📡 Enhance Your Radio Reception with Kaito T-1 Radio Antenna Review

The first time unwinding a long wire antenna, the wire came all the way out, had to loosen the small Phillips screw on the back, pull out the spool, thread the wire back through the center sleeve. Punch and tie it so it works now, also put some silicone grease on the hub to lubricate the spool when spinning, the manufacturer left it dry and makes the hub difficult to spin and pulls the loose wire into the spool. . now it works fine.

What I liked: the adapter and antenna clip worked perfectly. The antenna worked to bring in an FM station, which works very poorly with a regular short antenna. What I didn't like: The winder doesn't wind up easily, and the very thin wire gets tangled and when trying to pull the wire out, the wire broke. To make it work I soldered some wire and installed it in a cheap travel rope spool that works great.

Purchased after a fire incident in Northern California. We were 2 weeks without electricity and cables, we were cut off from the news and now knowing what was going on was quite scary. This is a great radio, we used it when we went camping and got the news, music and weather. We used it with solar power and it even charged our phones. I recommend this radio to anyone preparing an emergency kit.

I own property about 50 miles north of my home in a major city with an FM transmitter. Radio reception is questionable (some radios are very clear, others not very clear). Received this to try on my Grundig FR-200, usually not totally clean, and used the antenna mount attachment. Changed a bit, but not much. I tried to fully stretch and leave myself curled up. It was about the same as without. So I can't give a very good rating as it wasn't a really tough test for the additional antenna.

It's not magic. It's just a long wire, but it does what it's supposed to. I would give it five stars but my finger slips out of the groove as I wind the wire back onto the spool. A long wire increases the power of shortwave signals. If the radio has bad filters, it also causes more local interference and can degrade the sound of the stations. You can get the same effect by connecting a long cable to the antenna. The built-in spool neatly packs the wire into a compact space, so it was worth it.

Plastic bobbin needs clamp not just small hole for more mounting options. The CC Crane version is said to have this feature, but the Kaito is cheaper. Bought a second one. The antenna clamp is thin and not strong. The small diameter of the clamp means it only grips the narrowest end of the antenna. I'm trying to figure out if the wire antenna completely replaces the radio antenna. I noticed that a YouTube radio reviewer doesn't extend the radio antenna when using a wire antenna. If you are not…

You know this is a simple wire antenna that is easy to attach and coil. How difficult is it? Unfortunately, this antenna does not have a clamp at the end! So you can't attach yourself to the blinds when you're inside, or to a branch, or to a branch, or anything when you're outside. It's just a plastic hook. So be ready to bring a hammer and nail if you plan to use this. If you only want to attach to the window indoors? Drive a nail somewhere so you can hook this thing. On top of that, the wire…

Very simple design, but still. still a problem. I bought 3 of these for my sister and myself. She wants to start listening to shortwave. I've been a radio amateur for over 30 years. I had one like this from Realistic/Radio Shack a long time ago. There are other companies using the same design. But this one is VERY hard to rewind. The plastic feels more pliable compared to my old Radio Shack (if that makes sense). I'm hoping the plastic will "break" after a few rewind cycles. In addition, a…

I like to occasionally listen to my small portable radio while tinkering around in the garage, but have never been able to get stable AM/FM reception here in the country (30 minutes from the coast) - "interrupted" describes the am experience the best - so I'm excited about this little antenna. I did what a person in the Q&A section of this site suggested and hung the antenna horizontally outside just below the gutters. I have hanging plants, so I threaded a zip tie through the hoop on the body…