Welcome Home, Kaito Voyager Pro 600
I've been looking for a decent emergency radio for some time. I had/have a Baygen Freeplay Clockwork AM/FM/SW radio, and if they were still made, I'd have bought one of those. They're fantastic in their simplicity. I say "had/have" because with a couple of moves in the last 6 years, it's been misplaced. I have no doubt it's still around somewhere, in some box; fat lot of good that does if I have an emergency.
"But Ron, read your own dang blog!" you say. True, I seem to have any number of radios on hand. You see though, they're all battery operated. Yes, it does make a difference. While by default I have a large supply of D batteries, and a couple of radios that will run for days, if not weeks on a single set, that does me no good when it's The End Of The World As We Know It and all of my batteries are dead. Because as we're all fighting over the last can of food, gallon of gas, and anarchy reigns, I'm fairly sure someone somewhere is going to be broadcasting the pop hits of the '80's.
Okay, so I don't think I really need a wind up radio, but face it, wind up radios are pretty cool and are great to have along on outdoorsy things when you may be low on batteries because your flashlight was somehow left on all night. They're also good for actual emergencies if you're not one to have any radio in the house, to throw in a backpack, emergency kit, your car trunk, whatever.
But I digress.
After much research, I'd had it narrowed it down to the C.Crane CC Observer, Kaito Voyager 500, and the Kaito Voyager Pro 600. Comparing the features, the Kaito Voyager Pro 600 won my hard earned cash as it was the only one that was digital.
The Voyager Pro 600 comes in black, green, and silver. The black looked too boring and the silver looked too much like a 90's cordless phone, so I went with green as shown above. In person, it's a slightly darker green, but not by much. It's not a dark green by any means, but still not as minty green as every pic I've seen shows. The green part of it has a subtle rubber coating. I say subtle because it's not as soft as some coatings, but it feels good and grips well.
Build
The build quality is fairly decent. I say that, because while for the most part it feels "right" and the buttons on it are solid, it does have its "cheap Chinese" quirks. The tuner knob rubs a little, the antenna is short and doesn't swivel or bend, it feels like you're going to break the battery case when you open it, and the rubber plug on the back for jacks doesn't stay shut as easily as it should.
Deal breakers? By no means, and that's about as serious as the bad goes. Very minor complaints I think. The buttons are solid on it and give a satisfying press. It's not the most rugged radio in the world, but I believe it will survive most normal falls and accidents. The LCD display is very easy to read and has bright, even, back lighting. The nylon handle looks kind of cheesy at first, but actually works well and it's not going to break. As far as handling and physically using, it's not going to aggravate you, it works well.
The only thing about this radio that wasn't built well were the included earbuds. You probably don't want these anyway as any $9 pair you can buy is going to be leaps and bounds above the ones included. I never got to try them, one of the buds fell apart when I placed it on the counter. No kidding, it basically disintegrated. If you've bought a Chinese radio in the last couple of years, you're already familiar with these earbuds and have probably already learned to disregard them.
Features
The Kaito Voyager Pro 600 has a digital tuner for AM/FM/SW and NOAA Weather bands. FM is standard tuning, AM in 9 or 10 increments, and SW is in 5 step increments. It features an ATS system that works like most of the digital radios you're used to. It picked out all the FM and AM stations available, and a few beacons on SW. Direct tuning is available through the numeric keypad and it offers 335 presets across all bands.
It has 2 alarms, sleep function, clock, temperature, humidity, and RDS. RDS allows the FM station to send metadata such as station ID, artist and song information, or just about anything the station wants.
It also has 2 different auxiliary lighting methods: a 3 LED flashlight on the side of the radio (see pic above) and on the back, under the flip up solar panel is a 5 LED light bar for reading or general lighting.
You can power it through an optional wall wart power adapter (not included), the solar panel, the built in hand crank, USB cable (not included) or 3 AA batteries (not included). Set in charging mode, the adapter, solar panel, crank and USB cable will charge the Ni-MH battery. It should also be noted that unlike some other emergency radios, the Ni-MH battery is removable and easily replaceable.
You can use the radio to recharge other devices, like cell phones, from the built in USB port, but I haven't tried it and probably won't use it. Word on the street is that it doesn't work with a lot of cell phones (like the iPhone) that want a higher voltage charge. Also, while you can put rechargeable AA batteries in the radio, the radio won't actually recharge them, nor can you recharge the Ni-MH battery from the AA batteries.
