Ham Radio 2000 #1/Ham Radio 2000.iso/ham2000/scanner/mods/aor1500.mod

Internet Message Format | 1993-11-04 | 16.6 KB

From news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!news.tele.fi!sunic!psinntp!psinntp!panix!schuster Fri Apr 30 14:09:32 EET DST 1993
Article: 19882 of rec.radio.shortwave
Xref: news.cs.tut.fi alt.radio.scanner:4399 rec.radio.shortwave:19882
Newsgroups: alt.radio.scanner,rec.radio.shortwave
Path: news.cs.tut.fi!news.funet.fi!news.tele.fi!sunic!psinntp!psinntp!panix!schuster
From: [e-mail] (Michael Schuster)
Subject: Review: AOR AR-1500 handheld scanner
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1993 23:51:47 GMT
Lines: 318

Perhaps because of rapidly changing laws regarding full coverage scanners,
these radios are generating a lot of interest lately. One of these models
is the AR1500 handheld. The attached review was written by Howard Bornstein,
author of the "Guide To The AR1000" guidebook. It is re-posted here by
permission of the author.

==========================================================================

                                 PRODUCT REVIEW

AOR AR1500 continuous coverage handheld scanning receiver with SSB.

                                            by
                              Howard Bornstein
                              Copyright  1/25/93

This is a review of the new AR1500 continuous coverage handheld scanner
from AOR. Consider this review to be preliminary, since it was conducted
on a unit I had available over a weekend and does not reflect long-term
usage. In this review, I will be comparing the AR1500 to the AR1000 and
the Radio Shack PRO-43, two other scanners I am very familiar with (I am
the author of the Guide to the AR1000, and the upcoming Guide to the
PRO-43).

VERSIONS
There are three versions of the AR1500 known at this time. The original
AR1500 was released and available in Japan, the UK, and Europe in mid
1992 and was known simply as the AR1500. A later revision to this scanner
appeared in late 1992, called the AR1500E. This model differs from the
earlier model by including a cascade filter at 58.075 MHz IF to improve
selectivity, a DC input protection diode to guard against reverse polarity
connection, additional buffering in the microprocessor to protect against
software crashes when scanning an empty bank, and a reset switch in the
battery compartment.

A new revision, called the AR1500EX, will be available on Feb. 9, 1993
only in the UK. It contains a substantial redesign of the PC boards and logic
circuits. The RF board has been completely redone. In addition, the BNC
connector has been reinforced. The unit is supposed to have better
selectivity and better handling of strong signals.

This review was conducted on an AR1500E that was imported in the US
from ACE Communications. My thanks go to Glenn Cohen of Scanner's
Unlimited for the loan of this unit for testing.

FEATURES
The AR1500 is a very feature-laden scanning receiver. It's main features
are:

o  900 general channels of non-volatile scan memory. (100 channels
    dedicated for search and store feature).
o  10 individual search banks. (Bank 9 dedicated to search and store)
o  Reception in FM, wide FM, and AM modes.
o  Contains a beat frequency oscillator (BFO) for reception of single side-
    band (SSB) and continuous wave (CW or Morse) signals. It can receive
    both upper side-band (USB) and lower side-band (LSB) transmissions.
o  Continuous coverage from 500 KHz to 1300 MHz with no gaps.
o  Searches and scans at 20 channels per second.
o  Any channel can be the priority channel which is active in search, scan,
    or manual mode.
o  Search increment is user-selectable in any steps of 5 KHz and 12.5 KHz
    up to 995 KHz.
o  Tuning knob.
o  Channels, scan banks, and search banks may be locked out. Also,
    individual frequencies during a search may be locked out.
o  10 db attenuation switch
o  Automatic search and store function.
o  Delay or Hold feature.

SIZE
The AR1500 is a fairly small scanner, much smaller than the AR1000 and
about the same size as the PRO-43. It is about 1/2 inch taller than the
AR900. Both the buttons and the display are smaller than the AR1000, as is
the speaker.

There is a trend with current scanners to make them smaller, but there seems
to be diminishing returns in this endeavor. The AR1500 is small enough to
be a problem for some people. For someone with large hands, the small
buttons may create difficulties in programming. There are also many
controls crammed on the top of the scanner (see below). In particular, it is
quite difficult to turn the unit on and off and adjust the volume because the
On/Off/volume knob is crammed in between the BNC connector and the
Squelch/BFO knob. This makes if very difficult to get your fingers around
the On/Off knob to turn it.

Other negative side-effects of the small size are the smaller, lower-fidelity
speaker, and the smaller battery pack, reducing operation time.

CONTROLS
The top of the unit contains a number of knobs and switches. You'll find
the BNC connector, an On/Off/Volume knob, a ganged BFO/Squelch knob,
a tuning knob, a BFO button, a 10 db attenuator button, and earphone jack,
and a pushbutton switch for keylock.

