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Reviews For: Kaito 1121

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Kaito 1121
Reviews: 4MSRP: 199.00
Description:
The Kaito KA1121 is a dual conversion portable radio covering longwave, AM, shortwave and FM. AM coverage is from 522-1710 kHz (1, 9 or 10 kHz steps) and shortwave coverage is 3000-29990 kHz (1 or 5 kHz steps). Single side band (SSB) mode is available on shortwave with fine tuning.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.kaitousa.com/radios.htm
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0043.3
KWV8DA Rating: 2009-07-06
workhorse recorder Time Owned: more than 12 months.
my main sw recording radio. i do not use timers and other bells and whistles, so alot of what others hate, have no effect on my review. am/sw/fm are very good. bought mine from china to save money, and it was a nightmare. never again will i attempt to save a buck from there. had to buy a mp3 replacement from kaito usa for 50.00 bucks delivered, and it works on my degen. simple to record and playback. awesome sound thru speaker or good earbuds. i love the mute button. hundreds of hours of use and it plows on and on. i also have the degen 1123, i transfer my 1121 recordings to it to listen to at work, perfect combo for me. this is a highly under rated radio, and very attractive too. get them while you can.
GEIIM Rating: 2007-12-06
Poor ergonomics, poor performer Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
A great concept to include a MP3 player/recorder but the ergonomics are very poor. The screens are very small and hard to see, the second LCD for the radio is not backlit. The units tends to reset itself periodically.

The AC adaptor generates a ton of hum and is useless on SW Bands. As a SW receiver it's decent in performance if you can stand the AC hum or run off of batteries only.

I found the radio too hard to use so I never use this radio except for the MP3 player and now that it is giving me trouble with less than a year of service this radio is going to the parts drawer.

As someone else pointed out, wait for the next version, don't buy this radio.
KE4NU Rating: 2007-11-22
Alot of Bang for the Buck Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After getting a used one for 70 bucks shipped, I'll have to say this is one heck of a radio overall. Let's start with the minuses:
1.Slight hum while charging the batteries received on MW band.
2.Instructions in broken English, printed in very small print. Quick Start Information is better but needs improvement.
3.The rig has to be put in step mode to tune all ham
and shortwave freqs.
4.LCD Readout very small (need magnifying glass)and buttons are very small and confusing.
5.MP3 Player could have more ram and can't be charged while rig is being charged.
6.Main tuning knob doesn't have solid feel to it.
Now for the Positives
1.Incredible Sensitivity on MW (beats my Sony2010)
and very good on SW.
2.I changed the stock batteries out with 2300 mah AA's and I've used it 36hr and still going.
3.SSB reception is good with the selectable filters and BFO.
4.Nice audio for such a small speaker
5.Detachable MP3 player is nice and its fairly easy to record that rare SW or MW DX.

Overall, great performance for the money. SSB is much easier on the Sony2010 but it cost about 3 times more. I wouldn't pay list price but for what I got it for it's a bargain
CRUNCHMAN Rating: 2007-06-12
Don't buy until they work the bugs out Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought one last week and sent it back today.

Pro: MP3 recorder lets you record radio programs.

Con: MP3 player worked erratically. Attempted to record a program for several hours. Only recorded 10 seconds.

Con: Operation manual is hard to understand. Broken english. Some steps missing. Small images of control buttons hard to distinguish.

Con: LCD panel is too small. Hard to read. If your eyesight is going like mine, buy a magnifying glass ;)

Con: Convoluted way to do anything. Requires several steps to do any function.

Con: Received WWCR on about 12.60 with distorted audio.Fine tuning didn't help. My Kaito WRX911 ($20) sounded clear. Sangean 622 ($35) sounded clear.

I will wait for the next version. Hopefully they can make this radio more user friendly.