I'm probably missing a feature or two, but that covers most of it.
Functionality
FM reception was fine with or without the antenna out. It worked as I'd expected, I'd call it average. AM was not as good as I'm used to, but moving the radio around of course helped. While it's definitely not a Super Radio, I'd again call it average. NOAA Weather worked like any other Weather band radio I've had. SW remains to be determined. I picked up a few beacons as I'd expected, and that's about it. I tested this during the day, so I was surprised to have gotten anything from where I live. Also, the antenna is small and not the best option for SW. I'm thinking that for any kind of SW listening you'll really need at least a simple line or roll up antenna.
Sound quality on FM was fairly good. Definitely listenable. It's a 2" speaker, so I didn't expect much. AM varied. Indoors, the sound was that muffled bass sound that plagues a lot of cheaper AM radios, and was kind of hard to listen to. Taking it outdoors, the AM sound improved and was listenable. Again, I'd call it average. Sound issues aside, it is a loud radio even with the smaller speaker. It would easily fill a room with sound, outdoors it wasn't bad at all. I didn't notice any appreciable distortion changing volume or stations.
Both the LED flashlight and light bar work well. If you're using it as emergency lighting you'll easily be able to read by it, and if you're taking it to the toilet in the campground it should light your way just fine.
I honestly have no idea how well the humidity gauge works. It's not something I have a way to check, and I have to admit it's not something I'd ever think about checking. Maybe it has a use, or was just a cool feature that was easy to add, but if it's useful and accurate, I'm not the one to judge. The thermometer works in C or F modes, and has its quirks. I noticed the temperature would go up when I held it in my hand, or when I was charging it using USB. It would probably be accurate enough if it was sitting outside on its own.
The charging system may take some getting used to, but it works. There is a battery meter on the LED display, and a light that comes on when the Ni-MH battery is being charged by the crank, but that's all the information you have to go on. Nothing in the manual tells you how long the Ni-MH battery takes to be charged. I can understand that as far as solar or cranking goes, as those are both variable, but I would like to at least have a ballpark idea. However, there's nothing in the manual about how long it takes to charge by adapter or USB, both of which should be fairly consistent. That said, it does charge, it does play, it all works as expected. I'd just like to know what the specs are on charging.
That leads to a related issue, but it's not with the radio itself. The included manual isn't the worst radio manual I've read, but it's not close to being the best. It is a lot better than the manual Kaito USA has up on their website. I'm not going to bother linking to it, but instead of calling it "humidity" it kept referring to it as "moister". Where the manual fails is just not explaining enough. If you've used any of the Kaito or Tecsun digital radios that have come out in the last few years (including their other brand names like Grundig and Eton), you'll have no problems. This pretty much works the same as all of them. But if you're someone who hasn't used a digital multiband radio, you'll likely be frustrated by a few things at times. You'll have no problems getting the radio to work, but some of the features will be trial and error. No big deal, just needless frustration that could be avoided.
As for the rest of the features such as ATS, RDS, etc. it all worked as expected. It worked like any other radio with those features, so there's no need to cover it further.
There are some features lacking that I'd liked to have seen, and I know other radio users would've appreciated also. Namely, it mutes while tuning, which makes SW scanning annoying as you have to go slow enough to stop and listen. Also, there are no bass or tone controls. Deal breaker? Still no. Not for what the radio is and what it's meant to be.
Final Thoughts
Overall, while radio reception and sound are what I'd call average, and there are some minor build quality issues, this is a great emergency radio. I don't think I'd recommend it as someone's daily listener because of the mentioned issues, but as a camping/hiking, throw in the car, or actual honest to goodness emergency radio I think it's a fantastic, full featured package. It's small and light which means it's very portable. Easy to see at night, and easy to use to see at night. It's got all the features you'd want in an emergency radio and is fairly easy to use once you play with it a little.
If you're looking for a good, small, digital multiband radio for every day use, I'd recommend the Tecsun PL-600 or PL-660 instead. But if you're looking for an emergency radio, a wind up radio, or an unusual radio, I don't think you could go wrong with the Kaito Voyager Pro 600. It has its quirks, but none are real issues and the worst I can say about the reception and sound is that it's average, which really isn't bad at all.
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