Customer Reviews

Kaito Portable Emergency Radio, KA007

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

 

 

I received my Kaito KA007 radio this week. Generally it is a good radio for the purpose. The plastic case and dynamo crank do not seem to be very sturdy, but is probably sufficient if not abused. I chose it over the Grundig FR200 because it also covered weather and TV bands. After a few days of use, these are my conclusions. The TV band reception is reasonably good, and I was generally surprised at how much SW I could pick up with just the little telescopic antenna. The dynamo charging system seems to work well. I haven't tried charging the batteries with solar power yet. FM and AM reception seem pretty good. Other than the lack of sturdiness, I am disappointed with the weather radio reception and the size of the tuning dial. The small tuning dial (about the size of a nickel) makes fine tuning difficult and tuning of the NOAA weather stations almost impossible.

I'm still mixed as to whether I would have been better off with the FR200. If Grundig would add a couple more bands of coverage to their product and keep the price the same (around $40-$50), then they would clearly have a superior product. Their radio is not incredibly sturdy either, but it seems able to take a little more beating than this one. Nevertheless, this is a reasonably good radio. The price I paid ($49.95) is possibly a little more than this radio should sell for. Just don't select this radio for its weather band capability unless you have an exceptionally good signal in your area.

Somebody had a very good idea with this radio.It's not the best built thing in the world,in fact you may just want to get two just in case.

No to sound paranoid,but......In this day and age you just never know what will happen.In a worst case scenario this little radio would very usefull if not a necessity.It's betteridea to have more than just am and fm if you want to be informed.Not only will this radio work long after the batteries are dead,but it can recieve many bands.Not only can you hear am and fm ,but weather,shortwave,vhf tv,and what could just be the most important the 2M amateur band. Why is the 2M band so important? In an emergency situation amateur radio operators are vital at passing along information to emergency services,FEMA Red Cross,National Weather Service,ect.

Here's what you get:
A hand crank to power the radio when there is no power source and it's dark
A solar cell to get power from the sun
TV 1/FM- CH 2-6 and 88-108 MHz
TV 2- CH 7-13
AM(MW)530-1710 Khz
VHF Hi 143-174 MHz (2M amateur,public service (possably fire,law enforcement,ambulance),and National Weather Service
SW 4.5 - 22 MHz (worldwide broadcast/long distance Voice of America,BBC,ect.)


How does it work?
At it's price you can't expect the best radio in the world. Reception is not the best,but adequate for what it is.Lots of images on all bands,and the am is barn-door wide,but I have worse performing radios.The hand crank genorator is not the clockwork generator found in most Baygen/Freeplay radios,but it gets the job done.I say despite it's drawbacks,it is well worth the price.It just might save your life or be your only form of communication. Better safe than sorry.Not that I think it will fall apart,but I got two of them just in case something should happen to the first one....8)

I bought a KA007 and a Grundig FR200. I oughta return the FR200.

The Kaito 007 wins hands down. It actually DOES play on sunlight alone, and being in W. TX we have plenty of that.

The only thing the Kaito 007 could use some improvement is the tuner. The two-stage tuner on the FR200 is better/ more finely adjustable.

Perhaps it's unfair to compare the two since the Grundig isn't made with solar-power capability. For $10 more, it's nice to have solar charging.

Steve

This is a great little radio and is more compact than I envisioned it being from the picture found here. My wife had bought me a Eton/Grundig FR-300 but the generator handle stripped out after about a week's worth of use. Since I loved the weather band on that radio before it broke, I was on a quest to replace the Grundig with something more reliable. I didn't even care if it cost more, I was after quality. I spotted the KA007 here and read reviews here and elsewhere and decided what the heck, why not order one. When it arrived, I found it to be a much lower profile radio than the Eton model and it also has more bells and whistles for a lower price than the Eton. The radio is able to recieve a lot of stations in my area and the weather band gets the weather station for our area very strong and clear. The short wave, TV and AM/FM bands all work well also.
Battery life is excellent with this radio. I'd say you can get about a months worth of use out of three long life alkaline name brand batteries with the radio being played an average of a 1/2 hr to 2 hrs. per day.
One thing to note is that the a/c adapter will charge up the built in NiMH battery pack so you may want to run it off batteries or solar so you don't wear out the battery pack as quickly. That's just a speculation though and the battery pack may still last a long time even though the adapter does charge it up every time it's plugged in. Since I want to be able to use the crank feature in an emergency, I just didn't want to chance killing the battery pack by keeping a high charge on it all the time when I can just as easily use the radio on batteries and not chance killing that internal battery when I need it the most.
I don't really have any real complaints on this radio. Some things that might concern others are that the radio has a relatively small on/off/volume knob and the tuning dial is spaced rather tight with no fine tuning option like on the Eton models. This radio offers good bang for the buck. I think the majority of people looking for a compact, quality emergency radio will be pleased with this. Oh, and unlike the Eton's, the crank handle recesses nicely into the back of the radio for a nice compact profile, unlike the Etons, which stick out of the side and just look plain ugly in that position. One good thing about the Eton though- the cloth carrying case the Eton came in from LL Bean, fits the Kaito perfectly. So the Eton wasn't a total bust. (grin).

