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| Reviews Summary for Degen DE1103 |
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Reviews: 44
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Average rating: 4.7/5
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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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More info: http://
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write your own review of the Degen DE1103.
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SWL177
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 24, 2008 01:07
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Exellent
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I got mine a few days ago & used it every spare minute to the wife's demise . It is a very good piece of kit considering its size & price . In comparison to the realistic DX-394 and the sangean ATS909 the little degen wins hands down . Eg it will clearly pick up ham stations on its small whip antenna that the DX-394 will just barely copy with a long wire . To compare with the sangean on sensitivity on the lover bands (bellow 7mhz ) its a lot more sensitive , anything above its on par .
It is a very easy radio to use , even my 8 year old daughter can use it with ease !
As for the FM broadcast its just amazing , i have 8 FM broadcast radio's here & i never thought id be able to receive so many stations . From 88 - 108 it is just full whereas with the other radio's will receive 6-8 stations .
The only thing i would like to add to this little gem would be RDS on FM , other than that it's a keeper .
SWL177
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JETPILOT
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 5, 2008 22:41
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Super value, performance is a very small package
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Purchased off of eBay, it took 3wks 3days to get. I bought the optional TG34 active loop antenna (review under KA31) and leatherette soft case, all for less than $100. My first impression was it's small, which is great, but with that is the only negative I can think of, buttons are small. Regardless, this thing rocks! I have no portables to compare but the analog ones I had as a kid. I do have a RX320D PC radio. I was impressed with the DE1103. Although the Ten Tec RX320D currently I work with its whip antenna (still working on a good antenna), the DE1103 was great with its whip (+3' long) or internal loop-stick, dwarfing the radio. I also tried the supplied 35' wire and the TG34 with it (see review of TG34 under KA31).
The small button issue is OK considering the size and performance. I travel a lot, so its very portable size is great and easy to carry, a worthy sacrifice for button size.
Some complain about the Volume control? Well I say it's not a big deal. You do not have to push the vol button to set vol (with the tune dial), but you DON'T have to hold the vol button; may be this is an update? With one hand push the set vol button; set volume and in a few seconds it goes back to freq mode automatically. The neg might be the second wait for the dial to go back into Freq mode.
Multi rotary function dial is large (for the size of the radio) with a nice feel; you can turn with two fingers or spin with one finger. The dial does several things:
set time
tunes freq
sets Volume
set dual alarms
set memory presets
set battery charge hours
cycles through memory presets
It works beautifully. To access some of the other functions the radio has to be off (battery charge time, alarms). It comes with a wall pwr supply and rechargeable NiMH 1300mAh batteries which can be charged in the radio. You have to tell it how many hours to charge from 1 to 20 hours. I was hesitant to over charge. All my NiMH chargers are auto, but I use 10 hours when the batt indicator first flashes. Full discharged may be 13 hours or about 1 hour per 100mAh bat capacity? The supplied ones where 1300mAh and gave several hours of heavy use with back light on. Back light is auto and goes off after a few seconds of inactivity. The back light is OK not spectacular. If in a dark room its good enough, but some of the writing is small. (all labels are english btw but there is some chinese on the back under the model info.)
Sitting down with the manual (which was on a disk not paper) I spend a delightful hour during the morning learning the functions. I pretty much got it the first time. The only one I had some stumbles learning was memory setting. You DO have to hold the memory button while dialing memory locations with the second hand, which is a pain. Than you dial through the mems, letting go of the button to land the freq (empty or not), but you have to hit the button a second time with-in a few seconds to set it (my mistake). If you let go of the button accidentally you can set it anywhere and overwrite, so the second push gives you a vote if that mem location is ok. If not ok wait, it goes out of mem set mode after a few seconds. Than start over.
