Kaito KA390 Portable AM/FM Shortwave NOAA Weather Radio with LED Flashlight, Color Black

Excellent radio. Easy and clear tuning. The three type D batteries guarantee a lot of power. The sound is surprisingly good too. Something unexpected, given the size of the radio, which is not very big.

I’ve had this radio two years. Yeah, the tuner is very touchy. But, battery life is amazing! 3 D cell batteries have lasted two years with sporadic use. Lately I’ve used it on the patio for a couple of hours per day. Same old batteries!It has kept us informed through a 4 day power outage after a tornado, a winter power outage, and relaxing on the patio listening to talk radio.I don’t use the short wave radio, but AM/FM and weather band picks up well. (Turn the tuner very slowly).The antenna is long. Volume is great for the size.I bought this radio specifically because it’s not digital. No frills, and wanted something with long battery life in case of an emergency or God forbid, a war.It’s perfect for what I wanted.

First, the dislike: the clear plastic facing that display the stations came off during shipping. It still had the adhesive so I stuck it back on, fell off an hour later. The tuning knob has came off twice. I’ll have to get some super glue to keep those pieces down.The good part: having it for one day I like it. For the price it has good clear sound and goes a decent volume. I didn’t have a problem tuning into stations. I use 3x d batteries which give it some nice but not heavy weight. You can also use an adapter but that is a separate purchase.Overall it is a nice radio and does what it needs to do. Good for Camping, office, backyard, garage, etc

If you would like an in depth review of this radio, check out 'Todderbert' on youtube. He does a great job so no point going into specs etc on this KA390 radio. Just want to comment that the product engineers at Kaito must have been given the following assignment when they were tasked with designing this radio:Design a portable radio that has excellent FM/AM sensitivity/selectivity, throw in a little SW band and NOAA weather band and has a long battery life, and is so cheap in price we will make little profit on it.They delivered. You can see the careful thought that went into this radio. From the 'D' size batteries placed along the bottom of the radio for stability and long life, to the non-swiveling antenna that is increased in length to compensate for that. This radio at $20 ($23.98 on Amazon at this writing) is well worth it. In my opinion it is best suited to in home or office use and less so to outdoor activity setting where it might get knocked around. I use it in the bathroom for getting ready for work and its great. If your somebody who has to shower with bathroom door closed so your bathroom is like a steam sauna then get a different radio. It doesn't come with AC adapter but I don't have need of one since battery life is awesome on this radio. Glad I made the purchase.

I've had this radio for about 6 months now. I'm mostly happy with it mainly in the area of good quality sound and the tuning on FM, AM and NOAA. The World Band straight up doesn't work LOL! Seriously I haven't been able to listen to ANYTHING on the WB side as it doesn't pick anything up zero. I was hoping to get some action there which was why I bought this model Kaito.The flashlight is really nice, can't say I'll ever use it but if I do its nice and bright. The Antennae is nice and long seems to work well even on am/fm even without it extended. I ike the headphone jack, so far haven't needed it but like the flashlight its nice to know its there. I mainly bought this as an every day listener while at my desk, but also I can grab it and go in an emergency or take it camping or fishing.It runs on D cell batteries and so far even with inexpensive Harbor Freight batteries it runs great. Still running on the original batteries I bought 6 months ago. I bought the adapters to AA sold here on Amazon for flexibility and in case of D not available I can throw in some AA rechargables. I also ordered the corded wall plug for it direct from Kaito as the one suggested here arrived and wasn't correct size.The main reason for the 3 stars instead of 4 is that the plastic face that shows the bands fell off. I had the radio on for a long time one day and the glue holding it in place must have softened. This will be easily fixed with some super glue... but I have to go buy some now which is a little hassle. Plus if you screw up and put too much super glue on the needle is right there and you could mess the whole thing up! So I will carefully do that when I have a minute.Overall, I'd say I'm okay with this radio. I use it almost every day and it does receive FM really really well as other reviews have stated. The NOAA band is not as nice as my radio shack NOAA only radio, but it works good enough. AM is good enough and I rarely listen to AM anyway. I know Kaito makes other models and possibly I should have just gone with a non-world band model with the crank arm for power. Hope this helps with your purchase.