AOR AR-DV1 - Quirks And Comments

[MStep]

Some of these issues were reported in other threads, so they existed prior to the v1512D firmware upgrade. Others may have been fixed in either this upgrade or previous upgrades, but at least on my unit, with the 1512D upgrade, they continue to exist. Others may not have been corrected in firmware upgrades, but I have seen mention of them in other posts. Let me cover some of my main concerns, and perhaps others who have the DV1 can experiment and comment.

1- There is a noticeable difference in audio quality on FM signals between the "AUTO" mode and the "FM" mode, even when all other factors (bandwidth, etc) remain the same. AUTO mode sounds great; FM mode does not sound nearly as good--- it sounds like there is much more treble. One would think that audio quality would be identical, but for some reason, it is not. This is very easy to test. Simply program in your local NOAA weather frequency and while listening, switch between Auto and FM mode. You'll notice quite a difference in the quality of the sound.

2- The CTCSS mode is still quirky, and this is very noticeable in "SEARCH" mode. While listening to some FM traffic (in either Auto or FM mode) at 15 khz, bandwidth, I've switched on the CTCSS search mode and the radio not only would not detect the proper CTCSS tone, but it also muted the audio for the signal I was listening too. This does not happen all the time. You can also test this on your local NOAA weather channel. While listening to NOAA, turn Squelch (Func-1) to CTC and then turn CTCSS to "Search". Hit Enter and you will see that the audio on NOAA almost drops out completely, with a few spotty words being heard now and then. I also tried this with some of the local ham radio repeaters as well with the same effect.. Yet on some other channels, it seems to work properly. I changed all of the other squelch settings (Auto, LSQ, NSQ, Voice Squelch), and nothing seems to change the condition. Once you turn the squelch setting in Func-1 to OFF, you will once again hear station audio.

3- Speaking of Squelch modes, the DV1 seems to have an number of them, and while the manual explains how to implement them, it does not really explain the differences in operation. There is LSQ, NSQ, Auto and Voice Squelch. In section 4-7 of the operating manual, it gives detailed information on implementing the Voice Squelch function, but it terms of what it is supposed to do, all it says is, "When the voice squelch function is activated, the audio will be muted on unwanted voice signals." I wish someone could explain to me what that means, because when I activate the function, I see no difference in the operation of the radio.

There are some other anomolies, but for right now, the above three items are my main concerns. I agree completely with Steve Sherman's assessment that if you are in an AM broadcast station RF saturated environment, as either he is or I am, some type of preselector is going to be needed for adequate reception from 1.6 - 30 MHz.

Overall, I like the feel of the radio, and the display is tolerable. DMR, P25 and NXDN reception is good--- I haven't copied any other digital modes yet.

It's nice to have a "tuning knob" at my disposal once again--- given the size of the radio, it's a little small, but I got used to it pretty quickly and it's very functional.

I like the radio. I hope others who have the unit, will take the time to experiment with items # 1 and 2 above and report back here with their observations.

And if someone can explain to me the differences in the various squelch modes, particularly pertaining to Voice Squelch, it would be greatly appreciated. The manual's explanation, that "When the voice squelch function is activated, the audio will be muted on unwanted voice signals." has me completely baffled.

 

[MStep]

P.S. I also wanted to mention the situation with the "buzzing" noise that has been heard from the unit. Although v1512D of the firmware upgrade did eliminate most of it. I still get it occasionally when I am in MEM mode and switching between saved channels. It disappears if I continue to use the tuning knob to switch between saved frequencies. Over the next several days, I will attempt to follow up more on this and try to pinpoint what causes the condition to occur.

 

[FrankNY]

In section 4-7 of the operating manual, it gives detailed information on implementing the Voice Squelch function, but it terms of what it is supposed to do, all it says is, "When the voice squelch function is activated, the audio will be muted on unwanted voice signals." I wish someone could explain to me what that means, because when I activate the function, I see no difference in the operation of the radio.

Wild guess here, but I'll bet that AOR's Voice Squelch function is similar to the VSC (Voice Scan Control) function implemented on some Icom receivers.

As per the IC-R7000 Instruction Manual,

The VSC (VOICE SCAN CONTROL) function in the IC-R7000 allows you to skip all frequencies with inaudible voice signals while concentrating on those that are clear.

