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This review appeared in the August '98 issue of Scanning USA and appears here with permission of its editor.
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The King is dead! Long live the King! Well, almost. The King of handhelds has
some new competition so its reign may soon come to an end. AOR has seen fit to
relieve the venerable AR8000 with its newly introduced AR8200 (one wonders what
happened to the AR8100?) Those individuals lucky enough to live in Europe are
just starting to see deliveries of this hot, new, CE approved radio. Those in
the US will have to wait another month or so until it hits our shores.
While AOR chose to dub the AR8000 "The New Concept", the AR8200 gets the distinctive title of "The Superior Concept". And how true that is. AOR has done a tremendous job in giving us much the same radio with most of its rough edges smoothed over. Read on to see just how!
Rich Wells |
Specifications
My unit was recently purchased and bears serial number 070068. This radio is quite a bit smaller than the AR8000. It measures 2.5" wide, 5.6" high and 1.5" deep. It is very light at 6.3 ounces and feels very solid. Fit and finish are excellent. All of this represents a radio which is a far cry from its cheaper predecessor and AOR deserves praise for this. It is probably the best constructed handheld they have ever produced.
If, for no other reasons, the AR8200 sets itself apart from all other radios simply by virtue of its green color. I would characterize it as just a few shades lighter than olive drab. The radio plastic itself is colored as a lighter green and then appears to have been sprayed with a darker green coating giving it a nice, no-slip grip, rubbery feel.
One of the first things that will catch your eye is probably the hefty manual which is included. At 140 pages, it's bound to make some hearts flutter! It tops the AR8000's which was quite large at 116 pages. Like the radio, this manual has been redone and represents a higher level of writing and detail.
One thing which makes the manual so large is the redundancy which is deliberately included to help keep you from flipping about looking for referenced topics. Diagrams appear throughout as do hints and tips for best use of the radio. Topics progress from the simplest operations and build upon these to work up to the more advanced features.
There is a lot here to learn including, as always, a new set of terms and feature names. But there is no reason why most anyone can't learn this radio nearly inside and out if the manual is read methodically and used with good doses of patience. Don't be put off if you have to keep the manual handy until you commit the various operations to memory!
I've only noticed two typos in the manual thus far. One appears in the very first pages where it mentions the operation of the squelch and how it relates to readings of the S-meter. The other is in regards to the sleep feature which specifies a value increment in seconds when it should be minutes.
The included antenna is also a nice upgrade from the useless unit shipped with the AR8000. With that said, it is still only average in performance. My testing shows it to be weaker than average on VHF and better than average on UHF so it balances out overall. It will definitely be good enough to get you going but for better reception, especially on the HF band, you'll want an upgrade.
A new beasty is the supplied MW antenna to be used for reception in the normal AM broadcast band. While the AR8000 had an internal ferrite antenna for this purpose, AOR decided to make it a user option for the AR8200. If used, it is attached by sliding it into a socket on the top panel which is accessed by a sliding cover. The connector is not keyed so it is possible to insert the antenna backwards in which case it will provide no better reception.
The supplied AA NiCd cells are not charged out of the box so be sure to get those going. These cells are rated at 660mAh which is getting to be on the weak side with today's proliferation of cells rated at 1000mAh and higher. Rechargeable cells can be charged while in the radio using the supplied AC or DC adapter. Just be aware that there is no switch for this operation so if you use regular alkalines, be sure to remove them before using external power.
The battery compartment is accessed by a sliding latch on the rear panel which leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to ergonomics. Sliding it up allows the top edge to hinge outward and then the panel can be removed thus exposing the compartment. Looking closely at the cell holders, you'll notice that there are little channels for the positive terminal cell buttons to slide into. Problem is I have found some NiCd cells whose cell buttons are too wide for these channels and thus can not be used in the AR8200! You'll also discover that regular alkalines can just barely be shoehorned into place as the design of the holders was obviously aimed toward NiCd and NiMH cells which are usually a bit shorter.
