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| Reviews Summary for Degen DE1103 |
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Reviews: 74
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Average rating: 4.6/5
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MSRP: $54.90
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Description: A world band radio: 100-29000 KHz AM + SSB + stereo FM. Two IF bandwidths.
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Product is in production.
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More info: http://
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PX2Z1865
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 20, 2011 12:15
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Best portable ever!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Very nice and powerfull portable radio. Fantastic LCD display and very strong clean audio. The package comes complete with ac adapter, ear-phone, 7 meters wire antenna, cover and manual. Very good AM and FM and SW performance and sensitivity. I hear many and many sw, cbs and ham stations. Best choice for a portable. Just don´t look further.
Nilton
Campinas/SP/Brasil
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GW6ITJ
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Rating: 5/5
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May 16, 2011 09:21
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Amazing Rx for the price!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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My requirements were for a small HF SSB/CW receiver to replace a less than useful ATS-505, it had to be sensitive, selective. Low cost was required (as always) with ease of operation and a good pedigree.
With a wealth of reviews, user groups, YouTube videos available I plumped for the 1103. The price was £32 with £14 P&P direct from China (ebay seller tquchina) and the delivery in 7 days.
On arrival I was surprised at just how small this radio is, truly portable. It comes with mains adaptor, 4 rechargeable batteries, soft pouch type case, longwire plug in aerial, headphones with volume control, carry strap and english manual. With all those accessories at normal UK prices they would constitute half the price of the radio!
Audio quality is excellent. I hate any form of hiss in the audio sections and this radio has non. FM reception is far better than I have heard for a long time and is stereo with headphones. The speaker volume is more than adequate with 65 levels and I have mine set no higher than level 12, at high volumes there is some distortion but my ears hurt by then.
A lot has been written about the volume control not being seperate (you push a button and the tuning dial then control the volume) but I like it, its simple, the AGC kleeps the volume reasonable steady so lots of adustment is not necessary. One thing I like about it is that you benfit of using the large tuning dial rather than a fiddly recessed control.
On MW I can receive all the stations I require, I'm not into MW DX so a good range of UK stations during the day and european at night is the extent of my measurements of sensitivity. Again audio quality is great and selectivity very good.
On shortwave I like to listen to AM/SSB and CW. The radio is very sensitive with only faint DX being missed but I didn't buy it for picking out stations in the noise! SSB is easily resolved as is CW and the narrow filter setting really does work well in seperating
the signals, I have not been dissappointed as it is about as wide as my IC-718 with the stock filters (possibly better).
Frequency entry is easy, OK it's not the traditional telphone type keypad but I really like it. Enter the frequency and press BAND+ for 100kHz - 30MHz or BAND- for 76MHz - 108MHZ.
Memories (268) store the frequency and mode. Numbering is hexadecimal but 1-100 can be used. Setting them is very easy but I have overwritten a couple by mistake, finger trouble.
Time, Alarm, Snooze are all intuitive.
The light is very nice. I often listen at night (XYL permitting) and the light works well, switching on when a button is pressed or the tune dial turned, then switching off after approx. 3 seconds (it can be on permanently if mains powered).
The radio has a built in battery recharger which will be very handy but I've yet to use it.
The current set of batteries have lasted a week with 2-3 hours use a day so about 20+ hours using a mixture of speaker and headphones and still going strong so I'm quite happy there.
I like the pseudo Analogue display, takes me back to an old Philco receiver. Shame it doesn't cover all the HF bands in continuous sections but that's not an issue for me.
Cons: Well for under £50 delivered with all the accessories and its great performace I can't think of a single thing.
Well done Degen, a little gem of a receiver that will be getting a lot of use.
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HFHAM2
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Rating: 3/5
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May 7, 2011 15:21
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Encoder problems
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I never really took to this radio despite it being a good performer (for a small portable).
