Radio Reviews

This radio is good for the kids. The am/fm provides options not available on all other such devices. It has a flexible antenna and includes a belt clip. I found the buttons somewhat difficult to push and the case a bit slippery. The serious user will want rubberized grips. Overall a good value.

I use the Frs 115 in a high noise enviroment. I bought it specifically for the radio function. I was forced to use a mono earpiece with it, as the internal speaker was totally inadequate. With earpiece it is decent. When my supervisor told me to quit using an earpiece, I purchased a handheld speaker/mic unit. I have tried two spkr/mic units with this radio and the output of the radio is totally unacceptable. The amp for the jacks seems to incompatible with Radioshack and Icom brands of spkr/mic. I want to try a Cobra spkr/mic. Also, my units couldn't pick up radio signals very well at all, even when outside of the house. Volume control only has 8 steps and will not turn unit all the way down. Auto interrupt for calls is a nice feature. I got my units refurbished , so that may be one reason I have had problems with them. The radios have also just stopped working a couple of times, and I had to let them sit for a minute before turning them back on. The fragile belt holster included with unit btoke while I was sitting in a Ferris Wheel.

It's nice to have a built in AM/FM radio in this FRS 2-way Cobra radio. While waiting for your party to call in, you can listen to your favorite stations and it 'cuts' in when they try to reach you.

The unit can be hard to 'program' but not any more than other devices like it, that have multiple uses. I didn't find the range to be any worse than my Motorola FRS radios. I like the beep that it provides when you stop talking, so the other party knows you are done.

The potential downside for some users is the 4 AAA batteries that it uses, but I use rechargables that I find last long enough for my useage, and helps cut down the cost as compared to alkaline batteries. See my review of the duracell rechargeables.

I got this clock because the alarm sounds are called chimes, cathedral bells, and something else I can't recall, but it turns out they are all very annoying. I really wanted a Zen clock that wakes you up with an actual chime but couldn't afford it. I thought this might be a nice replacement. I've been very disappointed. As others mentioned, the nature sounds are way too loud and can't be adjusted. I haven't used that feature since the first week I bought it. I'm now in the market for a new clock. The alarm sounds are driving me crazy!

I bought this for my child to sleep to the nature sounds. After buying it, I found you can only play the nature sounds in the "sleep" mode and that they will only play for a maximum of 59 minutes, and then it shuts off! Why can't it just also have an "on" and "off" button? Also, there is no volume control for the sounds, and most seem pretty loud, but "ocean" is the softest. Further, the sounds repeat after a very short time, about 3 seconds, so the pattern is very obvious and could get annoying. I'd say to look for a better product with more features.

so far, I love my clock....except one thing. There is no volume control available for the nature sounds. If you don't want to be blasted by the sound of pounding waves, excited birds or a babbling brook, you have to put the clock on the other side of the room and cannot have it close to your head. I would prefer the volumn to be lower and adjustable. Other than that, it has great features for the cost......

I'm writing this review as I browse for a new alarm clock to replace this one. Being late today was the last straw.
I've owned this clock for about 6 months now and I have been late to work more in the last 6 mos than any
other time in my life. Correlation?

The biggest problem is that fact that the snooze and alarm reset buttons are almost identical in size and shape.
One is on the left side and the other on the right. Try to figure that out when you're mostly asleep.
The nature sounds are useless to me. If it doesn't sound like a freight train going through my room, I'm probably going to sleep through it.
Perhaps that should have spent less time on the nature sounds and more on the interface design. If I could give it 0 stars I would.

I'm not sure about others, but the volume control is either way too loud, or way too soft. What's up with that? That's okay if you're waking up, but what if you just want to listen to the radio? And the Nature Sounds (Brook, Ocean, or Birds) only have one volume setting!!

The 'minute set' feature works by only pressing the button for each minute change - there's no 5-minutes at a time, or whatever to speed up the time setting. The Alarm Reset button is quite stiff as well. You've gotta really press it to get it activated (or deactivate the alarm).