Just like its predecessor, the AR8200 comes supplied with a strong metal belt clip which attaches using two screws and lock washers. Everyone will appreciate this touch and begin to wonder why more manufacturers don't do so.
Controls
One of the first improvements you'll see when looking at this radio is the
upgraded keypad. The keys are elliptical and very rounded with the key
lettering itself buried beneath a clear, shiny coating. The keys are white
with lettering in black and orange. The orange coloring is hard to read due
to the shiny coating. Secondary lettering appears above the respective keys is
white.
Like most radios of its day, the AR8000 incorporated the on/off switch as part of the volume control. The AR8200 follows the path taken by other more recent offerings by using a power key. It appears on the keypad as PWR and is readily picked out by its orange coloring. No more messing with the volume setting each time you turn on the radio. The volume remains fixed and you use this dedicated control to turn the radio on and off.
Each keypress, and most control activations as well, are accompanied by a beep which can be turned off or its volume set using the menus with a value between 1 and 10. Setting one works just fine for me which happens to be the lowest. Good keypresses sound a higher pitched beep while errors emit a much lower pitch.
Turning to the top panel we see the usual BNC antenna connector, volume and squelch controls as well as the aforementioned MW antenna port. The volume and squelch controls are a good size and have nice grips. On top of each are small markings which would have been nice had they been marked in white for easier setting identification. Mechanically the controls are quite nice. Very smooth and no lateral or vertical motion was detected which speaks well for their long term viability.
Squelch action is very tight with little hysteresis. The typical setting is about the 9 o'clock position for most signals. Compared to most of my other radios, the squelch tail on the AR8200 is a bit on the long side and can be annoying at times.
On the right side panel we see the hand strap mounting point as well as some dust covers protecting the monaural earphone, DC power and data interface jacks.
The left side houses the dominant radio controls and indicates AOR's intentions to design and build a revolutionary radio. As usual there are the function and monitor (open squelch) keys as well as the key lock button. There is also an eject button used to help remove an inserted slot card (more on those later.) Unfortunately, AOR did not give us a dedicated backlight activation key.
The key lock is VERY small to prevent accidental activation. Even so, you must press it in and hold it for about two seconds for it to activate. Once locked, there's no way this puppy is getting unlocked by accident! And while engaged, the only controls which are effective are the PWR key and volume and squelch controls.
As for new innovations, we have the rotary thumbwheel and 4-way rocker control. The rotary thumbwheel replaces the cylindrical control usually found on the top panel. By doing so, it allows one hand to hover over the control panel while the other remains over the keypad thus achieving a level of efficiency found on few radios of this type complexity.
The 4-way rocker is also new and consists of a diamond shaped pad with arrows at each point (for left, right, up and down) and it rocks around a central pivot. It is primarily used for menu traversal and editing but can also be used for memory navigation as well as frequency tuning. This is a particularly handy control and you'll come to appreciate it quickly. It's biggest drawback is probably the fact that it activates with light touches which often times results in unintended operations.
Continuing our tour, we arrive at the back panel which houses the mounting points for the belt clip as well as the radio id sticker containing the unit's serial number. Below this is the battery compartment access switch and cover. The bottom of the radio holds the slot card port cover which flips down revealing the slot for card insertion and extraction.
Features
Above the keypad is the new and improved LCD. It is covered by a large expanse
of almost flat plastic which does represent a problem when it comes to its
ability to reflect its environment much like a mirror. The LCD itself is a new
design and departs from the pure dot matrix approach used by the AR8000 which
limited the amount of information that could be conveyed on the screen at any
one given time.
This new LCD uses a custom approach much like the Yupiteru MVT-9000. Part of the LCD consists of predesigned indicators like you'll find on most radios while the rest of it consists of a dot matrix readout.
