Degen DE1123 DSP AM/FM/SW Pocket Radio with 1GB MP3 Player & Recorder

• Pocket-size world-band radio with built-in speaker & digital signal processing (DSP) technology
• 1 GB flash memory MP3 player for music, radio program & voice recording for up to 69 hours (32 kbps)
• Digital clock + Sleep timer + Key lock + Numeric volume indicator
• 225 preset memories + built-in charger + LED back-lit display
• 30-day money back guarantee & 1-year Manufacturer's warranty

I purchased this with the primary goal of time recording AM radio stations, specifically Coast To Coast AM with George Noory which airs locally from 1am to 5am. I thought this device would allow me to program in a 1am alarm time at which the device would come on and record the preset station. I'm still not sure if this is possible or not, but my inability to figure it out is making me want to return it. The problem is, the manual. This is not a simple radio to operate if you're looking to take it out of the box and instinctively know how to operate it. I'm usually good at that, but not with this radio. The functions of the many buttons and switches are NOT obvious. I dove into the manual, only to find the usual Chenglish that one finds in lower grade Chinese products. I can't understand why they pour so much effort into product development and scrimp on hiring a native English speaking person to write their manuals for English speaking markets. The manual claims, in its own way, that upon alarm, the radio will resume what it was doing when you last turned it off. So I set up the station I wanted to record, started recording it, set the alarm for 1am, and turned the radio off. Seemed simple enough. Oh, and you have to plug the earphone in because otherwise it would run the batteries down if the speaker was on because in order for you to have a useful volume for playback, the volume needs to be high during recording. The other odd thing is there's no way to program the alarm timer to turn the recording off. I checked the radio at 7am and it was still on, playing the station I wanted, but it didn't record anything. I'm still working on that but returning the unit is looking more attractive. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, the only tag for recordings is a folder and file number, nothing descriptive, so you have to remember what each recording is by its numeric label.

Some of the negative reviews stated the user couldn't even tune in stations. I think some of this may be due to the fact that you have to manually tell it you live in the US so that it tunes in AM channels in 10kHz increments, not the default Chinese 9kHz increments. Because of this, when I tried to tune to AM1180 the closest I could get was AM1178. Even though 1180 was a clear channel station, it was not clear as a bell, as it should have been due to the 2kHz offset. However, after I read the manual some more (ugh) and made the necessary correction, the reception was perfect, even inside my workplace where my old radio couldn't even pull in any AM stations. There's a simlar correction for FM stations which would block the lower end of the band if not adjusted properly.

So it is a handy, compact reliable receiver, but it has issues one should consider carefully before purchase.

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This Degen is a nice compact (shirt pocket sized) little radio. I was in the market for a FM pocket sized radio with good quality and in my search I found this one, it was not much more price wise and had Short Wave (Which is also an interest of mine) MW (AM) a voice recorder and MP3 capabilities. Its the perfect size I was looking for its only slightly bigger the an I-POD classic, fits easily in a shirt pocket, it was some weight to it, so its not flimsily. Sound in the speaker is pretty good, its 50 mm and it produces a descent sound. It DX's in FM station really well, does good with middle wave (AM) (I live in a location with bad reception-one reason I got this radio is I have an Sirius XM radio and I transmit it around the house and property and I can listen to it on FM it works perfectly) and the short wave is to be expected in that it DX's in the big boomers, your probably not going to DX in far away lower powered stations, but its not bad. Its pretty easy to use and there's lots of per sets on all three bands. The MP3 recorder is easy to use, you just plug it into your computer and drag music into its folder. Battery life (rechargeable) is very good, You can get 10-15 hours, or more. It takes 7 hours to fully charge and more if you use the computer like 9-10 hours. Its not a bad radio at all.

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Very good AM and FM performance for its size and price range. SW performance is adequate but subject to interference from strong/local AM radio stations. Very sensitive with just its short whip antenna. Digital recording and playback features are just basic. Does not support scheduled, unattended digital recording. Speaker audio ok for size, audio generally fine with headphones. Some distortion at low levels in AM band. Computer connection not well documented in manual; worked properly with Windows XP; compatibility with other computer OS's not known. No numeric keypad or rotary tuning knob. Seems solid and well made. Its compact size is a key feature. If size is less important, there are other better performing radios in this price class, although none with digital recording/playback features.

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Typically, you'd expect a multifunction device to be a `jack of all trades, master of none', and this one is no exception-it is not outstanding as a receiver, MP3 player or digital recorder-but it is nice to have all these functions combined in one shirt-pocket sized device. The receiver functions about as well as my other portables on AM, FM and shortwave; as with most shortwave receivers clipping a roll-up wire or active antenna to the whip helps with weak signals. Tuning on shortwave is slightly cumbersome since you first have to select the band and then scan up or down in 5 khz steps, although you can store and jump to your favorite frequencies. I can't tell if the digital signal processing helps or hurts, it makes some funny noises when dealing with weak signals. Sound is surprisingly ok considering the speaker size; the included ear buds are junk but it sounds good when paired with a decent headset. Battery life is fair with the included rechargeables; you might want to invest in higher-capacity ones. The supplied wall charger puts out a lot of interference that wipes out my other radios, but you can also charge it off a computer USB port which avoids this problem. As an MP3 player it's pretty basic, 1GB capacity and stores songs as numbered files in numbered folders, you have to remember what's what. As a digital recorder you can record off the air (requires volume to be turned up to full!) or make direct voice recordings (presumably the speaker doubles as a microphone). Build quality appears to be pretty good although the slide switch band/function selector feels somewhat flimsy. This has become my new `travel radio' due to its small size and multifunctionality.

I was looking for a replacement for my wife's "Radio your way" radio recorder by Pogo products. They don't seem to be in business anymore, to bad. She liked to tape certain radio shows. From what she tells me this unit isn't quite as good. It's a bit bulkier and you can't program it to record at a certain time like the Pogo radio. You have to be there and push record at the time you want. She also says the buttons are real sensitive and when you fast forward you can't hear the commercials zip by so you have to guess where to stop it. Otherwise she likes it. It holds more music etc. and the rechargable batteries are nice. The poorly worded instructions don't help either. Reads like a bad Chinese to English translation. Have only been using it a week hopefully it will grow on her.