This switch turns the VOICE SCAN CONTROL circuit ON and OFF. When scanning, the scan stops only at received signals carrying voices or audio signals.

If operating using the VSC, automatic stopping will occur only when voice signals are received.

NOTE: Automatic stopping may not occur if the signal is weak even if the signal contains a voice signal.

And as per the IC-R8500 Instruction Manual,

Push to toggle the voice scan control function ON and OFF.

The VSC function resumes the scan when a detected signal does not contain voice components.

"VSC" appears while the voice scan control function is activated.

This function is useful when you don’t want unmodulated signals pausing or cancelling a scan. When activated, the receiver checks received signals for voice components.

If a receiver signal includes voice components, and the tone of the voice components changes within 1 sec., scan pauses (or stops). If the received signal includes no voice components or the tone of the voice components does not change within 1 sec., scan resumes.

To toggle the function ON and OFF, push [VSC].

"VSC" appears while it is activated.

In other words, these Icom radios believe that they are smart enough to identify the sound of a human voice, as opposed to transmissions containing other forms of content, and will pause or resume scanning accordingly.

It's a feature that I've tried a couple of times and having never been too impressed with it, never used again. But those Icom models were/are analog radios. In the digital reception modes of the AR-DV1, the situation is different and the AR-DV1 may be far more capable of discriminating transmissions containing voice content versus other forms of content.

As I said, just a wild guess.

Regards,

Frank.

 

[MStep]

Wild guess here, but I'll bet that AOR's Voice Squelch function is similar to the VSC (Voice Scan Control) function implemented on some Icom receivers.

As per the IC-R7000 Instruction Manual,

And as per the IC-R8500 Instruction Manual,

In other words, these Icom radios believe that they are smart enough to identify the sound of a human voice, as opposed to transmissions containing other forms of content, and will pause or resume scanning accordingly.

It's a feature that I've tried a couple of times and having never been too impressed with it, never used again. But those Icom models were/are analog radios. In the digital reception modes of the AR-DV1, the situation is different and the AR-DV1 may be far more capable of discriminating transmissions containing voice content versus other forms of content.

As I said, just a wild guess.

Regards,

Frank.

Thanks Frank, and I am familiar with the Voice Scan Control function on the Icom radios as well. More experimentation on my part will be required, but I share your feelings regarding previous attempts at implementing that feature on analog radios. In fact, I seem to recall a similar feature on a Radio Shack Pro 2004, circa 1983 or so (and called "Sound Squelch"). Incidentally, my 2004 is still functioning fairly well.

If you perused the DV1 manual online, (and I think that the manual is impressive in terms of layout), aside from explaining how to implement certain functions, it does not delve too deeply into their purpose.

I think that I have the Scan Group Bank Link and Search Group Bank Link functions down about 90%; there are still a few unanswered questions I have about their operation. I'm still trying to fully grasp the Noise and Level squelch functions, both in manual and "Auto" mode.

On the other hand, there is still much I have to learn about reception of digital signals. Stuff like DMR color codes, NXDN ran codes, etc. Reception of amateur radio digital seems to work pretty well with the radio in "AUTO" mode--- I've got to work a bit more on the manual settings that may be required to monitor some of the business radio activities that are using digital modes.

This stuff probably comes more easily to ARO's who are using various digital transceivers.

Thanks again for your feedback Frank.

 

[TerryPavlick]

Regarding point number 1

I can agree. Auto does sound much better than FM. My radio has been updated to the latest revision.

Still playing with the radio - so that is the best I can offer for now.

Terry

 

[MStep]

Regarding point number 1

I can agree. Auto does sound much better than FM. My radio has been updated to the latest revision.

Still playing with the radio - so that is the best I can offer for now.

Terry

Thanks for the info Terry. How long have you had your radio for? I just got mine about a week and a half ago.

 

[TerryPavlick]

Acquired late September 2015.

Terry

 

[MStep]

Thanks Terry.

 

[MStep]

When I spoke to Taka today, I did mention the difference in the audio quality between AUTO/FM and FM modes, which was one of the quirks that I mentioned at the beginning of this thread. The impression that I got from him was that this has something to do with the filtering that the radio requires in Auto-FM mode to recognize and differentiate between different digital formats and that it was not likely to expect any change in that operation for that reason.