This readout takes the form of four lines used to convey plenty of information which includes the radio mode, receive mode, step size, frequency, alpha-tag, S-meter, band scope and messages. As for the custom indicators, there are twenty of them and they indicate the status of such things as the attenuator, key lock, low battery condition, etc.
Overall, the LCD is nicely done and easily readable from just about any angle. There is also a separate feature which allows the contrast to be adjusted between 1 and 10. I find a setting of 8 about the best as it allows me to read the dot matrix display readily and avoids the ghosting artifacts of the indicators which are not lit.
The display is lit by four green LEDs located along the top edge. They do a good job of illuminating the entire display with uniform coverage. The keypad is backlit in green as well allowing easy control and use of the radio in the dark or dimly lit areas.
To control the backlight, there is a feature allowing it to be turned off, locked on, or activated for five second intervals when most keys and controls are used. As mentioned earlier, there is no on-demand key. The manual also mentions that the backlight will remain locked on if external power is used.
Below the keypad we have the speaker grill. Visually, it looks a little smaller than the one on the AR8000. Audibly, it is definitely more crisp which helps it to cut through ambient background noise. Once you get use to it, you will probably notice that voices on the AR8000 sound a bit muffled. Audio power is in abundance for such a small radio. There is the typical hiss from the audio amp which is left powered on. While not as intrusive as the AR8000, it is still evident in a quiet room.
Hooking up a multimeter, I took some current measurements in various modes to get a feel for the power drain on the batteries. Sitting idle, the radio used 120 milliamps (mA) which dropped to 25mA with the power saver engaged. Receiving a signal with the volume turned off raised that to 140mA while a normal listening volume rated 150mA. Turning up the volume to just shy of distortion used 170mA.
During scanning and searching, it used 145mA. During power on, it's a real hog using 190mA while turning on the backlight adds an additional 20mA drain. This radio really likes to eat batteries so do yourself a favor and stock up on alkalines or buy some high capacity rechargeables. I also noticed that the battery cover becomes slightly warm during normal usage which is a sure sign of high battery drain.
Once the battery voltage reaches a preset level, the low battery indicator lights and is accompanied by several low pitched beeps. This appeared when the battery voltage was about 5.2 volts. As the voltage drops further, the LCD indicator changes slightly to indicate near exhaustion. This was about 4.5 volts. At about 4.4 volts, the radio turned itself off. This isn't much of a warning when using alkalines and it's almost nonexistent when using NiCd cells.
Once the low battery alert is sounded, you'll being to notice that received signals start to sound funny even at normal volume levels. It will start as constant tones being introduced and as the voltage drops further, the voices will begin to become more and more distorted.
To get the most out of the batteries, you'll want to learn how to use the adjustable power saver. You can specify the receive inactivity delay after which the power saver is engaged. After that, it sleeps a bit and then wakes up briefly to check for a signal. You can also specify how often it performs this wakeup check in seconds.
There are also two other features designed to save energy. The first is the automatic power off (APO) which instructs the radio to turn itself off when no signal has been received after a specified time which can be set between 0.5 and 9.5 hours in 0.5 hour increments.
The other is the sleep feature which is used to tell the radio to turn itself off after a specified amount of time has passed. This can be between one and 120 minutes in one minute increments.
The AR8200 does come with power-on resume meaning that the radio will continue to do on power up what it was doing at the moment it was turned off. I find this particularly useful and wish more radios had it.
Instead of the password protected banks that the AR8000 used to keep out prying eyes, the AR8200 uses a frequency readout disable to keep frequency data from being displayed. Frequencies are still visible in the VFOs but are not displayed when scanning, searching or scrolling through memory. If this feature is enabled, AOR suggests you use descriptive text labels otherwise you'll be looking at a pretty barren display!
The last feature I'll mention here is the opening message. Out of the box, the AR8200 is programmed to display "WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD OF AR8200" at power on. You can turn this message off to speed up the power on process or you can program your own message which can be up to four lines high with 12 characters on each line. First the MVT-9000, then the Alinco DJ-X10, and now the AR8200 has this nifty little feature.
