Kaito Electronics, Inc. Portable Dynamo & Solar-Powered Radio and Cell Phone Charger

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Kaito Electronics, Inc. Portable Dynamo & Solar-Powered Radio and Cell Phone Charger

Product Details

Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 2.2 x 5.2 inches ; 1.2 pounds
Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
ASIN: B001EUG3II
Item model number: KA500

By : Kaito
Price : $49.99

Product Description

Engineered to operate from any one of four different power sources (including handcrank and solar!) this emergency radio/super-bright lantern/cell phone charger is a trusted support tool for your emergency supply cabinet. Compact, portable design makes it great for travel and outdoor activities too. Optional use - 3 AA batteries or AC adapter (not incl.). ? AM/FM/SW1/SW2 ? 7 band NOAA weather radio ? Self-activating for NOAA alerts ? Bright LED reading lamp on back of solar panel ? LED flashlight on side turns into flashing red SOS for emergencies ? USB port (cable not included) for charging cell phone and iPod® ? Headphone jack

Technical Details

Emergency radio/phone charger
Operates from any one of four different power sources
Compact, portable design
Uses 3 AN batteries or adapter

Customer Reviews

KAITO KA500 VERY VERSATILE
If considering the Kaito KA500, you want a highly portable radio that does it all. I did. I wanted a radio with versatility in (a) sources of power input and (b) radio signals received.
Public radio served me well weathering Hurricane Katrina's aftermath with a plain boom box. But what if things get dicier? My solution was to put together a disaster/camping/survival pack. And I needed a radio.
I settled in on the Kaito KA500, because nothing else came so close to providing abundant sources of power and station signals. Internet searchings I did indicated sales to military, a good sign. I bought one with the optional antenna you reel out for 23 feet. Here's what I found.
FEATURES
1. Multiple sources of power: It's powered by 3 AA batteries you buy, or crank to charge the built-in Ni-MH battery pack, or use solar panel on back with tilting hinge for charging the battery pack, or connect computer USB to charge the battery pack, or use the AC adaptor to charge the battery pack.
2. Multiple sources of signals: AM, FM, all 7 NOAA weather channels on crystal (NOT analog knob) tuning, SW1, and SW2.
3. Bonus features beyond these basics: White LED flashlight, red flashing LED emergency signal light, 5-LED reading light built into the reverse side of the solar charging cells so it tilts up and down to adjust, and ear bud earphones. These LED light features are powered as is the radio, so they can work with multiple sources of power with no filament bulbs to burn out. The KA500 also includes a USB output jack with wire that fits onto five different cellphone and personal electronic devices to charge them, and all these items come with the unit.
4. Optional features: Long 23 foot antenna you can string out and clamp to the stick-up antenna that reels back into a closed spool 3 inches in diameter, AC adaptor, USB cable for charging the KA500.
EVALUATIVE REVIEW OF FEATURES
1. Sources of power
a. Before putting in any bought batteries, I cranked the radio up for about a minute, and the small light on the front said it was fully charged. It ran for 10-15 minutes without any problems receiving an FM station before I put in the store-bought batteries.
b. The store-bought batteries worked fine.
c. I have not yet used the solar charger, nor ordered the optional AC charger, nor ordered the optional USB charger that charges the battery pack. I have no reason to believe any of these would not work, as everything else has worked.
2. Sources of radio signal
a. FM signals came in fine. The output is mono but quite acceptable.
b. AM signals also came in fine, the usual many signals.
c. SW bands pulled in a lot of stations, somewhat more clearly than AM (I did this testing at night). I got perhaps half foreign language stations, mostly Spanish.
d. NOAA weather was great in another city, mediocre but intelligible here on the Gulf Coast. A separate knob is devoted solely receiving just the seven weather stations, which are received digitally using crystals.
3. Tuning and sound
a. The tuning knob worked fine, as did all other controls.
b. Sound quality was OK When MPB public radio played some vintage Earl Skruggs it was pleasant over the small built in speaker. The earphones actually added some bass. I count decent sound as a bonus, as I did not buy the KA500 for excellence of sound quality. I bought it for getting any intelligible signal under duress.
4. Bonus features
a. The LED flashlight does what one LED does, the same as the one on my keychain and 1/3 as bright as the three on my cap clip-on light.
b. The red flashing LED worked well. It is likely visible for an unobstructed mile or more, probably farther over water.
c. The reading lamp is a real jewel. I turned off all my lights and tried to read. Reading was easy, so this radio can also be a good tent light, has a strap up top.
d. The long antenna boosted reception a bit, not greatly. It improved marginal signals.
CONCLUSION
The Kaito KA500 gives me amazingly versatile sources of power and radio signals for its price. The bonus features make it real bargain. If you want an emergency portable radio of modest price, the best chance of powering up under duress, the widest variety of signals of practical use in a disaster/camping/survival situation, plus a bunch of bonus features, I'd say the KA500 is your best bet by far.
HINTS
1. Keep the bubble wrap the radio comes in and tape the flap shut with duct tape for protection in your pack. Put it in a gallon glad bag and you're set.
2. If preparing for emergencies, online resources offer a lot. I liked:
a. Doug Ritter's many recommendations and supplies. He has set up a foundation "Equipped to Survive" and truly has his heart into survival oriented outdoor gear. You can even download his survival sheet free on that foundation website. You can also spend about a half hour reading the details about his Pocket Survival Pak, which I bought on Amazon. You can spend another half hour reading why he included the items he did in the pak and how he selected his survival instructions. You gotta love this guy.
b. Good survival manuals sold by Amazon, Wiseman's usually topping rankings.

I bought the KA500 to use for emergencies and camping. I have 3 other Kaito radios: the KA007 crank radio, the KA-1103 multiband, and the KA2100. The 1103 and 2100 are really fine radios with truly impressive reception, especially the 1103. On the other hand, I was very disappointed in the KA007, as the radio reception on all its bands is barely acceptable, with terrible selectivity resulting in stations bleeding through all over the dial. The weather reception on the 007 was awful, as was the VHF and the FM.
I hoped this would be a better performing version of the 007, and it is - but not as much as I'd hoped for. The weather reception is definitely improved over the 007, and now is almost as good as my dedicated weather radios. The SW seems more sensitive now, and seems to have better selectivity. Not fabulous but good enough for a radio that is not primarily intended as a world-band radio. However, the FM is still pretty bad. Here in the Boston area, there are two public radio stations that are fairly strong, and come in on pretty much any radio - yet I could not get either one on the KA500, let alone the weaker local stations. This means that for me, it's not usable as an everyday radio - only for emergencies.
There is no question that this radio has about every feature you could ask for in an emergency radio (except maybe a siren of some kind). It's very well thought out, and the ability to power it in so many ways, as well as charge other things from it is great. However, given that Kaito's higher end radios have really impressive sensitivity and selectivity, it's a shame they still haven't created an emergency/crank radio that uses any of their higher end technology. After all, wouldn't you want the best possible receiver in an emergency?
Kaito's digital world band radios start around $55, and their analog high sensitivity models can be had for $35. I'd have happily paid another $15-20 for a much better receiver. Currently, none of the crank and solar panel radios are much better - they all seem to sacrifice receiver quality, which makes no sense to me. I hope in the future Kaito will offer a model with the features of the KA500 but a receiver at least as good as the KA1101.