I did mention the issues I was having with CTC / CTCSS Search mode in terms of the radio occasionally muting the audio. I know that this issue has been addressed her in prior threads, and the impression that I got is that previous firmware upgrades were supposed to have taken care of that problem. I find that not to be the case, and I would like others here with the DV1 to experiment a bit as I suggested in my opening comments here. Using your local WX NOAA station seems to be the easiest way to demonstration this trait, but you should try some of the amateur repeaters as well.

And if there is an issue with using NOAA WX for this test (perhaps something I overlooked), please advise me. Remember, we are just using CTCSS in SEARCH mode.

Thanks all for your continued comments and updates.

 

[ramal121]

Howdy 'yall. OK I'm going to state I'm a new owner of the AR-DV1 (for a couple of weeks now) and my hopes are AOR is listening to these forums and will continue to improve what I consider great product.

I have read through the forums both good and sour, and as a radio tech let me say I'm amazed at what this box will do. I don't want to give a review in this thread but just let me state what AOR is doing with this receiver is pretty amazing and I hope firmware upgrades will continue to fine tune the abilities of this receiver.

I will say, for those who want trunk-tracking this is not the radio for that. Sure I've got my trunking scanners and as for their use they do the job no matter how complicated and esoteric their operation may be. This radio is a communications receiver and is designed to search and destroy, not sit on a shelf and just do it's thing. Even though many say this is old school, I find it very easy to find and analyze any channel on the spectrum. Yea, you can do it with a RTL dongle on your laptop but I find the specs of this this receiver much higher than that and listening seems so much better with a lot less fuss.

OK, now for MY gripe. The selection of certain step frequencies is broken. For example set VFO at 154.000 and select 15 kHz step. Now spin the dial one click up. VFO goes to 154.005 which is only 5 kHz up, not 15 kHz. Continue to spin the dial gives 15 kHz steps but you are now 5 kHz off and you cannot reverse to get back to the frequency you started with. What's up with that?

The steps that seem to work correctly are .01, .05, .10, .5, .1, .2, 5, 6.25, 8.33, 10, 12.5, 25, 50, 100, and 500. The steps that give the initial wrong first step are 7.5, 9, 15, 30.

I'll be checking other functions looking for errors but I hope Taka has an ear here and we will see continued improvements.

 

[MStep]

Howdy 'yall. OK I'm going to state I'm a new owner of the AR-DV1 (for a couple of weeks now) and my hopes are AOR is listening to these forums and will continue to improve what I consider great product.

I have read through the forums both good and sour, and as a radio tech let me say I'm amazed at what this box will do. I don't want to give a review in this thread but just let me state what AOR is doing with this receiver is pretty amazing and I hope firmware upgrades will continue to fine tune the abilities of this receiver.

I will say, for those who want trunk-tracking this is not the radio for that. Sure I've got my trunking scanners and as for their use they do the job no matter how complicated and esoteric their operation may be. This radio is a communications receiver and is designed to search and destroy, not sit on a shelf and just do it's thing. Even though many say this is old school, I find it very easy to find and analyze any channel on the spectrum. Yea, you can do it with a RTL dongle on your laptop but I find the specs of this this receiver much higher than that and listening seems so much better with a lot less fuss.

OK, now for MY gripe. The selection of certain step frequencies is broken. For example set VFO at 154.000 and select 15 kHz step. Now spin the dial one click up. VFO goes to 154.005 which is only 5 kHz up, not 15 kHz. Continue to spin the dial gives 15 kHz steps but you are now 5 kHz off and you cannot reverse to get back to the frequency you started with. What's up with that?

The steps that seem to work correctly are .01, .05, .10, .5, .1, .2, 5, 6.25, 8.33, 10, 12.5, 25, 50, 100, and 500. The steps that give the initial wrong first step are 7.5, 9, 15, 30.

I'll be checking other functions looking for errors but I hope Taka has an ear here and we will see continued improvements.