VFO
Pressing the large 2VFO key puts the radio into 2VFO mode where you have two
VFOs to play with. With these, you can put in any frequency you want along with
any receive mode and step size. Each VFO has its own set of parameters (receive
mode, step size, attenuator, noise limiter, step adjust, frequency offset,
etc.)
Using the rotary thumbwheel or 4-way rocker, you can step around through the RF spectrum. Frequencies are simply keyed in using the digit and decimal keys followed by the ENT key. Partial entries can be removed using the CLEAR key or corrected using the right/left action of the 4-way rocker.
Unlike the AR8000, input frequencies will not be rounded to an even integral multiple of the current step size which I find very nice. If you then step this frequency, rounding will occur unless the step adjust feature has been enabled.
To step the VFO frequency, the rotary control or rocker switch can be used. The rotary and up/down rocker change the frequency by the current step size in the requested direction. The right/left rocker selections change the frequency by ten times the current step size. For larger changes, pressing the function key and then the step change controls changes the frequency in 1MHz steps.
The AR8200 does come with a preprogrammed bandplan which matches up the input frequency with the typically used receive mode and step size used for your country. You can also override the mode or step at your discretion. It also comes with the new 8.33kHz step size which is just starting to see use in some parts of Europe.
As far as receive modes go, the AR8200 probably sets a new record by supporting NFM (Narrow FM), SFM (Super narrow FM), WFM (Wide FM), AM, WAM (Wide AM), NAM (Narrow AM), USB (Upper SideBand), LSB (Lower SideBand) and CW (Continuous Wave). Bandwidths (in kHz) are supposedly as follows: NFM=12, SFM=9, WFM=120, AM=9, WAM=12 and NAM/SSB/CW=3.
A VFO search can be performed by setting the VFOs to the lower and upper frequency limits, selecting the desired receive mode and step size, and then starting the search.
The noise limiter (NL) can be used on AM and SSB signals to help reduce the effects of noise spikes and pulses from nearby electrical equipment.
Automatic Frequency Control (AFC) can be used except when in WFM, LSB, USB or CW receive modes. It is used to automatically tune the radio to the center of the received transmission for best reception. The exact limits of tuning are limited and based on receive mode and therefore the IF filter being used. It can go up to +/-25kHz but typically stays in +/-5kHz to +/-15kHz. Accuracy is supposedly within 1.5kHz.
The frequency offset feature is used to monitor repeater systems that use different input and output frequencies. A programmable offset size allows quick changes between these two frequencies for easy monitoring. The radio comes with 48 offsets; 28 are used by the radio itself for automatic operations while the rest can be customized by the user.
In VFO mode there are 10 quick memories which can be used as scratch pad memories to store interesting frequencies for later examination. They are not numbered but are a list with each newly added entry overwriting the oldest in the list. Those who use any Radio Shack model will notice the similarity to their monitor memories.
Also new to the AR8200 is the VFO scan which is used to check both VFO frequencies for activity without having to manually toggle between them. This should come in rather handy as it is something I had always wanted on the AR8000!
VFO has a number of parameters to help customize the receive abilities of the AR8200. These parameters (delay, free, level squelch, and voice squelch) are also available when scanning and searching as well.
Delay refers to the time the radio waits after a transmission ceases before resuming the scan/search operation. This can be disabled or range from 0.1 to 9.9 seconds. It can also be set to HOLD which forces the search to stop and remain on the current frequency.
Free refers to the maximum time a signal will be received before resuming the scan/search operation. This can be disabled or range from 1 - 60 seconds.
Level squelch allows a squelch level to be set. Only signals that are detected with strengths above this level are received. This can be disabled or can range from 1 - 255. By default, this feature is disabled.
Voice squelch is used to detect valid modulation on a received signal. The amount of audio modulation can be chosen in steps from 1 - 255. By default, this feature is disabled.
