AR-DV1 Firmware v1507i

[DSC45]

New update released today for my AR-DV1! After uploading to the receiver i've noticed a change during startup. While holding on the on button for two seconds the startup program begins as usual, and the bank previously monitored at shutdown, loads but goes to VFO mode instead of scan mode. Not a big deal but just unusual.
More to follow...

 

[KA2ZEY]

New update released today for my AR-DV1! After uploading to the receiver i've noticed a change during startup. While holding on the on button for two seconds the startup program begins as usual, and the bank previously monitored at shutdown, loads but goes to VFO mode instead of scan mode. Not a big deal but just unusual.
More to follow...

Any sign of better screen information for the systems being monitored?

 

[DSC45]

Any sign of better screen information for the systems being monitored?

I haven't noticed any change of information to the display.

 

[DSC45]

BTW I copied Taka on post # 1.

 

[AA6IO]

Dave,
Glad you seem to be enjoying the AR-DV1. I have been busy but will load the new firmware later. Will try out this weekend and report my findings. Glad we have a few more people using the AR-DV1.
Steve

 

[DSC45]

Dave,
Glad you seem to be enjoying the AR-DV1. I have been busy but will load the new firmware later. Will try out this weekend and report my findings. Glad we have a few more people using the AR-DV1.
Steve

Steve,
Really pleased with this purchase, the AR-DV1 is surprisingly an interesting receiver with simularities of the AR8600. The digital side has provided good clear results on P25 Phase l systems. I'll be trying the shortwave soon, but know nothing about it. Will have to do some research for some publications on programming and content.

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

Scott noticed problems with the 15KHz bandwidth on the previous firmware version. I did as well. The current version does not fix this. Please pass this information on to AOR.

I decided to run some quick bandwidth tests by feeding a 20 MHz S9 signal into the DV1 receiver. I verified the output was clean using my AR-Alpha in parallel. I used the S Meter indication on the DV1, which is a rough measure. I tuned the receiver rather than the generator. I did not test all the filters.

Some filter bandwidths have serious problems.

200 Hz filter looks okay.

CW 200 Hz 10 Hz Steps
19999.89 S1
19999.90 S3
19999.91 S7
...
20000.00 S7
...
20000.10 S7
20000.11 S5
20000.12 S1

500 Hz filter looks okay.

CW 500 Hz 10 Hz steps
19999.74 S5
19999.75 S7
19999.76 S9
...
20000.00 S9
...
20000.25 S9
20000.26 S7
20000.27 S5

The 1.8 KHz SSB filter is offset for sideband and looks good.

USB 1.8KHz 100 Hz Steps
19998.1 S5
19998.2 S9
...
19999.8 S9
19999.9 S7

The 2.6 KHz SSBfilter is offset for sideband and looks good.

USB 2.6KHz 100 Hz Steps
19997.3 S5
19997.4 S9
...
19999.8 S9
19999.9 S7

3.8 KHz AM filter looks more like 3 KHz bandwidth.

AM 3.8KHz 100 Hz Steps
19998.3 S3
19998.4 S5
19998.5 S7
19998.6 S7
19998.7 S9
...
20000.0 S9
...
20001.3 S9
20001.4 S7
20001.5 S7
20001.6 S5
20001.7 S3

5.5 KHz AM filter looks more like 15 KHz bandwidth.

AM 5.5KHz 100 Hz Steps
19992.3 S3
19992.4 S5
19992.5 S7
19992.6 S7
19992.7 S9
...
20000.0 S9
...
20007.3 S9
20007.4 S7
20007.5 S7
20007.6 S5
20007.7 S3

The 8 KHz AM filter has serious problems with a bandwidth of about 15 KHz and spurious responses around +/- 31 KHz from the receive frequency.

AM 8.0KHz 100 Hz Steps
19966.2 S3
...
19966.6 S3
19966.7 S5
...
19967.3 S5
19967.4 S7
...
19968.7 S7
19968.8 S9
19968.9 S7
...
19969.1 S7
19969.2 S5
19969.3 S3
19969.4 Noise
...
19992.2 Noise
19992.3 S3
19992.4 S5
19992.5 S7
19992.6 S7
19992.7 S9
...
20000.0 S9
...
20007.3 S9
20007.4 S7
20007.5 S7
20007.6 S5
20007.7 S3
20007.8 Noise
...
20030.7 Noise
20030.8 S5
20030.9 S7
...
20032.6 S7
20032.7 S5
...
20033.3 S5
20033.4 S3
20033.8 S3

The 15 KHz AM filter has serious problems with a bandwidth of about 30 KHz and spurious responses around +/- 31 KHz from the receive frequency.