Welcome aboard Ramal--- I have had the DV1 for about 3 weeks now, and yes, it did take some getting used to. And I agree wholeheartedly that this is not the typical "set it and put it on the shelf" kind of radio---- this is a hands-on, "get in there and get your hands dirty" kind of receiver for doing some heavy duty exploration of the bands that you really can't do with a scanner, even one like the 536, which is an excellent radio, but designed more for scanning.

Nothing beats having that tuning dial handy to do some of that exploration. Right now, I am limited to a discone antenna, but still getting some decent reception in the HF bands--- I like to listen to the ragchews on 75 meters late at night. I'm hoping to get a different antenna system up and running, and perhaps one of the MFJ preselectors going as well--- at my location, here in midtown Manhattan, there is a bit of an image issue on the shortwave bands.

I have also received some interesting stuff on the business radio channels using DMR and NXDN, as well as listening to some of the DMR and D-Star traffic on the 2 meter and 440 ham bands.

I also concur that Taka needs to take a look at the tuning steps. I have noticed that some scanners also do this when you are using them to tune manually. Apparently there is some conflict between what you want to do and what the receiver is programmed to do automatically in terms of "steps" on certain frequencies that needs to be addressed. Thanks for pointing out that issue Ramal. Hopefully, Taka will pick up on that and take a look.

Good luck and enjoy your new receiver.

 

[MStep]

P.S. Another One For You Ramal

I set me radio to 476.3370 Mhz, with 25 khz steps. Next stop should be 476.3625, then 476.3875, but thats not how the radio works. In fact, when set it as I mentioned, the next stop on the radio's tuning dial is 476.350 and then 475.375, 476.400, etc. In order to hit my freqencies, although they are 25 khz apart, I have to revert to 12.5 khz steps. Ditto for some scanners in manual mode. As stated, perhaps some conflict between what the user wants, and the steps that the radio is programmed to do.

 

[dudekindjack]

When I had mine in scanning mode, it wii sometimes blurt out strange noises, when you do it, you will see it stopped on a programmed frequency, and the d-star word will pop up. Sometimes during scanning, analog stuff sounds trying to listen to a digital signal , until it hears a digital signal programmed on another channel. Then it will hear correct. I have every channel programmed in the automatic mode, cause sound quality seems better then fm mode, and the popping sound during scanning if programmed in fm mode , and putting a P25 freq as P25 mode. Theirs only 2 dmr frequencies I can pick up.

Wish it had 12.5 nxdn , maybe with a firmware update.
There's some dmr frequencies it picks up, that had a nice signal but blank audio, guessing it's something radio can't puck up, sorta like the 12.5 nxdn can't be heard on the ar-dv1

My button lights don't shine very bright at all.

 

[MStep]

When I had mine in scanning mode, it wii sometimes blurt out strange noises, when you do it, you will see it stopped on a programmed frequency, and the d-star word will pop up. Sometimes during scanning, analog stuff sounds trying to listen to a digital signal , until it hears a digital signal programmed on another channel. Then it will hear correct. I have every channel programmed in the automatic mode, cause sound quality seems better then fm mode, and the popping sound during scanning if programmed in fm mode , and putting a P25 freq as P25 mode. Theirs only 2 dmr frequencies I can pick up.

Wish it had 12.5 nxdn , maybe with a firmware update.
There's some dmr frequencies it picks up, that had a nice signal but blank audio, guessing it's something radio can't puck up, sorta like the 12.5 nxdn can't be heard on the ar-dv1

My button lights don't shine very bright at all.

Although the radio does have a "scan" function, my guess is that the original thought process that went into the radio was not that it was to be used as a traditional scanner, but more as a highly-specialized digital receiver with some cursory scan and search functions. If you track back through some of the firmware updates that have been offered, you will see that some effort has been put into increasing the scan and search speeds, but I doubt that the radio will ever perform like a traditional scanner and that some effort is required on the operator's part to really tweak the adjustments and settings on each programmed channel to avoid the type of anomalies that you have described during the scan process.

In addition, you might have one bank set up to scan your local ham radio digital repeaters, another bank set to scan NXDN railroad traffic, another bank to scan analog channels, etc. My experience has been that the more you mix analog and digital, or various types of digital in one scan "session", the more that you might experience some of the noises or "popping" sounds that you described. It's always possible that future firmware updates can address some of these issues, but once again, it's important to keep in mind the original intent of the radio.