Memory
The AR8200 comes with twenty banks labeled A-J and a-j with each bank having
50 channels each. But wait! It gets better! The AR8200 comes with dynamic
memory banks allowing their size to be accommodating to the user's needs. While
not completely flexible, they are adjustable in 10 channel increments from 10
to 90 channels.
Keep in mind that banks are linked under the covers in pairs according to their designated alphabetic characters. So banks A & a are linked, as are B & b, and so on. So what you add from one bank, you take from the other and vice versa. So if you decide to make bank A 80 channels, that leaves 20 channels for bank a (initially each starts with 50, so there are 100 channels to be split between the pair.)
But there are two negative aspects to consider. The first is that performing the bank resizing is a process which takes the radio 2 to 2.5 minutes to accomplish. No Pentium 400mHz inside this radio!
The other drawback is that when resizing, if a bank is being made smaller because it's partner is being made larger, any channels that currently reside in channels above the new size are simply wiped clean before being transferred. to ownership of the new bank. Poof! Gone! So use the resizing option with caution.
One way to help prevent such accidental deletion of data is to use the new protection options. With each memory bank, memory channel and search bank comes a protection setting which defaults to off. Once it is turned on, the contents are safe from being overwritten or deleted.
By default, bank J is used to store active frequency data detected during a search when the auto store feature has been enabled. Unfortunately this can not be changed to any other bank but due to dynamic sizing, you can make it as large as 90 channels or as small as 10.
Each bank and memory channel can be tagged with alphanumeric text for easy identification. With a LARGE number of characters to pick from and twelve positions to fill, labels can be made very informative.
Problem here is that the character entry scheme used is abominable. A large block cursor is used to indicate the entry position and it flashes on and off. The trouble is that it stays on a lot longer than off and you can only see the character being selected when the cursor is off for this brief period. Thus it takes about 10 seconds to 'nail down' each inputted character.
Having gone through this torturous process for all my programmed banks and channels, I will offer up the following advice. Use the copy function wisely (it's much easier to copy a channel with the same or similar alpha-tag and then edit it's frequency then to enter a new channel and program the whole alpha-tag from scratch) and enter characters wisely by programming those characters which are close to each other in the alphabet in order. This will mean you can't enter them from left to right but I find it goes much faster.
Once the memory is programmed, the rotary thumbwheel or up/down rocker control can be used to scroll from channel to channel. Using the left/right rocker action scrolls by going from bank to bank. Be aware that like the AR8000, the AR8200 will not display empty banks or channels.
I initially started playing around by only programming one bank with about twenty channels of data. When I tried to scroll past the last channel of that bank, it took the processor about 6 - 8 seconds (to check each bank after that) to see that they were all empty and put me back at the first channel of the bank I was in. While it's doing this, the radio will have appeared to lock up. It is mentioned in the manual but be aware of it just the same.
Like the AR8000, the 8200 has a full set of functions for manipulating the contents of memory. Channels can be edited, deleted, copied and swapped at will. Entire bank contents can be copied or deleted as well. Use these with caution and make use of the protection scheme if you tend to be a bit absent minded!
Scanning
With memory programmed, the radio is ready for scanning. The AR8000 use a bank
link map for the user to indicate which banks were to be scanned. If a bank was
not in this map, it was scanned by itself. New for the AR8200 is a concept
called scan groups! What this is basically, is a set of ten bank link maps.
Scan group 0 is the factory default and can not be modified. No banks are
linked in it so it only allows individual banks to be scanned.
However, scan groups 1 - 9 are available for user programming. By using these groups, you can program your AR8200 with 9 different scanning personalities. One group could be used to scan your most common banks. Another could be used to scan just law enforcement banks and so on.
Furthermore, each scan group comes with its own set of parameters for custom operation. Just like the VFO, the scanning modes have their own delay, free, level squelch and voice squelch settings. For scanning, there is also a setting to perform a mode scan whereby only those channels with the specified mode will be scanned.
