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Reviews For: Kaito KA321 AM FM SW Radio with Digital Signal Processor

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Kaito KA321 AM FM SW Radio with Digital Signal Processor
Reviews: 2MSRP: $30.00
Description:
Amazing Little Radio with DSP that can be bought for less then $20.00
Product is in production
More Info: http:// WWW.Kaito.Com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0023.5
KE8WO Rating: 2014-10-14
Good Performance for Price But Very Difficult Tuning is a Flaw Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The KA321 is a noble idea for an advanced low cost AM/FM/World-band receiver. Other reviews elsewhere have given it good marks except several have mentioned how hard it is to tune using the thumb wheel tuning control. I thought these were just defective units received by the reviewer and thought my KA321 would be ok. Well it was not. The radio is very difficult to tune such that it does not lend itself to simple band scanning. It takes a fine touch to tune in to any station .. AM, FM or World-band. I consider this a defective design. Once the radio is tuned to the station it performs very well for a nominal $20 radio. Hence I give it 2 stars for performance if you don't change stations often! I returned mine to Amazon.
ROBWIN12000 Rating: 2014-07-16
Great Radio Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Kaito has put out a little DSP radio that is simply amazing to say the least . This radio works with two main IC's , one of the IC.s is used as a audio output amplifier , the other is used as a Digital Signal Processor . This processor works with the changing of voltages through a potentiometer tuning thumb wheel control . Each frequency band has a fixed 1% resistor of certain value connected to a slide switch to change bands . This radio looks like any other regular analog AM FM SW receiver from times gone by and it is about the size of a cell phone with a 4" screen . The difference is this radio changes frequency by voltage changes IE through a resistor connected band switch and potentiometer tuning thumb wheel . There is a big difference however as you tune you will notice a tuning noise as you pass through each single frequency . I have tried the FM band out and there are stations you can receive on this radio that can only be picked up on a expensive car radios, or other DSP radios like the Kaito KA321 . The AM band is way below average and can only pick up local stations and not many long distance stations . So if AM is your band it is better for you to buy another type of radio that will pick up AM real good . Shortwave comes in pretty good and I am really amazed at the stations it picks up . The battery life is a little under 200 hours which is great . I remember my Kaito KA 1103 which on alkaline battery's would play exactly 4 hours , and when I used the supplied rechargeable battery's rated at 1300ma it would play exactly 7 hours . The Kaito KA1103 is a little more sensitive on shortwave then the Kaito KA321 but not by much both are very enjoyable to listen to . The AM band on the KA1103 is way better then the KA321 . The FM band on both are about the same . For the price you really cannot beat the new KA321 as it can be had for $19.00 and last for almost 200 hours on 2 AA battery's . I am using this radio now as The Kaito KA1103 really eats up battery's real fast I have owned 5 of these and they all do the same when it comes to the battery life .