The display and the keyboard are the same as the AR1000, although some
of the keys are in different positions (e.g. BANK and INC are reversed on
the AR1500 and INC is now called STEP).

Sound quality is good and the unit can be turned to full volume without
distortion, but the speaker doesn't give the same high-fidelity sound as is
found on the AR1000.

ACCESSORIES
The AR1500 in the US comes with its built-in nicad pack, a AAA battery
holder, a rubber ducky antenna, a 5 meter wire antenna with a BNC
connector on one end for HF reception, a cigarette lighter adapter, and AC
charger, a soft case and a single ear earphone.

Note that the AC charger is not designed to operate the unit but to simply
charge the batteries while the unit is turned off. If you want to use the
scanner while plugged in (which you will, since the battery life is short),
you will have to purchase a separate AC adaptor. The Radio Shack 12 VDC
500 mA adapter (CAT No. 273-1652B) works fine for this.

OPERATION
The AR1500 operates essentially the same as the AR1000. This is to say
that it uses a somewhat cumbersome programming scheme. Users of the
Uniden BearCat series of scanners and the Radio Shack/GRE PRO series of
scanners will find the AR1500 operations to be tedious.

Of more concern is that the operation of the AR1500 was modified slightly--
in some cases to handle the new search and store feature and in others to
simply "improve" the operations. However, many of the special tricks and
shortcuts that were possible on the AR1000 (and described in the Guide to
the AR1000) no longer work on the AR1500. While learning how to use the
AR1500 is not all that difficult, it requires more time than most scanners and
more consultation with the user documentation.

An interesting difference between the AR1500 and the AR1000 is that every
keystroke you enter on the AR1500 generates an audible beep for feedback.
This capability is also found on some of the Fairmate versions of the
AR1000 (i.e. the HP100 and HP200). On the AR1000, there is no
keystroke beep.

USER'S MANUAL
The AR1500, as supplied in the United States, comes with a 19 page user's
manual. This manual briefly describes the keys, the controls, and the basic
operations, but doesn't go into much detail about how to take advantage of
the power of this scanner. In addition, there are some serious errors in the
documentation, particularly in the examples. As stated above, the Guide to
the AR1000, while covering all the basic operations of the AR1500 (minus
the BFO and search and store feature), addresses many tricks and shortcuts
that are not applicable to the AR1500. As a result, the Guide to the AR1000
is not primarily recommended to owners of the AR1500.

The user's manual for the AR1500 available in Australia and New Zealand
is better and the manual produced by AOR Ltd. in the UK is the best.

PERFORMANCE
The following characteristics are based on my subjective analysis during
usage and not on laboratory tests. They may be specific to my location (San
Francisco Bay area).

SENSITIVITY
The AR1500 is a quite sensitive receiver. It proved to be more sensitive than
the AR1000 but less sensitive than the PRO-43. It easily broke squelch on a
signal that the AR1000 could only hear with the squelch opened manually.
Both units were using identical DA900 rubber duckies.

Like the AR1000, the AR1500 can pick up SW and MW signals when
attached to an appropriate long-wire antenna. While you wouldn't buy this
unit as your primary shortwave receiver, it can pick up strong SW signals
nicely (subject to signal fading) and the AR1500 can easily decode SSB
signals.

INTERMODULATION
The AR1500 seems to have about the same intermod problems as the
AR1000. My unit got periodic FM radio broadcast interference all across its
frequency range. While it wasn't as bad as the Icom R1 is rumored to be, it
was noticeable.

IMAGES
The AR1500 is supposed to be triple-converted, but I noticed images in the
800 MHz range. I picked up cellular phone conversations on the local
government frequency of 812.2125 MHz. This was the only frequency I
noticed images on. The AR1000 doesn't do this.

RF
The AR1500 puts out a fair amount of RFI. It stopped the PRO-43 from
scanning at a distance of over 4 feet. If you are using this scanner near other
scanners, you might have a problem.

BATTERY LIFE
The AR1500 comes with a custom 5 AA cell molded nicad pack. The pack
is removable, but there is no way to charge the pack while out of the
scanner. The scanner also comes with a battery holder that will take 4 AAA
alkaline or nicad batteries. I wasn't able to do a battery test on this unit but
the custom nicad pack battery life is said to be about 4 hours. The AAA
battery pack life is supposed to only be about 2 hours. Any AR1500 users
who have more accurate figures than this are encouraged to contact me and I
will update this document to reflect these figures.

Charging time is approximately 15 hours and you are warned not to
overcharge the nicad pack.

Battery life and maintenance seems to be the biggest problems with this
unit. It will not be very useful in the field if you run out of juice in a few
hours. And, unfortunately, you can't be charging one pack while you are
using another.

