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| Reviews Summary for Kaito KA1103 |
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Reviews: 34
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Average rating: 4.6/5
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MSRP: $109.99
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Description: This high quality world receiver is made in the best radio factory in Asia and it receives all the stations in shortwave spectrums , plus side bands, SSB. The special designed circuit is a high sensitivity one, but no noise. FMSTEREO/FML/MW/SW1/SW2/Single Side Band (SSB)
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More info: http://www.kaitousa.com
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You can
write your own review of the Kaito KA1103.
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LAGERHEAD
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Rating: 5/5
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Mar 3, 2008 20:15
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Brilliantly Engineered
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've been a shortwave listener since the late '70's, and a two-way radio bench technician for a little over 20 years. My radio of choice for the past decade or so has been the Sony ICF2010, which is by my bed. I have an old National analog unit that I listen to in other rooms & while traveling and felt it was time to replace it with a synthesized unit but didn't want to spend too much. After losing a bid on eBay for a 20 year old Sony SW receiver, I did a bit of looking around on this & other sites I stumbled across the Kaito 1103. I've never heard of Kaito & was skeptical, but after reading the reviews on eHam.net I was intrigued enough & felt comfortable with what others had said, so I bought one. I love the size of the radio--it's not as big as the 2010 so it's easy to port around the house & will be easy to carry on trips. I really love the faux analog tuning face below the LCD freq display, as I'm a visual person & like to see where in the band I'm currently tuned (plus it has a kind of retro look). I've been blown away with the receive sensitivity...it picks up the stations my 2010 does with the same level of quieting. In my initial research I read where a few people didn't like the method for adjusting the volume. Though it is a two step process I don't feel it to be cumbersome or tedious. The SSB function works very well with the fine tuning knob below the main jog tuning dial, which is one of the main features that convinced me to buy this radio. Other radios in the 1103's price point didnt' have SSB capability. The Kaito 1103 is a well engineered, feature packed gem of a radio that retails for under $90 that will give most listeners, even experienced DX'ers & discriminating old-timers a lot of joy.
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KI4BNP
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 20, 2007 03:45
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Outstanding
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I was very surprised by the amount of good things bundled in a radio this small. The only con for the radio is the Analog readout. Other than that this radio continues to amaze me, well worth the price.
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W5DXE
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 25, 2007 14:00
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Best Bang For The $$$$$
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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After owning several big end receivers ( R-5000, IC-R71A,IC-R75, IC-R8500) I decided to get a nice portable to take on trips. After several attempts I stumbled across this little radio and WOW!! was I ever blown away. NO it doesn't perform like one of the big boys but jeez it doesn't cost $400-$1500 either. I paid $80 for mine on Amazon. KB0QYB compared it unfairly to an ICOM R-75 and a Sony ICF-2010. I have owned both and yes the R-75 outperformed it, but not by much and the KA-1103 is equal with the performance of the 2010. How is it some people want to compare a Chevy with a Mercedes and say the Chevy doesn't measure up. James my man compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges not apples to onions!! My 2 cents worth.
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KB0QYB
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Rating: 3/5
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Oct 23, 2007 12:54
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Nice for the Price
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I gave this radio a 3 for the following reasons:
1. The selectivity is poor at best.
2. SSB signals distort. Both weak or strong.
3. SSB stations are tough to tune in with the touchy fine tuning control.
4. I found that by using the local attenuation setting, the sound became distorted.
I do like the way the memories are set up, and the way the display stays lit. Maybe it's not fair to compare this radio to the Sony 2010 and the Icom R-75 that I have owned. Perhaps I would be more accurate in reviewing this radio with reference to it's price class. For $80 it's not a bad radio, but I don't know if it's worth the ratings that it's received here. At a 4.7 out of 5, it's doing better than the Icom R75, and is equal to the Sony 2010. For an $80 radio it's nice, but does not even come close to performing as well as the 2010 or the R75.
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JIM1701
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 13, 2007 11:13
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Better than Eton E1!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought a eton E1 from a place that had "Refurbished" units from Drake. Well I used it a couple of times. Then one night I broke out the Eton and was trying to get stations in Chicago (at night) to no avail. And it was big. So I sold it on ebay. Then I bought the Kaito 1103 and wasn't expecting much. I took the radio out and started to scanning the bands and I was shocked!!! I was getting AM stations that I never heard B4!!! Never with the Eton E1... So this radio is a winner!!!! I paid 400.00 for the E1, I Paid 97.00 (including shipping) for the Kaito and I hear stations I never heard B4!!! BUY IT!!!!! Forget the Eton E1!!!!!
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WB6TNB
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 4, 2007 20:34
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A pleasant surprise
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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After a very positive review in Passport to World Band Radio I bought a demo Kaito KA1101 from Universal Radio (not a scratch on it) for $15 off the regular price ($50 delivered). I was immediately extremely impressed. Passport's review of the KA1103 went overboard about the unusual ergonomics. Don't let them calling the ergonomics "hostile" deter you from this fine little radio. After Google searches took me to many glowing reviews of the KA1103 I decided to take the plunge and I'm glad I did. It was about $81 delivered. What a pleasant surprise. Yes, controlling the volume is a little weird and the numerical keypad layout is different. I actually like the fake LCD analog readout. I've been a ham for 38 years (age 51) and I'm impressed with how good the SSB is. Both sensitivity and selectivity on SW are excellent. I'm a MW DX'er and it performs extremely well there. A few months before buying the KA1103 I bought a Sony ICF-SW7600GR and was very happy with it. I haven't used it much since getting the 1103. I mainly use it when the synchronous detection is needed. I highly recommend this slightly unusual radio. You won't be sorry you bought it.
