Radios Reviews

This product is horrible b/c if you live in an area with lots of stations or a radio that can't tune manually - IT DOESN'T WORK! If by chance you hear your MP3, it will be full of static and probably go out in a minute. Don't buy this product.

Very good, transmits about 15-20 feet, not quite the 30 feet advertised.

Exceptionally easy to use.

Nothing but the alarm clock part even worked. The CD player never worked and the phone was constantly changing channels making horrible sounds from static to ear piercing squeaks. The concept was great, but the quality was so poor I'm not even risking an exchange to see if it was a lemon.

We like everything about this AM/FM alarm clock w/CD player EXCEPT the radio does not stayed tuned to the channel you are listening to. This is a real problem, and causes us to be dissatisfied with this product overall. Is there anything that can be done to fix this problem?

Overall I am pleased with the purchase of this Swiss-army-knife of gadgets. I thought I would use the CD player more than I do, but it's nice to be able to wake up to some familiar tunes. The only real problem I have with the product is that the clock is hard to read (when I have my glasses off) as the digits are fairly small (this is a relative statement of course). My last clock has very large digits, so I'm still getting used to squinting and getting closer to the clock to see the time.

I really liked this clock at first; it sets itself automatically when you plug it in, it recovers after power outages, and it has nice flexible alarm settings. (By the way Theresa, weekend alarms can be turned on by holding the Alarm 1/2 button and pressing Alarm Mode).
However, after just 3 months the clock began acting erraticly; the display segments periodically fail and some buttons no longer work. Needless to say this impairs the usability. It is disappointing that a clock marketed as being so "high-tech" would fail so quickly, and I will not buy from Emerson Research again.

The AM radio is awful. Even strong stations are barely audible. All you hear is a buzz which gets louder when the display brightness is increased. The FM radio is OK, not great, but at least you can hear a few stations. The clock is fine. Nice bright display.

We have had our Smart Set Dual alarm for about 2 years. It is great. My husband has his alarm set for M-F wake up time and for Saturday and Sunday wake up time. I have only M-F set.

Today, following a night of storms and power outages, I was one of the few people not late to school as the Smart Set reset itself each time the power went off. The power went off again about the time my husband's alarm should have gone off - the backup battery was up and running and the alarms each went off at the correct time.

I have bought this alarm as gifts for several people and recommend it to everyone who needs an alarm.

I have used many alarm clocks and my problem with most of them is the part where you have to actually get out of bed. Fortunately, there are two alarm settings, so that if you snooze through the first, you get a second chance. The little weekend cancel is handy, because you won't have to do a thing for your alarm to be ready on Monday. The really cool thing is the clock doesn't have to be reset when the power goes out, which could be a problem if you like to use the "my power went out" excuse for being late to work and your conscience is easily bothered. I can't compare this clock to others, I just know that I love this alarm clock.

I work in a large public building where we have need for many accurate clocks. Our facility manager bought several of these clocks to try them out and they work great. As promised they even changed their time automatically when we went to daylight savings time this weekend!

Basically, these clocks are attractive, easy to see, and accurate - what more could you ask for!

Don't believe the last review. I had mine about a month before I tossed it out the window somewhere near Charlotte, NC. Nothing but problems, barely recieved or transmitted and was extremely weak when it did. I actually had truckers ask me to stop transmitting because all they could hear was squealing when I keyed. Tossed it, kept my K40 antenna, bought a Uniden Pro538W and have loved it! Much better radio! Don't buy anything Cobra makes!

I recently bought and installed this radio in my truck, and I have not had any problems yet!!! A few minor details are the noise blanker seems really sesitive (sometimes when it is on I do not receive any traffic) but that is about it. I enjoy Cobra products, this is my second radio (I just traded up from a 25NWXT), I have a Cobra HG2000 Antenna, and I am waiting on a Cobra Mic for my radio. So far no problems with any of it and I hope to have none down the road!!!!!

My is working good for over years now so Please buy one & try them & you will see that RedDog was wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was a mild disappointment. It is the second Garmin product that fails me, I also owned a Pilot II, whose firmware at some point lost its marbles, and now it displays only some pages and refuses to get a GPS fix.

