NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/alt/radio/scanner/2841

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-17 | 5.7 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Mike Ellerson)
Newsgroups: alt.radio.scanner
Subject: AR2500 Evaluation
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Date: 17 Nov 92 15:18:46 GMT
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I recently purchased an AR2500 scanner for evaluation and thought I would
pass on my impressions of this unit. I have been the proud owner of
several units over the years and with full spectrum scanner becoming an
endagered species, I thought I had better buy one now.  I thought about a
PRO-2006, but the AR2500 looked more interesting for a few bucks more. I
have used the PRO - 200X series in the past and found them very good
except that I live in a fringe area and signals in the higher frequency
ranges were hard to pull in. I also like to listen to occasional SW and
ham radio broadcasts. I thought it would be nice to have a radio by my
easy chair that I could flip to the public service bands or the BBC
depending on my listening mood. I looked at the AR1000, ICOM R-100, and
ICOM R-1, but these radios do not have SSB reception. The AR 3000 does
everything you could ever want, but I was not ready to drop a kilobuck on
a radio. I understand that the AR1000 will be coming out shortly with a
BFO and will be called the AR2300. The AR2500 had all the features I was
looking for, so I thought I would try one. To sum it up, you could easily
develop a love/hate relationship with this unit. These are totally my own
opinions and observations.  So here it is :

The Good
The coverage of this radio runs from 1000KHZ to 1300MHZ continous. The
sensitivity of this radio appears to be very good through most of the
frequency range. The 800MHZ sensitivity is fantastic even with the stubby
back of the set antenna provided for this frequency range.
You have storage capability of 2016 frequncies in 62 banks, more than you
could probably ever use. Now the way they handle this is kind of weird
for us old time scanner users. There are no channel numbers ! You can put
up to 32 frequencies in a bank and they are automatically sorted in
mumerical order. There are no channel numbers within a bank. To reach the
maximum scan rate (38 channels/second) you are supposed to place
frequencies that are close together within a bank. However, I have placed
public service frequencies in bank 1, Air freqs in bank 2, etc and this
works well. It has a very good search rate of 38 steps per second in
5,12.5, and 25KHZ steps and has 16 search banks. Shortwave reception is
fair, about what you would expect from a pretty good portable receiver.
The unit has a SSB mode that can be turned on and two pots for course
tuning and fine tuning. When I first tried using this mode on the ham
radio frequencies it stunk, I could not clear up the SSB signals no
matter what. I called ACE Communications and talked to a tech and he said
that some of the external power supplies were leaking AC hum into the
unit and he would send another. Being a skeptic, I took the unit out to
my car (this unit can be moblile mounted) and hooked it to the car
battery and sure enough the SSB signals came in loud and clear with a 6
foot wire hanging of the back of the radio. The most interesting aspect
of this radio is the DB9 connector on the back of the unit. This will
allow you to interface you computer to the radio. You can control all the
functions of the radio through the computer. You can upload and download
frequencies into the banks, get the signal strength (this radio has a LED
signal strength meter), etc. ACE Communications sells some software for
about $75.00 that will let you control the radio and gives you a spectrum
display for snooping out new freqs.

The Bad
The AR2500 being pretty sensitive will sometimes suffer from front end
overloading if used with an outside antenna. This thing does not need
much of an antenna to work well. There is a -10db local/dx switch on the
back that will cut some of this out. Ease of operation is not the best.
When the radio is turned on it boots the microprocessor and does a self
test. Unlike a lot of scanners, it does not immediately start to scan.
You must press the manual/scan button first. Programming is a little
strange until you get used to it, but actually is easier once you get
used to it. The unit has a very nice feature in the manual tuning knob.
This lets you manualy flip to other freqs. or flip off one that is
annoying without having to press a button. I think this should be a
feature on all radios. The AR2500 has a known bug that sometimes requires
a couple of clicks to move the frequency down manualy. Annoying, but you
can allways press the down frequency button if you get frustrated.
The Ugly
Contruction of the unit is a little cheesy. It is in a plastic case. The
front panel is hard to read and the buttons are too small and close
together. I find myself picking up the unit to operate the controls, once
I got everything set, I can put it back down to listen. The LCD display
is hard to read (you can turn on a backlite) at certain angles.

In conclusion ,for the price this is a very interesting radio. If it was
in a metal box with sturdier construction I would be much happier. If you
need to monitor 800mhz freqs or SW broadcasts in a mobile environment,
this could be the way to go. Unfortunately, the price of this unit looks
like it is fixing to go up to $499.00. ACE Communications tells me that
the AR2300 will be about the same radio as the AR 2500 packaged in a
handheld without the computer interface for a few bucks less.