Be advised that scan group 0 has the delay set to 2 seconds which means the radio will hang around on a frequency for 2 seconds after a transmissions ends to await a reply. Unless this is your particular cup of tea, switch to scan group 1 and turn the delay off since scan group 0 settings can not be altered.
Individual memory channels can be kept from being scanned by using the pass facility. This can be done when viewing that channel or if a scan stops on this channel by simply pressing the PASS key.
Like the AR8000, this radio also has a select scan list whereby up to any 100 existing memory channels can be tagged as being in this list. Once done, this list of special channels can be scanned independently. Also, this list has its own delay, free, level squelch and voice squelch settings.
Searching
Searching for new frequencies can be accomplished by using the supplied 40
search banks (A-T & a-t) or as mentioned earlier, the VFO search capability.
Each search bank can be programmed with its own lower and upper frequency limit, receive mode, step size, step adjust, frequency offset, attenuator, noise limiter, text label, write protect status and lockout (pass) list.
While searching, the rotary and rocker up/down controls can be used to change the search direction as well as force a paused search to continue. Similarly, the rocker left/right controls can be used to search the next or previous search bank.
If the search stops on an undesired frequency, it can be added to the lockout list by pressing the PASS key. Each search band, as well as the VFO, has a 50 entry pass list. Each list can be edited independently to view, add to or delete frequencies from that list. Once the lockout list is full, it will not allow any more frequencies to be added to it
Not only does the offending frequency get locked out but so does every frequency within a +/-10kHz range. The manual points out to be sure to take this into account when the step size is small enough such that locking out one frequency may result in many more being locked out with it.
Like their scan bank counterparts, search bands can be linked and use ten search groups to define multiple linkings. Similarly, each search group contains settings for the delay, free, level squelch and voice squelch.
This mode is usually where the auto store feature will be enabled which will store search discovered results to bank J. Being as such, there is a handy function for the search parameters which allows bank J to be completely erased thus starting fresh. When doing a VFO search, the auto store function can be directed to put the results into the quick memories rather than bank J.
Just like scan banks, search bands can be deleted and copied as well as write protected to prevent accidental deletion or overwrite.
Priority
One disappointment was finding out that the improved AR8200 came with the same
old priority operation. Some of us had been hoping it would be more like the
Yupiteru MVT-9000 which uses an independent bank with multiple channels. The
AR8200 has just one priority channel and it must be one of the programmed
memory channels.
The good news is that it can still be used in just about any mode but it is disabled during the VFO scan and band scope operations. From the factory, it comes with a sampling rate of 5 seconds but this can be set anywhere between 1 and 99 seconds.
Putting it into use, I found it pretty intrusive as the audio of an active channel was chopped up while the receiver went away to sample the priority frequency to see if it was active.
Band Scope
The AR8200 comes with a much improved band scope feature in many ways. The
width of the band can be adjusted from 100kHz up to 10MHz. The 100kHz sweep
takes about 3 seconds while the 10MHz takes 35. There are also 200kHz, 500kHz,
2MHz and 5MHz widths available.
The scope centers around the center frequency which is usually specified via the active VFO frequency but it can also be used from a memory channel or search discovered frequency. The center frequency can be changed by simply entering in a new frequency via the keypad.
A graphical marker starts out at the center frequency but it can be moved using the rocker left/right controls to help identify the frequency of graphical components. The marker frequency can be listened to by pressing the monitor button at which point the scope stops updating until it is released
There is a handy feature that moves the marker to the highest peak on the readout (which would be the strongest signal received). Similarly, there is another function which copies the current marker frequency to the VFO for extended examination.
The peak hold feature is used to build up a running image of band activity. Normally, the screen clears as it refreshes on each pass. With peak hold enabled, there is no clearing of data so the screen represents all activity seen since the scope was started.
The plotted data on the screen can also be saved to memory so that it can be recalled and examined later. Unfortunately, the audio is muted the entire time the bandscope is enabled.
