9 BAND World Radio By Bell and & Howell

by As Seen On TV

Product Details

• ASIN: B000G1WLO6
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,415 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It's okay..., January 26, 2007

A Kid's Review

This review is from: 9 BAND World Radio By Bell and & Howell (Electronics)

PROS- Does a lot of bands SW,MW(AM),FM w/TV band
CONS- The reception is awful. I can barely pull in any SW stations, and if I can it's hard to hear and I have to move the radio in the perfect place. FM and AM reception is fair to average. I noticed the tuning of FM is way off from where it says, for example I pick up 104.7 on what looks like 101.5 on the radio.

In conclusion, it does a lot of bands but it's reception is awful and it's hard to tune.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This doesn't qualify as a radio, October 21, 2007

By 

Traditional One (Boone, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 9 BAND World Radio By Bell and & Howell (Electronics)

This thing does not qualify as a radio in any regard. Well .. OK, it kinda looks like one, but a the photo will work just as well as the actual item. If you're looking for your first SW radio, spend a few extra bucks and get something else. The cheapest radio you can find on Amazon from Kaito (ie the WRX911)or Eton (ie The Mini) will outperform this thing by a mile.
My recommendations for a budget SW radio .. the Kaito KA1101 or KA1102 .. both excellent performers.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Garbage, December 8, 2008

By 

J. Pawlowski (Allentown, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 9 BAND World Radio By Bell and & Howell (Electronics)

I knew this was a painted plastic radio, but the picture made it look more shiny, metallic, & cool than it really is. It's a very dull paint job in reality.

AM & FM stations bleed through & over throughout every shortwave band, drowning out most of the shortwave signals that should be there.

I did pick up 1 church SW station on the higher bands in the day. I picked up Cuba, some more church, & voice of America in the evening. The hash of a dozen or more local AM & FM stations interfering across every SW band made getting anything else impossible.

It wouldn't even qualify it as a starter SW radio. A beginner would get so fed up
with the radio, they'd give up the hobby.

A 2 transistor regenerative SW radio I made when I was 12 in under an hour picks up more SW stations day & night than this radio.

AM reception is good for an under 10 dollar radio (I paid 8 bucks for it). OK for moderate AM DXing.

The AA batteries last a long time, so it's efficient.

I wasn't expecting any big sound from a small cheap radio, but I have many smaller & cheaper radios that have better sound quality.

FM reception is terrible. Worse than most bargain basement radios.

It does not pick up analog or digital TV channels.

Don't buy it for it's looks, it looks much duller than the picture.

Don't buy it for SW either, because it's almost useless at that. For starter SW, I'd recommend the Grundig mini 300.

Don't buy it for music either. FM reception & the sound quality is bad compared to others in this price range, & even smaller radios.

Recommended for AM talk radio & moderate AM DXing... nothing else.

Update a year later:

I installed a homemade AM & FM trap to the rod antenna inside. FM was over-driven anyway. Many stations where coming in many spots they shouldn't be all over the FM band... FM is very good now without the strong stations wiping out the entire dial. Fm stations interfering on SW greatly reduced. The internal ferrite antenna is used for the AM band so it was not necessary to have all the local strong AM stations leak into the rod antenna, & bleeding into all the SW bands. AM stations bleeding all over the SW bands was greatly reduced. Repaired earphone jack that was cutting out the speaker even when no headphone was plugged it. A hit would make the speaker come on before.

Aligned RF & IF sections for maximum performance.

After the repairs & mod, AM reception is better than any of my other under $20 radios. FM reception is now the best for this price range. Although I didn't notice more stations on SW, they came in clearer & stronger, without nearby AM & FM stations slashing interference on every SW band. They still bleed into the lower SW bands a little, but not as bad as before. Reception is now much better than my POS "Superadio" that I leave at work (got it on sale when they were $19.95). Although the "superadio" has better bass due to it's big speaker, it gets terrible reception. I will be replacing it with this little B&H radio because the reception is so much better after working on it.

Sound quality isn't very good for music but is OK for a small radio. Great for voice & talk radio. Can play remarkably loud for a 2xAA cell radio & the cells last a long time.

Even without the AM-FM trap mod, it wouldn't have been that bad of a radio if the RF & IF sections were properly aligned, & the earphone jack wasn't defective. So there is clearly a quality control issue with the radio. I did not buy it used, refurb, or as-is. It was purchased as a new unit from here.