There are lots of memories, 255. Once you store a lot of mems, you have to spin the dial a lot to scroll through them to get a blank location. That is why I took the approach of setting mem spots going up and down the dial (turn) from the default "00". Going "up is mem spots starting with a number, and going "down" are mem spots with letters first. The numbering is 0 through 9, than some odd number/alpha combos (A, b, C, d, E, F). Why b and d are lower case don't know. Why not all numbers, I don't know, but guessing they only had two place mem location label limit. Reading from top to bottom (as you dial up):
00 10
01 11
02 12
03 13
04 14
05 15
06 16
07 17
08 18
09 19
0A 1A
0b 1b
0C 1C
0d 1d
0E 0A
0F 1F and so on
Dial down, mems seq example (read top to bot)
EF dF
EE dE
Ed dd
EC dC
Eb db
EA dA
E9 d9
E8 d8
E7 d7
E6 d6
E5 d5
E4 d4
E3 d3
E2 d2
E1 d1
E0 d0 and so on
Weird and took a little getting use to. Each "group" is 15 or 16 numbers.
To set I skip the ODD BALL letter mem locations as "over flow" for new freqs. I try to group freqs in logical groups or bands. You can skip mem spots and set any of the 255 spots. I made a spread sheet to organize it. I recommend that. If you have to start over, its best to reset and start over. Trying to move them is a pain. However you can just overwrite with no problem. There is no mem overwrite protection.
Once mem locations are set, scanning memory is nice. It skips blanks, you can go up or down and it wraps around. There is no direct memory storing or retrieval I see. You have to scroll sequentially through them always. With 255 mem spots, I recommend some memory setting plan or organization scheme; that way you know which way to dial. I recommend the split up/down setting plan and group by bands. You can shotgun freqs into mem as you like but it gets ugly. Since memory setting starts at "00". You may want to leave "00" or the near mem spots (up) 01, 02, 03 or FE, Fd, FC open for setting temp freqs. You can store them later in a diff spot. It saves you from having to scroll through the mems to set it.
The only thing I predict, even with a strong build quality, solid, is the labeling might wear off the buttons or case with heavy use? Some are labels surface and some are etched in. With heavy use I can see markings or finish wearing off?
The Freq display has the electronic feq slide bar with 12 bands FM, MW and 90 through 13 meter. To be honest I hated the way it looked in pictures. Now I really like it.
It remembers last freq for each band as you scroll thru the bands with the -band or +band buttons. Its a great display. You also have digital freq display, modes, time, alarm, vol and bat info.
To access freqs below 3.1Mhz you need to direct enter the freq (which is easy). Once in that below 3100khz to 100khz range, you can tune with the dial or scan. Same above 21950, to get to the full range up to 29999khz, enter a number 21951 or above, than manually tune or scan. If you exceed the end band range, it pops back into one of the 11 canned MW or SW/HF bands, and the tune bar shows up again. The tune steps is 25khz for FM and 1khz for MW/SW. You can manually enter freqs. You can easily pick up audio as you dial. The auto scan has a pause and move on mode, unless you push a button to stop it.
I used the internal loop-stick and attached whip, as well as the supplied 35' wire that plugs in. I also used an optional TG34 active loop antenna I added on for $22 (see review under KA31 portable antennas). The TG34 tunes in WM with a loop-stick booster/repeater. The radio has a 1/8" plug in antenna jack for SW and FM. I got spectacular results (to me) with both external antennas.
SSB was good, stable (and yes the SSB fine tune dial is small and sensitive but workable). When you save a SSB freq to memory it saves SSB mode (but not the fine tune of course).
Sound quality is great and stereo FM is avaiable with the headset only, which is excellent. I tried a Sennheiser full cup pro280 and was very happy. With just the whip I got all lower FM 4 college radio stations, none are power houses stations. It has two IF selections 450 Khz and 55.845 Mhz. Filters are pretty good. MW AM BC DX'ing is ok but with the external loop repeater it was very good.
I can't say enough good stuff about it. Except for the two handed memory button-hold/dial deal, it is great at twice the price. For big hand folks I suggest you get a soft stylus and set it down or on its built in stand, verses holding it. It makes button pushing easier and a joy, especially for the few two handed operations. Cheers George, highly recommend
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WA4053SWL
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Rating: 3/5
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Apr 4, 2008 14:14
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Side by side with the Sony 7600G, is mediocre
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This radio, comparing its performance with antenna telescopic, with the Sony 7600G, is mediocre, on SW and MW, and on MW the Sony without the synchronous detection, buy this radio to a salesperson in China (by ebay), and I have noted that the BFO cry in 20 meters and 15 meters, when I listen HAM, the Sony in the same frecuency not, i like the sound and the dial knob, these radios with antenna telescopic do not serve none for the DX, for DX (sign low, very low), the sign of the BBC, Radio Nederland or the DW, they are heard with any radio, but to the radios one must put them at least a long wire, telescopic antenna does not serve, and more with the conditions of propagation very bad, the best radio of this type, by far away, is the Sangean 909.