The only plus this thing has is it's 9-volt battery compartment (ie. there IS one).

Ack!!!

I've been using this alarm clock for about 1 year and have yet to be late to work, but that may be because I'm a light sleeper and often wake up a few minutes before the alarm even goes off! As another reviewer stated, if you are a heavy sleeper the nature sounds won't be loud enough to wake you up. For me, it works great - there are 3 sounds to choose from: rainforest birds, ocean waves, and babbling brook. The bird sounds are the best - I haven't even used the others. My only complaint about this product is the angle of the clock face. It angles up, which would be fine if your bedside table was lower than your bed, but mine isn't. I've had to put little felt tabs on the back surface to raise the rear of the clock up so I can read it while lying in bed. Other than that, this is a great little clock/alarm for the money!

I got this radio/cassette player as a gift and I mostly use it for listening to books that have been recorded on to audio cassettes and I have had no problems with it other then the time when I was sitting by the pool on a hot summer day listening to music and the heat and the suntan lotion took some of the finish off of the radio/tape player and made a yucky mess but I really have no major complaints other then that it lacks some features, it doesn't have auto reverse and it only has a fast forward button and doesn't have a rewind button which I think is a weird feature not to have, if you are lisitening to music or an audio book and want to listen to your favorite song again or repeat something you missed in the audio book you have to flip the tape over and fast forward that side then flip it back over to check if you have gotten back to the song or the part of the audio book you want to listen too again and that is frustrating but at least it's a good well known brand name and doesn't eat tapes like the cheapy cassette player I got as a gift a number of years ago that ruined both my Les Miserables Broadway and London Cast recording cassette tapes so I give this 3 stars because though it's ok it definitely could be better!

I have no words to describe it... It is GREAT and WORKS FINE... sound too is good.... Worth more than the price...

I was a bit pessimistic when I purchased it BUT NOW I WILL SURELY BUY ANOTHER 2 For more of my friends .... It is good May be one the other person got was a bad one.... Great clarity....

We waited for our delivery with great expectation. When the units arrived we were happy, that is until we tried the units. We were not able the reach the 2 mile range that was advertised. Nor could we reach 1 mile, nor 1/2 mile. In fact I think we did better yelling out the window. We returned these and got the Motorola units, and they worked wonderfully!

I am an electronics enthusiast, this radio just didn't cut it, it may have an attractive case but don't judge a book by it's cover. Poor sound quality, most people would have great difficulty reading the instructions, weird layout, I personally recommend the Motorola Talkabouts, as one of the previous reviews stated that he had two Motorola's that failed to the elements, he must have been dipping it in and out of a pool or something, actually I have done that, I jumped in a pool with the radio on me, with no case, bag, or any protection for a full minute(typical me!), let it dry, 2 hours later, good as new. The motorolas are your best pick.

This is an amazing product. It is one of the best products out there. It is extremely good but I think that Kenwood was better. I would give it a 4 1/2, but that was not an option on the writing reviews. The capabilities that you can do on it is amazing, so perfect, almost as good as the Kenwood. The product is so durable and capable of committing all your business, sports and other activities for you. I think that the water resistant feature is a one you won't find often.

I've had this clock/radio for about 2 years now. I had never had any trouble with it. It's taken much abuse because of numerous falls on the floor from my high table. I got it in black, not the Forest Green they have here.

The setup is really easy, I never once opened the manual to figure out how to setup the clock and preset the radio stations. Once I had to do it in pitch dark because my college dorm room mate was sleeping and I didn't want to turn on the lights. It doesn't take a 'rocket scientist' to figure out how to use the thing. It just takes common sense from using other electronic devices.

The backlid screen is very convenient, unlike those other clocks with LCD lights, you can still see the time when the sunlight or any other bright light shines onto the display. Although the backlid screen does get annoying when it can brighten the whole entire room at 3 in the morning.

