The Coby CX-CB12 portable radio is an analog multi-band radio that can be had for under $10. At this price you can't expect much, but the question is...is it worth spending any money on this radio?
The radio itself comes in a nice box and it includes a set of ear buds. The radio would be considered a large coat pocket size radio. The overall feel is a bit better than what you would expect for such an inexpensive radio. Instead of thumbwheels you actually have side-mounted knobs to turn which (in my opinion) are easier to use. The front of the radio contains the speaker, the slide rule dial, a little tuning light and slide controls to turn the radio on (a nice feature) and to change the bands. The analog dial features a little indicator that tells you what band you are tuning. Unfortunately, the dial's contrast is low making it difficult to see the numbers.
The radio is powered by 2 AA batteries which should last a long time. It was a tight squeeze to get the batteries in. You also have a port for an adapter, but one is not provided.
The earphone jack allows mono output through both stereo ear buds. The speaker provides reasonable "pocket radio" sound at a reasonable volume. Sound is much better using headphones and actually is quite pleasant.
Performance:
LW: The US doesn't use long wave (except for some beacons) so I couldn't test this.
MW (AM) AM reception is OK. I was able to tune Chicago stations with ease. I was also able to tune strong out-of-state stations from many locations including 50 KW clear channel stations from Texas, Colorado, New York and Tennessee. Selectivity was a bit below norm but OK. Strangely, if the telescopic rod was extended, the radio would whine more and (toward 1600 KHz) it would actually pick up shortwave.
SW: The Coby provides a number of shortwave bands. With the built in whip antenna it did a reasonable job of receiving international broadcasts. Its simple single conversion design did results in images and some birdies and di-dah sounds, but they were not too objectionable. I tried the radio with a short 10 foot wire attached to the whip antenna. This overloaded the radio and I started to hear AM broadcasters on the shortwave. Selectivity is OK for this type of set. Shortwave would only be suitable for the big broadcasters like the BBC and Radio China but it did a reasonable job receiving those stations.
FM: At my office FM was fair. However, my home is only a few miles away from a local FM station. The station at 95.9 pretty much obliterated the lower portion of the FM dial. I could get our town's college station at 89.1 but not much else until WFMT at 98.7. Shortening the antenna had no effect. Based on this FM would only be acceptable if you were far away from any broadcasters.
If the FM section worked better, the Coby would be a nice little radio, especially at $10. No, it is not as good as a $50 dollar radio but at $10 it is in the disposable category and it could be used at the beach, camping or as a gift to a kid who has expressed an interest in radio. With that said, the FM performance was so disappointing that it would be hard to recommend it. A very good alternative is the jWin JX-M14 which can also be had for around for $10. It doesn't have quite the same frequency coverage but it does offer a digital readout, better FM and decent MW and SW performance. The jWin handles a short wire antenna well, giving it the ability to pick up weaker stations.
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