73 to all and god DX
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IK8VWA
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 3, 2008 15:19
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An excellent performer
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Time owned: months
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I purchased the DE1103 last summer, through eBay from a Chinese seller. Italian customs made me pay lots of taxes (that almost doubled what I paid for the radio itself) but I have been very satisfied since the very first moment I unwrapped it. The radio works great with its whip and the audio quality in the broadcasting bands (AM) outperforms my Yaesu FT 840. I took the little beast at 800 meters above sea level and connected it to a 8 meters vertical antenna. In this last case I noticed strong intermodulation in the 21 mhz band, but that's acceptable since the hill I was on was a nest of TV and FM radio repeaters with hi power. I would strongly recommend to buy this radio since you can listen to everything, from AM emissions to ssb utility stations or fax. It can be an excellent companion on a boat as backup receiver for meteo alerts via rtty (use it coupled to a pocket pc equipped with "Pocket Digi") or great and affordable second receiver, to be used as a monitor or countless situations.
I give a 5, but all things considered and having been given the possibility, I would assign a 6/6.
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KC8TBY
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 24, 2008 14:30
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Great receiver for the price...!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I have owned numerous small and mid-sized "portable" general coverage receivers down through the years.
I recently purchased the DE1103 after reading many of the reviews posted here and on other sites regarding the performace of this little radio.
I paid less than $85 dollars for this rig and I wasn't expecting too much for my money. Wow...was I ever wrong!
First off, I was very impressed with the overall "build quality" of this little receiver. Unlike so many other similarly priced portables currently on the market, the '1103 has a heavier, "metalic" feel to it. In this sense it is very reminiscent of the more expensively priced Sony radios.
Secondly I was surprised at how well this little receiver "pulled in" those hard to hear signals and how well it "locked onto" those particular signals once I had tuned them in. Great sensitivity and great selectivity!
Now as for the ergonomics; not the best BUT not really such a BIG problem as some folks seem to make it out to be!
OK...there is no didcated volume knob. It takes (about) three minutes to get used to the idea of either using the numeric button in conjunction with the volume button OR to use the volume button in conjunction with the "jog wheel" in order to adjust the volume. In reality it IS different BUT kind of fun, once you get used to it!
The batteries can be charged internally BUT, on the average, it seems to take between ten and thirteen hours to fully charge the 1300 MilAmp batteries once they are depeleted. (You are better off using a higher rated set of batteries and to purchase an outboard battery charger for faster re-charge time!
Overall, although I want to emphasise that this radio is only a portable receiver and NOT a tabletop rig, it's performance is well above that which one could reasonably expect from such a reasonably priced radio!
I do feel a bit guilty having bought this radio, however. Keep in mind that Chinese factories are notorious for using forced prisoner labor to build their products. (Thus the cheap price!) Given that reality maybe we should all re-think how good a "buy" this radio really is?
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4Z5NU
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 6, 2007 10:00
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Little Wonder with High Performance
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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Bought the radio new on eBay from liypn and after 8 days the radio was in my hands! After very positive first expression, make a mods as on radioscanner.ru (plus my: changing the backlite color to bright-white) - just for the test and I was very surprise from better performance with receiving DX stations. I have spent many hours comparing performance with other my radios like SONY 7600GR, SONY SW100, Sangean ATS-505, ATS-818, Siemens RK-651 and DE1103 was always better in reception and selectivity. For a total 80$ price inc. shipping what needed more. Thanks to DE1103 I got back to radio hobby and became HAM operator.
Couple of my new friends, also HAM`s (one of them - 4Z4KX), after my recommendation purchased this radio, near two years ago, and they happy so far.
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W9EY
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 16, 2007 20:36
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Excellent Portable Shortwave Receiver
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Needed a replacement for my 20+ year old Sony ICF 7600D (not repairable)for SWLing and HF monitoring while traveling.