One serious drawback behind this device is that a lot of interference from other electronic devices can seriously degrade reception of radio frequencies. This makes the radio an hassle to use whenever I turned on my older computer and my older electronic devices, whenever I have newer ones around it turned on, it worked just fine. So I'm guessing that the older electronics don't comply with the newer FCC regualations towards radio interference. So if you have older electronics around and plan on putting a clock/radio nearby it, this isn't the product you should get.

If you don't like the color get a different color, mine is black. I'm only 13 years old and I never once had to look at the directions, for the most part it's self-explanatory. My stereo can't even pick up radio stations but my Dream Machine picks them up clear as a bell.

Although the FM does not come in that well, I love this radio because it gets the best AM reception I have ever had. It is easy to use and you can find all the right buttons in the dark.

This steaming turd doesn't work with anything above windows 98, a 5 year old operating system. I just wasted an evening finding this out. Why are they still selling this ?

Drivers don't appear to exist for Windows XP. Card doesn't work.

I have several computers at home and this card worked beautifully on my old Windows 98 machine. (Works with Linux too I hear) Along with FM, It's pulls AM stations and has support for RBDS/RDS (Radio Broadcasting Data System). Two features that are rare in the PC radio card underworld. Basically RBDS/RDS means that the card can interpret additional data that radio stations transmit along with their radio signals. So you are presented with the title and artist of a song that is currently playing. The card also allows you to sync your computer's clock to the time that the radio station has. This comes in handy as the card software will allow you to schedule up to 25 events for recording. So you can capture radio programs to your hard drive for later review. It's strictly a PC radio receiver card which is nice also since it doesn't need an IRQ.

BUT...

You need a big hard drive to capture radio programs as the capture format is in WAV format only. Also the card is an ISA card which means that if your computer doesn't have a long black slot available inside ( in lieu of a short white one ) you can't use this. ISA slots are being phased out of the computer world. Also, I'm currently attempting to relocate this card on a Windows 2000 computer with some poor results. You see ADS tech does not fully support this card under Windows NT/2000. Although they do provide source code for an NT 4.0 device driver and a full programming interface (with documentation). How many people out there are really warm up to the idea of "building a monolithic device driver using the windows DDK"? (Heh! ..yeah ...Weehaa!)

I still think it might be possible to get it to work for Win2k but I haven't found anyone who's done it yet. I've heard that their tech support stinks but I haven't tried them yet so that's just a rumor at this point.

If you are looking for a tv to connect to cable I strongly recommend looking for another brand. This model has a plug in for an outside antenna that can be used to connect it to cable with the proper adapter (not provided), however because of a poor quality tuner it will not hold the cable channel signal.It looses the channel when the station switches back and forth from local to network broadcasting. Also when you turn the set off and on.I've owned several 5" color tv's and have never experienced this problem.The tv that I purchased was "refurbished" and it was really lousy... I'm not happy with the purchase, but I'm keeping it as it is not worth the hassle of returning it...

this small color TV was fine for less than a year. It has a great picture, even though tuning in to local channels was tricky. Within the first year the sound started to go, but I found if I turned the TV off and on quickly, the sound returned. I don't expect it to continue working at this rate. You get what you pay for!

I bought one of these a couple years ago. The style and size were just what I was looking for, and the picture was fine, but it lasted only a couple of months before it stopped working. I turned it on one day and smelled the distinctive "electrical burning" smell, and the unit was fried. I got what I paid for, but hoped it would last longer than that.

What does a clock do - keep accurate time - right?
This one has been slowing down with time (no pun here) - Since I bought it it is already 10 minutes behind the "real" time and there is no way to adjust the time. It comes pre-set with the time for the time zone.
Maybe one day it will be a whole hour behind and then I can get the accurate time by changing my time zone!
Great features, but useless as a clock.

Although it is very full featured, this alarm can be very difficult to use. Some of the buttons are inside a panel, while others are on top. The placement of these buttons makes no sense in terms of use. It's also very easy to accidently turn off the alarm when you're still half asleep.

Special note to users in Arizona, Indiana, and any where else that does not observe Daylight Savings Time: There is NO way to turn off the DST auto-set feature, so twice a year your clock will automatically set itself to the WRONG time!