Regarding the faux analog dial, I kinda like it and don't mind the odd volume control either. I think some people make far too big of a deal about these features. The loose-feeling controls make it feel cheap though (which it is).
Yes, this radio was a big leap forward in terms of performance per dollar, but after a year or so of very occasional use, the encoder started playing up. If you try to tune it, the displayed frequency goes backwards or jumps around making it nigh-on impossible to manually band-scan. Consequently, I just don't use the radio any more. I've also read about others having the same problem on this and other Chinese portables.
If your trying to make a purchasing decision regarding a portable shortwave radio, I would strongly recommend paying the extra bucks and getting the Sony ICF-SW7600GR instead of this. I owned the predecessor ICF-SW7600 and ICF-SW7600G. The DE-1103 certainly sounds nicer through the built-in speaker than the Sony, but the Sonys are much better built, have a pretty good implementation of selectable-sideband synchronous detection and last much longer than these Chinese made radios in my experience.
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M3VPI
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Rating: 5/5
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May 6, 2011 08:25
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Fabulous little radio.
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Hi There,
I bought my Degen de1103 about 7 or 8 months ago, and I have nothing but praise for this little radio.
My story is one of hard luck and disaster, and for a few different reasons I cannot partake in my chosen hobby for the forseeable future, this radio for me has been a total lifesaver, for even though I cannot paticipate actively in amateur radio, I can still find much enjoyment in being an swl.
Of course it doesn't have the selectivity of a top of the range hf set, but what it does have is the capability to pull amateur and broadcast stations in even using the telescopic, the tuning is great and it is packed with just enough features to give it more than adequate performance, if I had to be pinned down to say something negative here then it would be that the telescopic is useless on 160meter band, but in the box you are provided with a very effective wire dipole , some headphones and even rechargable batteries and charger. talk about value for money !!!
speaking of batteries,upon opening the box all those months ago, I was in such a rush to get listening again that I opted not to use the rechargable batteries I put in a fresh set of leading brand high quality alkaline cells, I use this radio every day and those same batteries are still as fresh as ever, what an economical little rx this really is.
To sum up, unbeatable for the price.
Thanks degen. I owe you one.
73's de m3vpi central united kingdom station.
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G4IPZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 19, 2010 12:08
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Fabulous little radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I was looking for a simple little shortwave receiver to replace my old bedside set which had just died. The wife had said no to the FRG7 moving into the bedroom so I started looking about on the web. The DE1103 kept cropping up with great reviews and so I took a chance and brought one on 'Buy it now' via Ebay.
It arrived in a week and I haven't stopped being amazed by it yet.
I shan't write a major review of it as it is simply the best value for money piece of ham radio type kit I have ever bought myself.
OK it has some peculiarities (The tuning knob is also the volume control) but this is no stranger than the Alinco DJ596 where its not just tuning and volume but squelch as well.
For just over £50 GB I got the receiver, nimh batteries, psu/charger, headphones, long wire antenna, carry bag, and an additional active antenna kit, along with a series of adaptors for the DE1103 and other receivers.
Overall this is a fantastic piece of kit and worth every penny.
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BRUNOSW
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 21, 2010 07:15
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Very impressed with performance!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I have the Degen 1103 now since 3 months. As a SWL-er since 30 years I had a lot of receivers before: Grundig Satellit 3400 and several Sony's (still have one SW77) The Degen is a neat radio that performs as well as the much more expensive Sony's. It has a stable reception of China Radio International here in Europe. Strange volume control: I got used from the first day.
For this price: Verry good performance and nice (display) design!
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GI0HWO
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 3, 2010 01:17
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Brilliant
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Best portable SW radio I have ever had.
It outperforms all my Sony radios in every aspect.