Performance
To test the AR8200, it was subjected to a birdie test for a measure of internal
interference suppression, an in home test for images and intermodulation, an
urban assault test to measure the effects of strong signal bombardment, and
finally, compared back-to-back with an AR8000 to see how it compared to its
older sibling.
The AR8000 had a horrible reputation for a large number of wide birdies which follows a pattern associated with this manufacturer. Luckily, it looks as though the AR8200 has broken that string of bad designs. Between 25 and 1300MHz I only found 14! Compare that to the AR8000's 250+. Of these, 3 of them won't even be tunable by US versions while the others are within the TV bands or above 900MHz.
The next phase was to detect images and intermodulation interference while at home. The results were very good! There was one FM broadcast image of local station 91.5 appearing on 85.4Mhz. There were 5 TV images but they were all above 1047MHz. As a slight digression, I tuned down to 100kHz only to find an image of the local 680 AM station.
However, the bad news was that with the antenna attached, some form of processor or oscillator noise was getting back into the radio. I detected about 30 such frequencies with half of them in the UHF military aero band between 290 and 390MHz. The rest were spread between 403 and 625Mhz.
Next up was the urban assault test where I took it to a particularly nasty part of town that gets inundated with lots of strong pager, cellular, and TV and FM broadcast signals.
Everything was very well behaved below 400Mhz. Railroad fans will want to note the FM broadcast image of 105.1 on 161.67MHz. If you have some locally strong FM stations, they might just show up in your favorite band.
Above 400MHz, things got pretty messy. While far from terrible, it doesn't come close to the stellar results of the AR8000. I would probably rank it just below the IC-R10 but well above the PRO-26 and BC3000XLT for strong signal rejection.
TV images and TV/pager intermod were found in numerous places between 403 and 480MHz. TV images, TV/cell intermod and cell images were found in the 809 - 817 range. From 898MHz on up, cell images and cell/pager intermod occurred in 20 - 30Mhz wide regions every 40 - 60Mhz.
Back home, I compared the new radio to the old on 40 frequencies between 3 and 938Mhz using the same antenna for each frequency tested. In a nutshell, the lower in frequency you go, the poorer the AR8200 performs. It proved most sensitive on UHF but only on one frequency did it out-receive the AR8000. Most of the time it was beat, and here and there they were similar.
On VHF, the AR8200 was always one or two steps behind. But on HF, it was easily outclassed. For whatever reason, my AR8200 is very deaf below 25Mhz. Wondering just how bad it was, I broke out my IC-R10, IC-R1 and AR2700. The R10 left it behind while the AR2700 managed to stay ahead as well. The R1 gave it a better chance though. Not good.
Where the AR8200 did shine on HF was selectivity. The new filters are great. Didn't take long with the crowded conditions on 49 meters to realize it was a winner here. The AM filter was much better not to mention what you could do with the new narrow AM setting.
While the AR8000 came with an internal ferrite antenna for MW pickup, the AR8200 uses an external version (probably to save real estate inside the case.) Quick comparisons between these two shows the AR8000 does a little better job at receiving in this range. Using the stock antenna on the AR8200, I received only two stations in the MW band. Slapping in the MW antenna it then got 10.
Testing both radios for how well they were aligned once again showed the AR8000 was superior. On HF, both radios did very well. Up in the VHF-hi band, the AR8200 appeared off by about 450Hz while the AR8000 was about 250. Up at 450Mhz, the AR8200 was 1.3kHz off while the AR8000 showed 800Hz. Near 900MHz the AR8200 was off by nearly 4kHz!
Testing showed my AR8200 scanning at best 22 channels/second. Searching was much more spritely at 33 channels/second.
Slot Cards
The AR8200 was designed to fit an optional slot card which would expand its
capabilities greatly. There are (or I should say, will be) five optional slot
cards which slide into the bottom of the radio but only one of them can be used
at one time.