Good :
1. Adjusts time automatically after a power loss
2. Dual alarms
Bad:
1. The nature sound feature is not any good - the quality is poor
2. Makes a loud beep after the alarm is set - really annoying late at night while adjusting the wake-up time
3. Display is too bright at night even after dimming it

I've had this clock for two years, and I am now searching for a new alarm clock. Many of the listed features are in theory very helpful, but their application in this product is unsatisfactory. Frankly I am surprised that Timex continues to market this product.

Positive features: I love the dual analog/digital time readouts. I also like that the clock functions off either batteries or the included A/C adapter, making it unnecessary to reset the clock each time the power goes out or the clock is moved.

Nature Sounds: I thought this feature would be helpful to lull me to sleep, but it is not. The recorded nature sounds are approximately 6-7 seconds long and loop continuously when playing. The "forest" sound has the hooting of an owl in the background, and the "brook" has the chirping of a bird. The repetition of these sounds is not at all relaxing to me, rather it keeps me awake! The "ocean" sound is more tolerable, but with all of the nature sounds, every once in a while I hear a static or electric buzz or click, which is disruptive enough to wake me up.

Radio Tuner: Some stations will not tune in clearly, no matter how careful I am with the dial. The dial is very sensitive, making it hard to make fine adjustments. Further, the volume dial is awkwardly placed behind the tuner on the side of the clock. I often bump the tuner while adjusting the volume.

Volume Adjustment: The volume control was fine at first, but for the past few months the volume dial responds inadequately. I turn the dial all the way up to get normal volume, then a few minutes later the volume is blasting and I have to turn it down again. A few times I have slept through the radio alarm because of this variation.

Alarm Buttons: The buttons worked fine at first, but have become very hard to press. I often push the alarm button 3 or 4 times to turn it off in the morning. Changing the alarm/time settings is an arduous task.

Appearance: Don't be fooled by the picture! This clock is covered with a metallic colored plastic, not metal, giving it a cheap appearance.

Because of these serious and varied flaws, I am retiring this clock and purchasing another. I recommend that this product be avoided.

I purchased this clock about 2 years ago, and it has been a real let-down for me. I was actually surprised to see this clock still being produced/and or sold on the market. Where to begin?...The idea of a portable alarm clock-radio with both analog and digital displays, and nature sounds seemed like a great thing. However, I had problems with the clock the first week I had it, and now it barely functions. (Should have sent it back, I know, but I didn't) The amber display is somewhat appealing, but is always on when plugged in. The angle of the face of the clock is always slanted back a bit, making it difficult to see the digital read-out unless your bed sits higher than the clock. The radio is very difficult to tune, and reception is less than desireable. As far as the nature sounds go, you would think the idea is to provide a soothing soundscape of nature's best, but you immediately notice the overlapping of the sound sequences (which last only about 15 seconds and then repeat). One of the sounds is from "the forest", and you can hear a wolf or some animal howl in the distance, but 10 seconds later, you hear it again...and again...and it actually becomes very annoying!!
The time-set/ alarm-set buttons on the clock's top side barely work now (I have to push as hard as I can to get them to work), and the radio/ nature sounds just stop working sometimes (until one day I figured out that if you close the face of the clock and then re-open it, they sometimes work again-as if being reset or something.)
The snooze bar is one of the few, if any, positive aspects of this clock, as it is very big and easily allows you to silence the nature sounds or alarms with ease. There are three alarms, which gradually get louder after starting, and after each time you hit snooze, which is a positive thing about this clock. Timex has been around for a long time, but they really needed to spend more time at the drawing board on this one. It's really not worth the "time" or money.

I had such great expectations for the alarm clock when I purchased it over a year ago. First of all it works fine. It sits nice and compact on my nightstand. However, it has too many little problems to make it worth the hassle.
The alarm clock has too many batteries to keep up with; one for the analog and one for digital clock and the nature sounds can be heard bleeding through when the radio is playing. Its just slight but its annoying to me.
Its not worth the hassle or money.