AM 15.0KHz 1KHz Steps
19947 S9
...
19976 S9
19977 Noise
...
19984 Noise
19985 S7
19986 S9
...
20000 S9
...
20014 S9
20015 S7
20016 Noise
...
20023 Noise
20024 S9
...
20053 S9

The 6 KHz FM filter appears to be around 15 KHz bandwidth. I did not note any spurious responses.

FM 6 KHz 100 Hz Steps
19992.4 S5
19992.5 S7
19992.6 S7
19992.7 S9
...
20000.0 S9
...
20007.3 S9
20007.4 S7
20007.5 S7
20007.6 S5

The 15 KHz FM filter has serious problem with spurious responses about +/- 31 KHz from the receive frequency. The bandwidth looks okay.

FM 15KHz 1KHz Steps
19966 S1
19967 S5
19968 S7
19969 S7
19970 Noise
...
19993 S9
...
20000 S9
...
20007 S9
20008 Noise
...
20030 Noise
20031 S7
20032 S7
20033 S5
20034 S1

The 30 KHz FM filter appears to be around 70 KHz bandwidth.

FM 30 KHz 1KHz Steps
19957 S3
19958 S3
19959 S5
...
19961 S5
19962 S7
...
19968 S7
19969 S9
...
20000 S9
...
20031 S9
20032 S7
...
20038 S7
20039 S5
...
20041 S5
20042 S3
20043 S3

73 Eric

 

[KA2ZEY]

Steve,
Really pleased with this purchase, the AR-DV1 is surprisingly an interesting receiver with simularities of the AR8600. The digital side has provided good clear results on P25 Phase l systems. I'll be trying the shortwave soon, but know nothing about it. Will have to do some research for some publications on programming and content.

Would it be possible for a future update to include Phase 2 and Trunking or would that be hardware dependent?

 

[N9JIG]

The new firmware also does not seem to address the error in DPL code decoding. I transmitted a DPL code of 023 and the radio displays 057, on a transmitted code of 116 the radio displays 362. These are not the inverted code for these codes, I suspect there is some sort of octal error. (The codes were properly decoded by other radios...)

 

[MStep]

Would it be possible for a future update to include Phase 2 and Trunking or would that be hardware dependent?

I do not have the receiver, although have done a fairly extensive amount of reading about it. My guess is that P25 Phase II is likely more hardware dependent, primarily based on my experiences with the Uniden series of scanners.

As far as trunking goes, from all that I read, it is not AOR's intention to incorporate that feature into any of their receivers. Being "purists" (for lack of a better word), they consider their radios to be wide-band receivers first, with some scanning functions built in, more as secondary endeavors. Trunking is more the primary function of a dedicated scanner, and not a wide-band receiver.

That having been said, I'm not so uncertain that an extremely clever software developer could come along and, with the aid of the end-user's computer, could not access the control channel information that the DV1 is receiving and somehow utilize that information to provide a trunk-like function in their software. I realize that the end user would need a computer to run that software (thus defeating the advantage of a stand-alone radio), and that there are a lot of "ifs" "ands" and implied "buts". Nevertheless, there is some very clever software out there (albeit not at this time for use with the DV1), but who knows what the future holds.

 

[MStep]

Here is another thought involving P25 Phase II (or possibly some other mode)--- I know that this is out of left field, so to speak. Until someone has the chance or ability to really pull apart the DV1 the see what makes it tick, who knows what capabilities really lurk among all of those pretty chipsets ?!?

Case in point--- the Uniden HP1 and HP2 and the "Extreme" upgrade. The radios were sent out with more capability than appeared on the surface, but for an extra XXX number of dollars, here is a special unlock code that you can enter into your radio to make it have more features.

I'm not saying that this is the case with the DV1, but who knows what the full capabilities of this funny little radio really are ?

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

Since P25 Phase II uses the same codec as DMR, it should be possible. The limiting factor is use only on trunked systems.

73 Eric

 

[MStep]

Hello,

Since P25 Phase II uses the same codec as DMR, it should be possible. The limiting factor is use only on trunked systems.

73 Eric

Hi Eric---

Maybe some clarification is needed at this juncture. I know that P25 Phase I is used on both trunked and conventional (non-trunked) frequencies. Is Phase II ever used (or are their plans for its use) on any non-trunked, conventional channels? Are their any technical limitations to its being used in that way?

Perhaps that was a factor in not including Phase II in the DV1, since the DV1 does not do trunking. Nevertheless, someone could make the argument that even though the DV1 does not have a trunking function, perhaps useful information can still be gleaned from Phase II traffic.