The Venture had, almost from the beginning, a problem with the display, which flickered and became alternatively all black or white, or lost some horizontal lines, creating a nice "blinds" effect.

The problem normally went away by moderate slapping. But it is not a nice start.

Second point: the battery contacts are sub-quality, you just need to shake the unit a little and the electrodes lose contact with the battery, causing the unit to switch off.

Third: when the memory is fairly full, the operating system goes in overload mode, sometimes it does not manage to acquire the user input, and you find yourself trying to use the buttons without actually managing to do nothing. Erase the memory and the problem disappears.

Four: a few leaves overhead and you lose the fix, the sensitivity and selectivity is not great.

Maybe I had a bad firmware, who knows, but I don't want to change my firmware every month, I expect the original firmware to be OK for a while.

I just bought a Magellan, I'm curious to see if it's better or worse.

I returned a Cobra GPS 100 and upgraded to the eTrex Venture for the extra money. What a difference only a few dollars more can make! this is my first GPS unit ever, and I had no problems picking everything up within a day.

For starters, it only took about two minutes to locate a satellite for the first time (supposed to take up to five) and averages about 30 seconds to locate one in general. The screen resolution is easy to read and the options for customizing the map make it even easier if you have trouble reading small text. The waypoint markers are easy to define and edit. The compass seems to be very quick in picking up your movements. Almost everything is customizable giving you endless options for your specific use for the GPS unit. The unit is comfortable in the hand, although some of the buttons are a little stiff at first.

My satellite reception is excellent. I took it hiking in 40�F rain and hail (obviously very overcast) and only lost reception once while walking under heavy tree cover. On the way home I placed it on the dashboard and it tracked me 33 miles home without losing reception once. This was in 500 ft visibility fog on a one lane curvy mountain road. This unit definitely gets the job done.

My only gripes are there's no beep or sound when it loses reception and you have to press enter to acknowledge you have lost reception, thus it begins tracking you again. So if you hike by turning the unit on and placing it in your backpack, or even on your belt, you could have lost reception and not known it, and because you haven't acknowledged the unit, it's not tracking you anymore (as far as I can tell).

Other than that, this unit works perfect for getting you in and out of areas where there's no trails and finding that perfect spot to spend the night or fish and hunt.

I bought the Venture back in the summer of 2003 and I was never let down by it. At that time the speedometer on my car went out and as a cheaper alternative to buying the new, expensive gauge cluster for my car, I bought this GPS with a dashboard mount. So this product was used literally every day, sometimes several times a day, and for several hours a day for over 2 years.

First of all, I really only use it in navigation mode with the time, cardinal direction, and the speed being displayed, so I cannot comment an much of the other features of the unit. I have done some minor geocaching with it though, and it performed great for that, although it is tedious to enter in lat. and long. coordinates directly into the unit. I will say that using it as often as I do in my car, it is amazing. To be honest, I did not expect it to last this long. I have never had much trouble with tree cover causing a lost signal, but it does happen on occasion.

From the beginning I used rechargeable batteries and the unit has surprisngly long battery life, even with the backlight on. I replace the batteries about once every week or two, but remember, its on for up to a few hours a day.

All in all, this is a great GPS. Again, I can't vouch for many of its features, but I can vouch for its long life and consistant operation. I have gotten hundreds, if not thousands of hours of use out of this and it has yet to let me down.

This radio has good sound for a radio this small with very
little overload on FM. Not quite as selective as the Yacht Boy 400, but good. Better than the Sangean 220 and my Sony walkman.
The AM is good for nighttime listening, but daytime listening
has some interference. The shortwave reception is average, even though it doesn't cover all the bands. The thing I like most about this radio is that it's easy to carry around.

Good FM, poor SW. Lots of Bleed over. Lose all memory stations when batt. replaced. DO NOT BUY!!!