I agree with you and I and others have mentioned in previous posts that indeed the sound quality of signals received when in "AUTO" mode is better than when in FM mode. I mentioned this to the AOR rep, and I'm not really sure why this works the way that it does.

Considering that this is, as AOR puts it, a "unique stand-alone solution" to accessing so many digital modes, and reviewing all the work that AOR has put into updating the firmware on a regular basis, I think that overall, they are doing a good job with the DV1. I'm pretty much a newbie with the DV1 and just groping my way around trying the learn as much about the operation of the radio as I can, so take that into consideration as well. And perhaps some future update will include 12.5 NXDN.

As far as the button illumination is concerned, I find it adequate and pretty much what one might expect. I'm glad that they allow you to change colors, as some are better than others for me since I am partially colorblind.

 

[MStep]

Editing Menu Issues

There is an issue with the Editing Menu of the AOR DV1. I don't have my unit any longer; it had to be returned. (See http://forums.radioreference.com/aor-receivers/326034-aor-dv-1-butel-software-2.html#post2525198).

The issue involved the confusing replication of information in the Copy and Move fields. If you examine the instruction manual and compare the illustrations to how the radio is actually operating, you might spot what I am speaking about.

I am going to try to borrow a friend's DV1 for a few days in the next week or two so I can document the exact problem and the possible solutions.

 

[KeithKenobi]

How do you STOP the SCAN????
When Scanning, I want to do several options (besides going to VFO).
1. Stop the scan on an active signal and then tune from there, or dump that freq into the VFO.
2. Stop the scan on an active signal and then change memories.(you can tap SCAN twice to do this, is that the only way?)

Also What is VFO Z? How is it different from VFO A and B?
Thanks.

 

[KeithKenobi]

How do you STOP the SCAN????
When Scanning, I want to do several options (besides going to VFO).
1. Stop the scan on an active signal and then tune from there, or dump that freq into the VFO.
2. Stop the scan on an active signal and then change memories.(you can tap SCAN twice to do this, is that the only way?)

Also What is VFO Z? How is it different from VFO A and B?
Thanks.

OK, Figured out number one;
1. Tap SCAN to stop scan on active signal and be able to tune in VFO Z
2. But how do you tune from ANY memory if the unit is scanning. Tried double tap SCAN to stop scan, dial desired memory, but then how to tune from there?
Keith

 

[MStep]

Bank39 Anomaly

Not sure if this is happening with earlier versions of the firmware, but in version 1601B, this is a strange anomaly.

Bank39 can essentially be used for your "collection" when you are using the AutoStore function of the DV1. Naturally, once you accumulate a bunch of frequencies into Bank39, you might want to move them into an empty bank on your radio for further listening and research, to free up your Bank39 to start collecting new frequencies.

The anomaly that I noticed is that when using the Edit menu in the radio (in Edit Menu page 2, the Copy / Move Bank page), you cannot enter the number 39 into any of the fields with the keypad. However, if you use the tuning dial, you can "dial in" the number 39 into the source field.

It would be interesting to see if this is a bug in v1601B, or if it also exists in v1512D (or earlier versions) of the firmware.

There are some other issues with the Copy and Move menu in the DV1, but I will discuss them in a few days. In the meantime, I'll pass along this possible glitch to the folks at AOR.

 

[MStep]

AOR DV1 --- Deleting PASS Channels

Here's a bit of a quirk, or perhaps something I just missed in the DV1 Owner's Manual, that's been bugging me.

I found the way to delete PASS frequencies from the various search banks in the radio. It's a somewhat cumbersome process that is explained and illustrated in the manual. But I can't find a way to mass-delete these search PASS frequencies, nor does there seem to be anyway to mass-delete any of the scan PASS frequencies from the radio.

Has anyone discovered how to mass-delete ALL of the PASS frequencies directly from the radio?

 

[marlbrook]

YES

I cannot find a method for clearing all of them by pressing buttons on the AR-DV1.

My CAT program does it. Sometimes takes more than one click, a firmware issue, but it does clear ALL pass frequencies in Search and Scan, or if you want, just one particular frequency.