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RAGGLESTEIN
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 1, 2007 12:52
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I Really Like This Radio
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Hmm well here goes. I got the KA1103 and spent ages on reading the instruction manual. Then I said, 'the heck with that!' I let my intuitive nature take over and had an absolute ball! I really like this little radio. It more than performs to my expectations, which I must say, are very demanding. My interest is primarily shortwave dx, but I like to listen the the ham bands. The Kaito did well. Sure its not your table top performer, but I was able to get some good dx on the 80 meter ham band and had no trouble resolving ssb with the help of the narrow band filter and the clarifier (fine tuner for ssb). I keep discovering this radio is full of little quirks. I can have the BBC 9740 kHz on a memory, then scan down to say the am band where I had been listening before to my favourite talk station. With a press of the M/F button, I was back to the BBC again. The dual usage buttons take a little getting used to, but then after that its easy. As most of my other radios have various broadcasters loaded into 'pages'. I found having a full 268 memories to load up a little daunting. Then I remembered that I have a Uniden scanner that uses 'banks' so, I set about storing frequencies in multiples of tens. No problem. Sensitivity wise, this radio compares with the various Sony and Sangean receivers I have as well. The display is unusual, but then it 'grows' on you...well I found it did LOL. This radio also has the 'twiddle' factor...I love using the jog wheel to tune around and the light stays on as long as you are moving around the bands. This is great for night time listening. One test that I use, and this is cruel, is to use a radio near my computer. The Kaito did well on the sw and am bands, but the fm band filled up with noise. The fm sensitivity is not that great, but then this is not my area of interest. When it comes to am listening, the radio is more than adequate. I was able to tune to a station that is over 1,000 miles from where I live no problem, and pulls in distant am well. The sound quality from the speaker is better than that of my other portables, except perhaps that of my Sangean ATS505, which sounds really good on fm. Overall I rate the Kaito 1103 as sensitive, but not overwhelmed by the stronger broadcasters on sw and able to handle busy bands.
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VICTROLA927
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Rating: 4/5
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Mar 19, 2007 06:54
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Great for AM, FM, and SSB
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have what you would call a love/hate relationship with the Kaito KA1103.
Love: I really love the AM and FM portions of the band. The SSB works better than any other radio I have ever owned. The sound is phenomenal for this size radio, especially on FM. I also love the rechargable battery function. Price paid off ebay was about $60 shipped to my house.
Hate: I get very poor reception on all shortwave bands. I have barely received more that 5 good stations since I bought this radio. I mentioned it to the Chinese gentleman I purchased it from (ebay) and he did not seem to care. I absolutely hate it when I accidentally bump an alarm button and my alarm keeps coming on at unexpected times. I hate the way the volume is controlled on this unit. It took me a while to get used to the small tuning knob, but I am doing better with it now. I do not really like the way you cannot stand the antenna completely vertical. I would like to set it closer to a wall, but cannot because of the antenna.
Conclusion: If you want a great AM/FM radio with great sound, good battery, and portability this should be at the top or your list. I have had a bad experience with the short wave bands, which even my lowly Kaito KA009 and Grundig Mini 100PE blow this unit away on reception. I find this unit hard to use at night, and while the owners manual was translated well, the way the unit functions as a whole is not really intuitive.
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KE5JKC
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Rating: 2/5
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Mar 7, 2007 08:20
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Had to send it back to Kaito for repair
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Nice little radio...supplied antenna seems to work great...on FM and AM...I bought it to listen to SSB. My issue with the radio is that it went totally silent when you switch to SSB. It has been sent back to Kaito for repair. Thank goodness for the warranty. We'll see how Kaito does on the warranty repair.
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ANDREWK
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Rating: 5/5
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Feb 25, 2007 09:26
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Great Value
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I paid $80 for this radio through Ebay, and I'm surprised by its performance. As mentioned in the previous review, I also have the DX-398, and this unit performs slightly better.
FM: The radio has better sensitivity and selectivity than the DX-398. It's better than my car radio, and I can pick up adjacent FM channels that I couldn't get on any other radio. It starts at 76 MHz, which allows me to hear my local channel 5 audio. The outstanding FM reception is my favorite part!! And the antenna doesn't even need to be fully extended for this.
MW: Very excellent reception here too. It picks up distant MW signals, and it has LW starting at 100 KHz. I don't care about the LW though, since there's nothing on it in my area.
SW: Surprisingly better than the very expensive DX-398. Excellent sensitivity on SW.
Ham and Amateur SSB: Slightly better sensitivity than the DX-398, but the selectivity is crappy compared to the DX-398. This unit can pick up all that the DX-398 can, but most is not listenable due to adjacent interference, and the filter isn't much help.
I like this unit because I can tune all of the SW bands fast without any intervals of muting. I just cruise from one end of the band to the other end, which I can't do with the DX-398. I do feel that the buttons are cheaply made, and the volume control is still annoying. It's a very compact radio.
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