The VI8200 slot card is an analog voice inverter with a selectable inversion point between 2.4kHz and 5.6kHz in 157 increments.
The CT8200 slot card is for CTCSS squelch control and search of 50 tones. The squelch can be controlled while in VFO, scan or search modes but AOR mentions that scan/search rates will be "reduced significantly". There will also be a feature to identify the CTCSS tone being used on a frequency in VFO mode.
The TE8200 slot card is for tone elimination and helps to avoid the search and scan processes from stopping. Tones may be specified in 256 steps which cover the range from 0.4kHz to 4.2kHz.
The RU8200 slot card is for 20 second audio recording and playback.
The EM8200 slot card is a memory expansion card. It allows the entire memory contents of an AR8200 (scan banks, search banks, parameters and band scope data) to be saved. In fact, there is enough room to store four AR8200s worth. While the data can't be accessed from the slot card itself, the data can be copied to and from the AR8200 memory for usage. This allows four different AR8200 configurations to be specified and used as seen fit. Additional features allow the entire memory contents to be saved/loaded as well as just the memory channels, one specified memory bank, all search banks, one search bank or just the bandscope data.
Data Interface
Located on the right hand side just below the DC power jack is the data
interface jack. It was designed for connecting three different interfaces :
CR8200 (tape recording control interface), CO8200 (radio cloning interface) and
CC8200 (PC computer control interface).
The interface itself provides for regulated power, ground, RS-232 (Tx/Rx), AGC, audio, mute and discriminator signals. Very nice! The software companies are going to have a blast with this radio!
For computer control, the interface handles 4800, 9600 & 19200 bps and up to 99 AR8200s can be controlled via a single port by use of the address parameter which can be set on a per radio basis. AOR says their computer control software will be made available for free from their web page.
What I Would Change
If the AR8200 truly wants to "blow the competition out of the water" as its ads
suggest, it MUST improve the sensitivity as well as give it better UHF
filtering. It also needs to look into better shielding for the noise that seems
to be getting back into the radio. Wouldn't hurt to bring down the current
drain a bit either. Either that or supply higher capacity NiCds.
With a simple firmware tweak, the text entry scheme could actually be usable! I'd also like to see the audio mute be removed on the band scope (a la MVT-9000).
Other handy features on a radio which sets the standard for flexibility and customizability would be a battery meter, squelch controlled backlight and receive indicator LED.
Summary
Unlike the AR8000, the new AR8200 is extremely well built and thought out. It
looks like this radio will stand the test of time and kudos to AOR for doing
their homework.
Like the AR8000, the AR8200 continues with the tradition for features and flexibility that is unmatched by any other handheld.
Unfortunately, it appears to me that AOR has taken two steps forward and one step back. While this is a well built and powerful radio, the sensitivity and interference rejection are substandard compared to what the AR8000 gave us.
An early review of a pre-production unit supplied to a UK radio magazine noted much the same performance that I have seen. AOR assured this magazine that they were aware of the problems and that they would be corrected for production units. I'm not so sure I believe this if my radio is any indication.
While internal interference suppression and selectivity have been greatly upgraded, the dynamic range has suffered unduly. I can only hope that this is a result of early production units and that the models forthcoming, especially those for the US market, have been improved as promised by AOR.
Radio manufacturers need to keep in mind that performance is what people buy receivers for. No amount of bells and whistles are going to make a poor performer popular. Uniden learned this the hard way with their ill-conceived BC2500XLT and BC8500XLT twins.
I see a LOT of great potential with this radio. Looking at the track record of AR8000 you get a good idea of what to expect. This radio offers so much more and should sell like crazy if properly priced. The base features and user customization abilities are simply astounding. Once the optional slot cards and computer software for control are available, it will be even more of a threat to the offerings of every radio manufacturer out there.
Until we meet again, strong signals to all!
| Copyright © 2010 by Richard J. Wells |
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