Customer Reviews

Kaito KA1107 World Band AM/FM Shortwave Radio

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love the Kaito KA1107 analog portable radio. This is the best paperback-size radio I have ever owned.

This radio is most stellar on the FM band. I get stations loud and clear 65 miles away using the internal whip antenna. The reception exceeds any of my radios. Sensitivity and selectivity rival that of a good FM receiver. The antenna rotates and angles down for optimum reception of vertically, horizontally and mixed polarized FM antennas, allowing more stations to be heard clearly. This radio is rated at less than 5 MV FM sensitivity, and i do believe it.

SW and MW sensitivity and selectivity rival that of larger radios on the market. MW stations during the day come in loud and clear. Nighttime reception is sensitive across the band, though AM suffers from selective fading and man-made interference. I cannot honestly rate reception on the individual SW bands. I rarely use SW any more, due to man-made interference, selective fading and the low sunspot count.

The sound quality of the Kaito 1107 is a big surprise, with the two-step tone control offering room-filling audio. The two-step tone control logically selects between music and voice reception.

The side-mounted knob provides velvet tuning which a joy to turn, unlike many of the cheap Chinese-made radios on the market today.The three-step sensitivity control is useless except on SW. The large band-switch knob on the side of the radio is a joy. The volume control is recessed, protecting the radio in case of a fall, and is a good feature.

The clock, power, tone, and sensitivity buttons are poorly laid out and not suited for the less dexterous. The buttons are small and the labels are hard see for anybody with a visual impairment. I've placed masking tape with large-print writing to remedy reading some of the controls on the face of the radio.

You may buy this radio with confidence. The price is right for the value.- Arthur.

For the price you can't do better than this nice little portable radio. I was initially looking for a portable to fulfill an interest I had for a "ultralight DX" radio, but felt the current crop of highly-rated high performance ultralights wouldn't be a very good choice since most were never intended to be exported out of China (i.e. 240V power supplies, Chinese instructions, hard-to-decipher controls, etc.). I was about to give up & wait for awhile, when I stumbled across this little gem. For the price it can't be beat. AM mediumwave sensitivity is phenomenal, which is exactly what I was looking for. Tuning is very sharp, with no overload problems detected, and even though I occasionally hear a strong local 50kw AM station over my telephone lines it doesn't seem to bother this radio. FM sensitivity is equally good, although the FM band is somewhat compressed since the scale covers both US and foreign FM bandplans. Shortwave seems very good as well, with amazingly good audio received from some AM amateur radio operators on both 80m and 40m with the built-in whip antenna (note though that these are the only two ham bands this radio covers, since they lie near two commercial shortwave bands). The bass response from the small speaker is exceptional when the appropriate switch is placed in the "bass" mode. And finally, a dial light that will stay on until you turn it off! (You can even turn in on while the radio is off). Battery life also seems to be very long even when using the light all the time (it imparts a very nice warm glow to the dial). Are there any shortcomings? Sure - after all, it is analog, so frequency determination will just be a guesstimate, but after all isn't that what makes it fun? The tuning is a little "spongy", with some dial backlash, so you tend to need to "rock the dial" back & forth to center in on the signal, but at least the dial moves very smoothly so this is quite easy. The numbers on the dial could be a little bigger, and the green numbers could be a brighter color, but some of that is probably my 50 year old eyes. And SSB reception would certainly be nice for the ham bands, but would probably add considerably to the price. Overall, it just can't be beat for price vs. performance, and easily beats all of my vintage transistor radios for ultralight portable AM DX, and blows away my Sony ICF-SW100 in the same arena (although the Sony can do much more, it isn't nearly the mediumwave AM DX machine that this is).

I've been meaning to replace my old shortwave since the tuner broke, but it took me several years to get around to it. I checked out the available products and decided for the use I would give it, I didn't want to spend a fortune. I found this little radio on Amazon and thought the reviews looked promising and investigated other online review sources and overall thought it was worth the risk of buying something with audio completely unheard. Glad I bought it. I'm pleased with the sound. The radio is about the size of a paperback book with a dial tuner. The controls are quite small as some of the other reviewers have noted, but this isn't really a serious problem for most users. I have been able to pick up a few shortwave stations and lots of decent FM and MW channels with good reception. The radio has some nice features--the battery recharger, the clock and backlight, and the dial tuner, as I very definitely did not want digital only. I found the function buttons easy to use and figure out--honestly, it's a pretty straight-forward radio, not brain surgery or anything. Sound quality was good, price was good. It was shipped right away and I got it three days later. I'm very satisfied.

This is a great radio. LW and SW reception were excellent, and FM is surprisingly sensitive.

The radio is a perfect size, especially for travel purposes. The sound quality is great. Haven't had it long enough to know about battery life, but so far all is fine. Very pleased with the product.

I bought this radio for my husband. He loves it, He said it is the best Radio ,i have ever bought him. To me that makes it the best, when you please your husband. Nancy Sifford

Mine was defective, too.
The sound didn't come out properly.
The switches were unsteady.
I sent it back and bought a SONY instead.

ka 1100 mine was defective so sent it back no fm also sw recepion was terrible sound was great. I did not order another one and I do not recommend this radio.