This radio has performed well for over 3 years for me. I use it when I am in my garden. The sound level and clarity is very good when used in the solar mode. I live in Southern California on the coast and on most days
I have no problem using solar mode even when it is a little overcast. I am going to buy another for my friend in South America who does not have electricity.

After a couple of disasterous hurricane seasons in 2004-2005, I've used the 2006 respite to consolidate and upgrade my hurricane kit.

For one, I'm switching what I can over to dynamo/solar power to save on the expense and hassle of batteries...particularly when the store shelves are cleaned out anyway. When you're without power for three weeks - despite having a portable generator - it makes a difference.

This radio is one terrific solution and doesn't take up much space at all in my kit. This sucker's compact! I have no complaints about the build quality whatsoever. Fragile, as some have noted? Nah. Not if you don't hand it over to your first-grader. <doh!>

I'm lucky enough to live in the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area where we've plenty of stations. No problem with any kind of reception, even without the included antenna extension.

I'm particularly impressed with the bands available: AM/FM/TV/Public Service (VHF)/SW1-4...a better selection than the Eton/Grundig FR300-400 series. The addition of an LED light on the end is a nice little bonus for a pitch black room, though it won't replace a good flashlight. If you go to 21st Century Goods, like I did, you'll find a great (and, again, compact) flashlight/cell phone charger solution.

As one astute reviewer noted, I think it's smart to keep the world situation in mind, as well as our community and personal vulnerabilities. We did relatively well after Hurricane Wilma. For the price, this household will do better when the next disaster, natural or man-made, hits.

looks like it came out of a box of cocoa puffs, doesn't sound much better. analog tuning stinks, very little band separation. i'd much rather spend 2-3 times as much for something i would actually use than this toy. it's junk...

I wish this radio had better sound. I'm still looking for another radio with great sound, good reception, and good battery life. This is not it. The sound is marginal, the reception has some flaws inherent in low cost radios. The battery life is excellent. I kept the radio for its crank feature in case of an emergency. I live in a metropolitan area with lots of hills which makes for difficult reception conditions.

It reminds me a little bit of the multi-band radios I had when I was young, and had hours and hours to experiment. Those radios featured cheap electronics which did not have the best performance possible, but I did not know that at the time. The Kaito is the same. I guess you get what you pay for. I would classify this as a special use radio, good for the ability to get along on crank power if necessary. For me personally, if it came in a bigger box, with a bigger speaker and a bit more fidelity, I would probably use it all the time. But it's a tiny little thing, smaller than you would expect, lightweight, with an all plastic case. Other reviewers mention the crank itself, which is made of plastic, and I suppose possible to break.

Sound: This is my biggest complaint, but I don't see it addressed in other reviews, so I wonder if I have an idiosyncratic response to the way this particular radio sounds.

In my opinion, the best sounding band is AM. In fact I wonder if the designers optimized the sound for the AM band, with good sensitivity and selectivity to boot.

I have another radio that gets weather band, and the difference between the way that one sounds and this one, well the Kaito is intelligible but not tolerable for pleasure listening of the weather band. I want to say the computer generated NOAA guys sounds especially grating. I know, I know, what kind of geek wants to hear the buoy temperatures all morning?

Most of my listening is FM, and this is where I had the most significant problems. I listen mostly to two stations, one strong, but the other one I couldn't even find until I lowered the antenna. I think they call that front end overload. It's caused by too much signal. I finally found my other station by lowering the telescoping antenna all the way, but leaving the remaining stub pointed straight up. If I put my hand on the antenna fuzz and other stations appear. I thought this radio would do a better job at rejecting other signals. Instead I find that strong FM stations appear all over the place, not only at their assigned places on the dial. If you live very close to an FM transmitter or tower farm you know what I mean.

The other problem I am having is that the volume control has a point where it goes from very soft to very loud, not a dirty potentiometer, just a cheap one, just at about the volume I would like, so it's so difficult to set the volume that this problem alone keeps me from using this radio on a regular basis. [If you live where all the stations are weak this radio would be great, because I never have to use more than 5% of the audio amplification capability to get all the volume I need.] This seems to be a real problem only on FM. The FM sound quality on the teeny speaker is only sufficient if you listen to pop music at background volume, but is likely to disappoint otherwise.

It has solar power. Put it in direct sunlight and voila. Beach radio?

I got it for him last year as a gift and he messes with it all the time. Very portable, self cranking so it's good for the environment and he loves the off channels it picks up like emergency chatter. I like it because if the power goes out at least I can still listen to the TV.

Just watch the antenna, breaks very easily. But even if it does we found no problem in having them send us another one.

Great radio, Even works in Russia where I took it to my wife, Just wish the power supply was 120/220 it's only 120V so she has to use a step down transformer for this.