First, the playing field has changed since the last time I shopped for a SW portable -- new Chinese entries in the running now. At first I was skeptical of the Degen/Kaito 1103 - read many reviews here and elsewhere (Monitoring Times etc)then purchased on ebay through vendor liypn (who I recommend).
Overall take
Pros:
*Like the combo digital and faux analog dial
*Excellent HF reception for a portable
*Stable for SSB. Can copy CW FB.
*Size is small and compact.
*Design is neat and clean.
*Direct frequency entry excellent.
*Uses only 4 AA batteries for portable.
*Radio comes with rechargables, a small case, antenna and earbuds and wall wart. Overall excellent value.
*Backlit analog dial is very cool. Great for night listening. Excellent visual reference for which band you are on. (80/75, 40 and 20 Meters ham bands are covered as part of SW bands - easy to jump from band to band).
*Sensitivity and selectivity are very good to excellent(subjective, non technical assessment) but seems just as good or better in many ways than my old ICF 7600D.
*Excellent 1 kc tuning on SW bands and MW.
*No "chuffing" like my old Sony. Very tunable. Reminds me of the tuning around on an old analog RX.
*Kiwa mods available for the Degen/Kaito 1103.
Cons:
*Physical build level solid, but not as solid as my 20 year-old Sony was. Type of antenna used dosen't seem as solid.
*No sync detector like newest Sony offering, (to me this feature not worth paying for though). Sync detector "nice to have" but not a "need to have".
Other:
*Ergonomics, Volume Control and Tuning. Some have said this is a "counterintuitive radio" because of some of the unorthodox controls. No problem here. I have found it very comfortable to tune and adjust volume especially when holding in two hands. Enjoyable to tune and adjust volume.
*Shipping from China is no big deal. 8 days total to the midwest (Chicago).
Overall I am very impressed with this SW Portable and recommend.
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VK2DNL
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 10, 2006 21:47
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Great Performer
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Got the radio from TQchina arived in ten days.
Ergonomics ifound to be good,heard vk1s,2s, 4s, 7s,
zls on telescopic antenna. Hooked up suplied wire antenna to a tree and signals boomed in.
also radio staions from europe asia and USA.
Medium wave and FM reception is also outstanding.
out performs all others I have tried
vk2dnl
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KG5PT
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 10, 2006 00:26
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QC, interface bugs keep a 'good' radio from being 'great'
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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The SSB detector died 2 weeks after the radio arrived - Warranty doesn't cover shipping costs to PRC factory and back again, so it's not worth fixing...
The built-in battery charger is primative (works on timer, rather than actual state of charge) - Battery life is short enough to be objectionable with primary cells, but less of a concern with the included rechargeables.
The user interface is beyond "strange", bordering on "retarded"...Hexadecimal memory channel display???!!! WTF????!!! This is a shame, because all the hardware is in place to make a very user-friendly radio.
Sound quality is nice on the FM band, but slightly distorted on BC and SW bands (in both bandwidth positions). The AM ferrite bar antenna does a very good job of nulling out impluse-type electrical noise. The SW bands have good sensitivity, selectivity and stability for a radio in this price class.
The orange LED backlighting is handy, although some of the buttons aren't illuminated enough to distinguish their functions in the dark. The "slide rule" band display is more of a gimmick than a useful feature, IMO - Occupies a lot of space that could have been used for things like alpha-numeric station tags, separate battery state-of-charge display, dual GMT and local time displays - heck, maybe even a spectrum "band activity" scope!
BOTTOM LINE: Nice radio for the price, but only because the price is so nice.
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KF6GOM
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 13, 2006 22:56
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Great Bang for the Buck
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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bought on EBay and been using it for 2 weeks, Its a neat radio for the backyard or Camping in the outdoors.Its receive is 5 Stars it blows my Yaesu 817
HF Radio on receive on 20M,40M and Shortwave.This is a keeper will order one more to have,Great for new listner to SWL or Hamradio.SSB on radio Works.It includes 4 AA rechargeables and external antenna wire with Headphones.was about$55.00 total price shipped fron China.
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