Superb value for money
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MUNGOSOOTY
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 7, 2010 08:57
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Very good for the price
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have used quite a few radios and communications receivers - Icom, Kenwood R5000, Yaesu FRG-7700, FRG-7, Sony SW77, 2001D, Vega Selena 215, RCA AR88D, RACAL RA17 etc. Got my Degen DE1103 on ebay from seller lipyn. Arrived in one week form Hong Kong to England. What a nice little Receiver, it looks beautiful , specially with the dial lights on. At twice the price I would still recommend it. FM stereo quality is very good particularly through the line output. But for me, Shortwave broadcast reception is the main reason for buying this radio. Using it on the supplied re-chargeable batteries, as a portable it is very sensitive and using the whip antenna and the sensitivity on high, most of the time all works really nicely. It does not seem to overload dramatically but very occasionally reception is better if the dx/local switch is set to local, or better still, use the supplied long wire antenna with sensitivity set to local. But using a Yaesu FRT-7700 receive antenna tuner connected to the DE1103 antenna input socket, this radio is pretty hard to fault. Audio quality is very pleasant, not tiring, unlike some other receivers . Most radios have good and bad points, For the price, the DE1103 has no serious faults that are going to spoil your enjoyment. It's not perfect - SSB reception is good for a portable but not as good as a Communications receiver but as an AM shortwave receiver it is all you really need. On Long and medium wave , you can hear a little noise from the LCD display between stations and on very weak signals, Controlling the volume by pressing a button and turning the tuning knob is easy to get used to. The DE1103 has preset bands covering all the broadcast bands, the rest of the shortwave spectrum can be accessed using direct entry, tuning knob and scan. The 268 memories are not difficult to use. On AM using an Aerial tuning unit , this radio will embarrass much more expensive communications receivers , as a portable its pretty decent. Yes its not as good as the Racal RA17 (definitely not a portable!) its not quite as good as the Sony 2001d , or even the old analogue tuned Vega Selena 215, it’s a much nicer radio to use and listen to than the overpriced Sony SW77 which has poor audio. --- As others have said, buy one and you will not be disappointed. (If you want a very good analogue and still under-priced radio for MW,LW and SW, try the old Russian Vega Selena 215 and use it on batteries not mains as this eliminates a great deal of mains noise, this is something to bare in mind with any AM radio - disconnect form the mains supply - battery power is always better).
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TAMASHIDA
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 5, 2010 09:56
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Good for the price
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I bought a Degen DE 1103 after reading all the opinions on this page. It was useful (thanks to everyone), but my experience is a bit different. The sensibility is good (not too however). The selectivity is also good, but there are two problems. 1 - When the reception is very good all the strong stations can be heard, so the radio is "singing". 2 - If a strong station has powerful high sounds, it can be heard through the whole band, what is very disturbing.
Everybody says that it has so good sound while it's a small radio. It's true in that meaning that low sounds are strong, and high sounds are limited. But for listening to news medium high sounds would be more useful.
It also has good sides, of course. The first is its size. A so good radio with so small size is unic, I think. The high sound cutter/better selectivity button is very helpful when you are seperating two weak radio station 5 khz from each other. But for strong stations and on SSB it is not functioning very good. Yes, the radio can receive SSB, and for a radio like this it's functioning well enough. It's also good that this radio can tune from 100 - 29999 Khz. It's easy to use, nice looking receiver.
It's good for tarveling and for beginers. But for good DX-ing is not enough. So I give "4" as a note, because by this price it's worth the money.
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AA1OQ
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Rating: 1/5
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Jul 4, 2010 11:10
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Don`t buy it
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought a DE1103 new. It worked perfectly for about 6 months, then the rotary tuning encoder failed, and you could no longer tune it manually. Then the telescoping antenna broke at the base (plastic radio frame) then the 6 volt power adaptor failed (generated hash) At this point all you could do was enter the frequency from the keyboard. Since the keyboard, (if you could call it such), was a goofy Chinese design, and the volume control was operated by push button (and counter intuitive techniques), my final opinion of this Chinese piece of ---- was that I wasted my money. Trying to use it was almost now impossible. DON`T BUY IT !!!!!
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