning
around without retuning.
-Lots of memory channels.
-Stereo FM through headphones sounds good on this set.
-Direct frequency entry.
-Audio from the speaker is amazingly good considering it's size.

Negative points:

-Images abound as you would expect on a radio at this price. Not a big
deal, just be aware that Radio Havana doesn't broadcast on 5100 khz.

-S Meter is disabled on FM for some reason...not a big deal.

-An unfortunate method of numbering memory channels restricts the
usefulness of 268 memories. For some reason Degen chose to use
hexadecimal (base 16) numbering which adds several levels of complexity
to organizing and using memories. Compounding that is a bug in the
firmware that retunes the AM frequency when an FM frequency is
retrieved from memory.

Analog shortwave dial has some retro visual appeal but the space could
have been used for something else.

TH - Nice Informative Review ~ RHF
. . . . .

Nice rundown, I'm kind of new at the terminology ,
but interesting.
I like the dial, had one on the old Sony analog radio
which I haven't been using since getting the Kaito.
The scan is a little slow, tried it but haven't used it much.


"Tom Holden" wrote in message
.. .
I just got one yesterday for CDN$90 from Durham Radio (that's about US$72).
Good, accurate review by John S. I would add:

- the PLL is rather squishy meaning that, when you are tuning in SSB mode
and can hear the heterodynes caused by the BFO, they don't snap in 1 kHz
steps but sort of fast swoop with a tiny warble until locked
- scanning speed is slow
- it's a little annoying that when you start scanning outside one of the
'meter' bands, the scan ultimately gets captured by the first meter band
it encounters. It would be nice to be able to set two frequencies for
scanning to run between.
- I'd like a bit more range on the Fine Tuning control than the +/-1.5kHz
(estimated). +/-2.5 kHz would probably be optimal with the 'narrow' 4kHz
filter. To shift the filter to favour the lower or upper sideband, you
tune the radio higher or lower in frequency and shift the Fine Tuning
control to restore the pitch. This provides modest 'single signal
discrimination'.
- the sharp filter is surprisingly good at suppressing adjacent channel
interference; if interference is on one side only, tuning to the other
side by 2kHz knocks it down quickly.
- images and intermod interference abound, even with the telescoping
antenna. I have not checked everywhere but the 26-30MHz range has
combinations of many SW and probably MW stations.
- I was pleased to see its automatic memory remembers not only the last
frequency tuned in each meter band but also the mode - if it was SSB, it
recalls SSB; the user stored memories also recall the mode.
- there is no autoscan of memories, seems to default to the band that the
current memory frequency is in.
- tuning seems accurate - in SSB mode, tuning to reliably accurate
stations such as WWV on 15MHz and local MW broadcasters, set the Fine Tune
to zero beat or a low pitch audible tone on one and then switch to the
other (memory tuning is great for this). The beat note should be the same.
It was for mine.
- I wish it would not revert back to AM mode every time you key in a new
frequency. Of course, it stays in SSB when jog tuning. I guess I'll have
to program in one frequency in SSB for each one of the ham bands to be
able to jump between them and stay in SSB mode.
- I agree that the retro analog dial is a waste of space that could have
been used for better button layout.
- I'm impressed with the 'fit and finish'.
- great value for the money!

Tom

"John S." wrote in message
oups.com...
I've used one since December of 2004.

For the price I cannot think of a radio that comes even close.
Positive points:
-Very sensitive on all bands.
-Dual filters do a good job of minimizing splatter on AM.
-A tuning knob makes band scanning a breeze.
-Does a good job on ssb signals and stable enough to allow tuning
around without retuning.
-Lots of memory channels.
-Stereo FM through headphones sounds good on this set.
-Direct frequency entry.
-Audio from the speaker is amazingly good considering it's size.

Negative points:

-Images abound as you would expect on a radio at this price. Not a big
deal, just be aware that Radio Havana doesn't broadcast on 5100 khz.

-S Meter is disabled on FM for some reason...not a big deal.

-An unfortunate method of numbering memory channels restricts the
usefulness of 268 memories. For some reason Degen chose to use
hexadecimal (base 16) numbering which adds several levels of complexity
to organizing and using memories. Compounding that is a bug in the
firmware that retunes the AM frequency when an FM frequency is
retrieved from memory.

Analog shortwave dial has some retro visual appeal but the space could
have been used for something else.

To be perfectly honest many receivers have a scan function, but I find
it to be of little value on shortwave mostly because the threshold for
stopping scan is way too high on all the receivers I've tried. It
misses lots of weaker signals. Spinning the dial is in my experience a
much better way to move through the dial. With one finger you can move
through the band at any speed, stop, reverse, etc. Much more
cumbersome and imprecise with a scan button.