Kaito KA007 – Portable radio.
- Emergency AM/FM/SW/TV/Weather band radio with wide frequency coverage
- Four power sources: Solar, dynamo, battery, AC adaptor
- built-in efficient DYNAMO CRANKING SYSTEM can also recharge the internal NiMH battery pack
- Thousands pieces sold to US army, very positive feedback received
- 90 days money back guarantee and 1 year limited warranty
Product Description
This rugged, precision build portable radio gets AM, FM, Short Wave, Weather and TV sound and operates without electricity or batteries. The KA007 runs on five different kinds of power. In addition to electric current or AA batteries, this radio also has internal rechargeable batteries that recharge using solar power or a hand crank.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Michael R. Smith said,
January 22, 2010 @ 7:20 am
hello; I bought this radio to replace an identical radio that was the same except that one had a digital display..which after some time, began to show very inaccurate frequencies…so i pitched it….then i bought this NEW in box kaito KA-009 analog radio..the FM was okay….some short wave was barely okay, but the radio refused to tune in ANY weather band stations..which are easily received where i live, and this radio would NOT tune in ANY aircraft communication bands..instead, it picks up confused and unclear FM stations…
i even connected an 85 foot slinky long distance antenna to this radio’s antenna via clips and still, NO aircraft bands….mixed FM stations appear there….
If you are like me, and receiving aircraft broadcasts and some weather bands is important to you, then do not buy this radio…you wont hear any on this radio.
November 22. 2009.
Rating: 1 / 5
Michael said,
January 22, 2010 @ 9:41 am
The KA007 is certainly very reasonably priced, and has some nice features in terms of power options, etc. The major drawback is the tuner section. I could not get a single NOAA weather station, though my Oregon Scientific portable weather radio picks up a few fairly well. The VHF was a big selling point for me, but in practice I couldn’t get anything on VHF, excpet images of stations from other bands. Similarly FM is full of images of strong stations all over the band.
It’s better than nothing,would probably pull in the local high power stations in a true emergency, and does offer a lot of options – but does not make me feel confident that it would perform in a true emergency.
Most of the other options all seem to have a lot of flaws, and it’s a shame that no one seems to have come up with a solid, high-performing, crank radio. I’m sure lots of people would pay more money for that.
The KA500 Voyager, Kaito’s upgraded crank emergency radio is definitely a step up in many ways, and a better value, though it too is flawed. What’s needed is the tuner section from the 1101/1102/1103 series of Kaito radios, in a more solid radio with features of the KA007 and KA500. And with AC adapter and all USB cables included.
Rating: 2 / 5
UnderMySkinner said,
January 22, 2010 @ 10:35 am
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.
Rating: 5 / 5
D. Yuhas said,
January 22, 2010 @ 12:23 pm
A great little radio, seems to run forever on a set of batteries. The tuner is good; it pulls in the public radio station that I’ve had trouble getting with other more expensive radios because of the local hills.
There are a few quibbles. Some reviewers mention a problem with the tuning dial. I grew up before digital radios were introduced. I don’t notice any problem. The volume knob is another story. Movement of seemingly a few millimeters changes the volume from a whisper to blaring.
A minor inconvenience is that there’s is no way to know at a glance when the AA batteries are dead and the radio is instead running on the internal rechargeable battery. And it won’t tune in the weather band which is mentioned in an earlier review. This is not important to me since where I live the weather is relatively serene compared to most of the country.
Rating: 4 / 5
Bortz said,
January 22, 2010 @ 1:23 pm
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).
Rating: 5 / 5