My last comment for the weekend. Some of you may wonder why I am focusing on HF, CW, broadcast FM performance etc. I have already commented on the fact that the P25 and NXDN quality is reasonable. However, we all know that to assess VHF and UHF performance in detail, we need to have these radios in scanner or search mode.
That, at least with the radio I have, is a real limiting factor. The search and scan speeds are incredibly slow. To search the 483.000 to 485.000 Mhz range, where we have a lot of LA Sheriff and LAPD activity (LAPD on P25), with steps of 12.5 Khz (2 Mhz/12.5 Khz = 160 channel steps), my AR-DV1 is taking, if it does not stop on anything, about 60 seconds (1 min). No kidding. That is about 3 channels per second. My 996XT and 536HP will cover that range in about 2 seconds, if that long.
Not only that, but in Auto mode, when the radio stops on activity, it chokes and stutters, especially when hitting a P25 LAPD station. In most cases, the radio keeps stuttering, and nothing happens until I manually turn the dial to keep it searching. Once in a while it will open up on P25 or FM. But it is really struggling.
I don't know what BamaScan is experiencing. I bring his name up because he seems to be the only other person commenting on the quality of the radio on this thread. For me to post a YouTube video would be a waste of time. This thing won't search or scan at more than 3 or 4 channels per second.
Jeff at Ham Station made the same comment to me last week when he was listening on an AR DV-1 in his store.
So while there is some good news on the HF front and some digital decoding, my unit is useless as anything resembling a scanner, an AR8600 Mk II that I have access to, or my IC R8500 or R-20. In other words, its useless for really following any VHF/UHF two-way radio activity right now unless I park it on one channel.
I am waiting for the new firmware, but frankly, I'm not expecting much improvement. My gut feeling tells me there is a CPU in this radio that is being taxed way beyond what it can deliver. I'm not a radio or software engineer, but come to think of it, I'm not an automotive engineer, and I know if my car is stuttering or just not running.
As I have typed this last post, my AR-DV1 has not stopped on any stations, and is chugging along at about 3 channels/sec in search mode. My 536HP has stopped several times on LA Sheriff FM and LAPD P25 NAC 466 channels in the same time on the same antenna through a Stridsberg coupler.
Not very encouraging.