SSB OPERATIONS
One of the more intriguing features of the AR1500 is the ability to decode
SSB. The AR1500 includes a BFO that you can use to tune in upper or
lower side-band signals. There are a number of limitations to this feature,
however.

I had hoped that you could simply program in a number of utility stations
and scan them in SSB. However there are a couple of things that make this
impossible. First, the squelch control on the AR1500 is as squirrelly as it is
on the AR1000. The squelch setting is different for different bands, and in
the SW region it is practically useless. You cannot squelch out many
frequencies, even if they don't appear to have an active signal or carrier.
Therefore, you can't really scan these frequencies.

The second problem has to do with the resolution of the AR1500. The finest
tuning increment you can select is 5 KHz. You use the BFO to tune between
the 5 KHz limitations. So, for example, if you wanted to pick up 8989
KHz, you would have to enter 8990 and then tune down to 8989 with the
BFO. Of course, the setting on the BFO would be different for this station
than it would for 7613 (you'd have to enter 7610 or 7615 and tune in
between with the BFO). What this means is even if you could scan SW
stations, the BFO would be set at a different location for each station.

While I didn't try this with CB, presumably you could enter all 40 CB
channels, set the BFO to USB and scan all the USB CB channels. Then,
just by turning the BFO a bit, you could scan all the LSB CB channels. If
any AR1500 user can confirm this, please drop me email and I'll update this
document with your comments.

The unit I tested also put out an extremely high-pitched whine while tuning
in the SW bands.

SEARCH AND STORE
The search and store feature provides a way to automatically take active
channels that you find during a search and plug them into scan channels.
The search and store feature on the AR1500 is pretty limited in its capability
and usefulness. This is somewhat frustrating, especially since all of the
capabilities are built into the AR1500 to have made this a much more useful
feature.

Whenever you search with search bank 9, every channel it stops on is
automatically plugged into the next succeeding scan channel in scan bank 9.
The first signal goes into channel 900, then 901, etc until you fill up all 100
channels in scan bank 9. When you reach channel 999, the unit starts over
with channel 900 again.

The way you would use this is to start searching and then later simply scan,
using scan bank 9. The problem with this feature in the AR1500 is that it
stores anything it stops on during a search. It will store open carriers, data
channels, static, and any other kind of signals. The biggest problem,
however, is that it stores the same frequencies over and over again.

This could have been eliminated and the search and store feature could have
been made to be much more useful had AOR simply combined the search
frequency lockout feature with the search and store feature. This way, as
soon as the scanner stopped on an active frequency during a search, the
frequency would be stored in scan bank 9 and be locked out of search bank
9. Then, an active frequency would only be stored once.  In addition, the
scanner wouldn't have to needlessly stop on channels you have already
stored, making it more likely that you could catch the elusive signals in the
range you are searching. Then, when you scan bank 9, you'd get all the
frequencies found during your search with no repetition. Alas, it wasn't
implemented this way, so IMHO the search and store feature is quite a bit
less useful.

In addition, the search and store feature only stores the mode as AM or FM.
If you are searching in WFM mode, the channels get stored as FM mode,
not WFM mode.

RECOMMENDATION
The AR1500 is an amazing piece of engineering, cramming incredible
functionality into a very small package. Unfortunately, the small size itself
may be more of a minus than a plus. It makes the unit harder to operate and
gives it a considerably shorter battery life. In addition, the designers of the
AR1500 didn't fix many of the idiosyncratic problems of the AR1000 when
they designed this new scanner.

While the AR1500 is more sensitive than the AR1000, you lose 100 scan
channels and one search bank to the dedicated function of the auto search
and store--a feature which may not be of great value to most users.

You also get SSB reception, but this feature generally can't be used in
scanning mode. This makes SSB reception a single station feature. Since
the AR1500 isn't designed as a primary shortwave receiver, this feature
should be considered a bonus, not a main selling point.

Unless you have a specific and demanding need for SSB reception, it seems
hard to justify the additional expense of an AR1500 over an AR1000,
especially considering its difficulty of operation due to its small size and its
short battery life. However, if you are in the US and are buying the
AR1500 from the UK, with the current exchange rate, you may get a price
comparable to the US version of the AR1000. In this case, the trade-offs
might make sense.

The AR1500 has the same intermod and squelch adjustment problems as the
AR1000. In fact, the AR1500 manual from ACE carries this disclaimer in
the warranty:

"We do not warrant that the operation of the unit will be uninterrupted or
error free."

BOTTOM LINE:
If you want a continuous coverage scanner and don't have a pressing need
for SSB reception, buy an AR1000.

Feel free to contact me with comments, confirmations, criticisms, or
additional information (I'd appreciate holding off on the death threats if you
don't mind!)

Howard Bornstein
[e-mail]

==========================================================


--
Mike Schuster       |        [e-mail] | [e-mail]
------------------- | [e-mail] | GEnie: MSCHUSTER



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