First off, I'm not a serious radiohead or DXer. This radio isn't
much bigger than transistor radios I had as a kid. For only $37.00 @ amazon you get the radio, some earbuds, ac adapter, and an external antenna wire, and instruction book. Right out of the box with very little instruction this little radio is very easy to use. After a few hours playing around with it, I was delighted with it's performance. Picked up all the major stations very easily. BBC,VOA,RCI, etc. This is a fun little radio! Sure the sound is a little tinny, but not bad at all. What do you expect for such a tiny radio with 3" or so speakers. If you're a camper, or travel a lot, and don't want to spend a lot of money, you can't beat this little gem of a radio. Would easily fit in your jacket pocket or carry on without even noticing. Clock and alarm are a nice bonus. Has better reception than any small radio that I've ever owned, for not much more money. Big, big performance in a wonderfully tiny package. Recommended, go out and get one!

Although my PNP came with this, I would have much preferred the boombox now that I've lived with it for a week.

All in all, there really isn't anything that stands out as being completely wrong with this setup. However, there are some minor flaws that just add up.

First, the audio cable is too short. Second, the power cable is too short. Third, the antenna cord is too long! Why have 2 short cables that will force you to keep the radio close to your receiver, when the other cable isn't long enough to make up for the other two?

I understand it might be my setup, but why not be safe and just make every cable 10 to 20 feet?

The antenna sits on top of my entertainment center and I continually get 2 to 3 bars signal strength which is just perfect since I can't run the cable outside.

As I said before, I'm glad this was included in my purchase and I didn't pay for it seperately.

Heed my advice and get the portability of the boombox rather than this limiting package.

While it might be a "plain Jane" in the looks department, the AudioVox SIR-HK1 home dock for the SIR-PNP2 Sirius receiver has rarely disappointed me. It holds my receiver in place quite securely, but not too much so; I've yet to have the need to summon all my strength to separate the receiver unit from the dock. Its wide base makes it very stable, and the no-slip rubber "feet" are quite effective in keeping the whole kit and kaboodle from sliding around. Both of these features have been an asset to me; my own home dock sits on a non-level surface, and I've yet to have the thing slid off or tip over.

The sound I get out of the dock via the headphones/speaker jack through the junky computer speakers I've hooked it into is surprisingly clear and sharp... granted the satellite signal is coming in properly. I can hardly wait to hear what the sound's gonna be like when I hook this up to GOOD speakers!

Speaking of satellite signals: the antenna is the only real drawback to this package. It'll pick up the signal no sweat for long stretches at a time... but every once in a while it'll get persnickety, grabbin' the satellite beam only intermittently. That's when I'll spend fifteen minutes trying to move the thing around the room and adjusting it so it'll pick up the signal more consistently. Sadly, my efforts usually are for naught, and I'll just give up and turn the radio off until the antenna feels like "behaving" itself again. Its worst bouts of "misbehavior" usually occur in rainy weather; soon as it starts pouring, I may as well forget about listening to the danged thing. Of course, I have considered the possibility that the intermittent signal pickup could be due to the antenna's placement; the windowsill I place it on doesn't have a totally clear "line-of-sight" in the general direction I'm supposed to aim it towards. Fortunately, I've been spending a lot more time listening to my Sirius radio in the car than at home; the antenna that came with my car dock is a lot more consistent when it comes to picking up the satellite beam. Also, I've found a few bargains on some large outdoor antennas that I'll likely be taking advantage of in the near future.

Bottom line: While not particularly attractive looking, the AudioVox SIR-HK1 home dock is a secure and stable nesting place for your SIR-PNP1 or SIR-PNP2 Sirius receiver, and channels surprisingly clear sound. All you need is to find the right place for the antenna to pick up a consistent satellite signal, and you're good to go.

`Late

There isn't terribly much to write about a docking station. The real deal is the receiver and the service itself. First off the receiver is great! I love the bright big orange screen, and that I can save 20 songs and it will alert me when those songs are being played. The buttons are easy to push, and this PNP is very durable.
The service is truly amazing, over 60 commercial free music channels along with sports, talk, news, and entertainment!
I enjoy listening to NFL teams that I could not normally listen to since I live hundreds of miles away. A number of college teams are also on Sirius, and NHL games.
I would reccomend you find out more by surfing Amazon, going to Sirius.com or siriusbackstage.com