Articles > Degen DE1105 FM/MW/Shortwave Receiver

Introduction

De1105 front - WebDevSys
DE1105 Front
The Degen DE1105 is a mid-range, shirt pocket sized FM/MW/SW receiver, packed with useful features.

Specifications

Coverage:

Features:

The DE1105 sports an informative LCD display. The size of the display is roughly equivalent to two postage stamps.

First Impressions

Having owned a KK-E350, and wanting an upgrade, the DE1105 seemed like a good choice - greater SW coverage, non-volatile preset memories, switchable FM stereo mode and no 'chuffing' when tuning on SW bands made it a near ideal choice. What's more, the unit only costs around US $50.

Construction & quality

The majority of the case is made of painted plastic. The facia is made from a brushed aluminium sheet. A silver trim runs around the front edge of the unit. The trim and aluminium sheet appear to be electrically coupled to the circuits inside the radio. When tuned to FM or SW, touching or grounding the trim will either increase the signal strength or add more interference.

DE1105 internals overview - WebDevSys
Internals Overview
The case is held together with four screws on the back (two in the battery compartment).

Unfortunately the headphone socket is made from plastic, which will deteriorate after extended use.

Overall, the DE1105's build quality is above average.

Performance

DE1105 - inside front cover - WebDevSys
Inside front cover
DE1105 - main PCB - WebDevSys
Main PCB
A ferrite bar antenna (for MW) is situated just above the battery compartment. At only 70% of the width of the unit, the ferrite bar is quite short, but this doesn't seem to affect its sensitivity on the MW band too much. Having said that, it is no match for larger radios with ferrite bars twice, even three times the length. But an external AM loop antenna will always help any receiver, the DE1105 included, to pick up weak, distant stations.

MW sound quality can be described as 'mellow'. The DE1105 has a relatively low high-frequency cutoff, so when compared to other MW recievers, the sound can be deemed to be somewhat muffled. However this HF cutoff means high-pitched interference is reduced. The mellowness is great for speech, but for music, some accoustic detail is lost.

The preset memories and 'paging' system takes a little while to get used to. In most cases, one must read the instruction manual to figure out how it works. Once familiar, the system is quite easy to use. However it is just as easy to make a mistake, such as accidentally erasing a preset memory, even an entire page.

Good points

Takes AA cells - Keeping the DE1105 powered will not be a problem as it takes two standard AA size cells. Several other makes and models of pocket receiver can take up to four cells, or even an odd number (such as three).

The in-built battery meter provides a good indication of how muhc life is left in the cells. The auto-shut off feature prevents the cells from being run completely flat, so the clock time won't be lost. It is also important for rechargeables, because running them flat significantly reduces their lifespan.

Automatic shut off timer - Everytime the DE1105 is turned on, the sleep timer starts. After 90 minutes, the unit will shut off. It makes it much harder to forget to turn off the unit, saving battery power. And if the sleep functionality is not desired (such as when running off the AC adaptor), the 'Exit' button can be pressed immediately after turning the power on, cancelling the sleep function.

Wake-to-radio settings independent - The time, band, frequency, volume and duration for each of the three Wake-to-Radio alarms can be set independent of each other and the current settings. For example, this means you could effectively set the radio to tune to one station at a specific time, and automatically tune to another at a later time. The electronically controlled volume also means that the radio will be able to wake you up without fail, even if the radio was used in sleep mode at a very low volume setting.

SW fine tuning in 1 KHz steps - when using the DE1105 to tune into ham or utility station frequencies not using a multiple of 5 KHz, the 1 KHz tuning step provides excellent control to getitng the tuning spot on.

Tips and tricks

Display clock when radio is on - Hold down the 'Exit' button for one second. The clock and temperature will be displayed for about 6 seconds.

Cancel or extend sleep timer when radio is on - The radio does not need to be turned off to amend or cancel the sleep timer. Hold down the Exit button for one second. Once the clock is displayed, press Enter. The new sleep time (from 01 through 99 minutes) can be entered, or Exit can be pressed to cancel the timer.

Problems

Front end easily overloaded, no external ant socket - The AGC can pump very badly when the signal strength or noise level is too high. The radio is not designed to be used with an external antenna. Even clipping a random wire of a significant length to the whip antenna can overload the front end when used in heavily populated residential aread. Touching the metallic trim or front brushed aluminium facia effectively grounds the radio, causing the overloading to worsen.

If the DE1105 were to incorporate a dedicated external antenna socket (with the appropriate AGC response) it would make the radio much more versatile on the SW band. An inclusion of a local/DX switch or adjustable AGC setting would also allievate the issue, making the DE1105 better for DXing without the overloading problems.

Non-continous seek tuning on SW band - The seek feature will only scan through each of the meter bands. It will skip across the gap in between the meter bands.

This also poses a problem the tuning wheel if the tuning step is set to 'Fast' - Upon reaching the end of one band, the radio will skip over to the start of the next band. The only way to prevent this when using the wheel is to use the 'Slow' step mode, or use the Step +/- buttons.

No SSB - For a unit with such a rich feature set, the omission of SSB capability is a significant let down. Other Degen models, such as the DE1102 and 1103 (and the rebranded Kaito KA1103) have SSB functionality. The DE1102 (Kaito KA1102) is only slightly larger and is a better performer.

Fixed whip antenna - The DE1105's whip antenna can only be extended vertically, and cannot swivel. This makes it more prone to accidental damage when fully extended.

FM extra bass mode tied to stereo - The FM button, when in FM mode, will cycle between FM Stereo, FM Stereo with Bass Boost, and FM Mono. There is no way of enabling Bass Boost in FM Mono mode.

Limited coverage - The DE1105 only tunes up to 26.1 MHz on the SW band. Many other feature-rich receivers can tune up to 30 MHz. It also only goes down to 70 MHz on FM, whereas others can tune down to 64 MHz.

Bad imaging below FM 88 MHz - the DE1105 suffers from poor image rejection on FM frequencies below 88 MHz. With an IF of 10.7 MHz, strong stations above 88MHz are heard 21.4 MHz below their frequency. This can pose problems for users trying to tune into TV FM audio if there are strong FM stations nearby.

Summary

For the price, the DE1105 is a very decent receiver. The feature set is innovative, albeit a few quirks and issues as described earlier. As a pocket-sized receiver, there are limitations to what features Degen could cram in, and they have done quite well. Being low-medium end consumer world-band receiver, the DE1105 is aimed at those starting out with SWLing, or those who spends more time on MW and FM with the occassional need for SW.

If you can't shell out the cash for an equivalent Sangean or Grundig receiver, the DE1105 can be recommended as an alternative.


Comments

Eugenio, Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:26 pm: Reply
Lo peor de este receptor, es su sonido metalico,super agudo,chirriante , que lo hace parecerse a una radio de juguete

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