AR-DV1 Tricks & Tips

[MStep]

It took me some time to figure it out, but it does work very well and it is quite versatile. Unfortunately, AOR left the final instruction out of the Operating Manual to initiate frequency offset. Once you have set the amount of your offset, in order to quickly monitor the offset frequency, you simply press the MONI button.

For example, if you have a +3 mhz offset programmed into Offset 1, you simply program any channel in any bank of the radio that requires a +3 mhz offset to Offset 1, and when you hit the MONI button, you will go to the offset frequency for as long as you hold the MONI button.

In addition, for each channel which has an offset assigned to it, the indicator "DUP" appears on the lower left hand side of the display. For channels with no frequency offset assigned to them, the MONI button just "breaks the squelch" for that particular channel.

The manual is very nicely printed and illustrated, but I've noticed on several occasions, like above, they fail to fully explain the final step(s) needed to initiate a function.

Hopefully, over the next several weeks, as I have more time to explore the radio and the manual, I'll be able to compile other "Tricks & Tips" that may have been overlooked in the manual.

And please feel free to add you own discoveries to this thread.

 

[Fast1eddie]

Interesting receiver. I am a longtime AOR user and have been very happy with not only the end product, but warranty and later service. Taka is extremely interesting to talk with and I am more than pleased with his advice and repair work.

I was looking at buying one when first released, but after reading of the initial quirks, I thought I would hold off for a year or two with the expectations those issues would be fixed in later versions.

Looking forward to your experiences with this unique receiver. No doubt we have come a long way from the early crystal controlled models, some of which I enjoy using today.

 

[AA6IO]

Ever since the last FW update, this receiver is really working quite well. I spent several hours with it in the last few days switching between analog VHF scanning, P25 LAPD scanning, NXDN/DMR stations, and MW/SW listening with a Pixel Loop. Now that the scanning speed is up to what the AR8600 is, I find this receiver to be quite useful.
I am surprised by the VHF/UHF sensitivity. It clearly picks up stuff that none of my scanners, including the 536HP, can. Now that I am running on a separate 12 V power supply together with my scanners, radio runs pretty cool. The MW/SW reception approaches that of my R8500. With proper preselection, works nicely.
Once I got trunking out of my mind and leave that to my scanners, this AR-DV1 is fast becoming one of my favorite receivers. It is obviously very versatile in terms of freq coverage and modes. I can now envision taking this receiver with me on trips together with my LA-400 loop.
I think anyone really interested in this receiver can begin to move off the "proverbial fence" and "pull the trigger." I have been speaking with Taka a bit more and sharing my now more positive opinions. In fact, going over to AOR tomorrow, where I have an AR8200 MKIII being modified to the AR8200 (D) version.

Steve AA6IO

 

[ramal121]

Had a chance to take mine to a busy mountain top radio site. Whereas most scanners would roll over and die emitting all kinds of raucous noise, the DV1 held it's own and kept right on searching. Sure there was a little desense and cross-talk noted, but internal images were for the most part non-existent. Gotta love a triple conversion IF.

 

[MStep]

Well, now that I am "back in the saddle again" (at least with a new DV1), I hope to pick up where I left off here-- perhaps sometimes with things that are obvious; other times, perhaps I might find some interesting, not-so-obvious things about the receiver.

I've gotten some emails from folks asking my impressions of the marlbrook (aka Ash-by) software package. I'm probably going to save that for a new thread sometime in the next week or so, but I will say that since I spend a lot of time in front on the computer (as opposed to in front of the radio), this package has at least given me opportunity to use the radio a lot more since I have control of most of it's functions from my computer screen. And I can make "on-the-fly" changes to channel configurations without leaving my computer.

Now that I am settling in with the receiver again, here are a couple of quick items that are covered in the manual, although it's easy to overlook them. These are especially applicable to folks who are using the receiver on the HF bands, and I found them to be particularly useful when monitoring on the low-band amateur radio frequencies.

1) When using the receiver in small tuning increments, you can quickly multiply the step rate by a factor of 10 simply by pressing the Function key. As long as Function is active, the step-multiplier is in effect. To deactivate it, simply press the function key Function key again. It's pretty handy when you are using one of the finer tuning steps, but decide you want to get to another part of the band a bit more quickly.

2) One of the AGC functions that you may see is RF-G (RF Gain). When you are in this mode, the SQUELCH knob actually becomes the RG Gain control. You can sometimes "smooth out" reception a bit and cut down on some of the background noise for more pleasant listening by using this control.

I know that most seasoned users of the DV1 are likely familiar with these options; some of the folks just coming on-board with the DV1 may find this information helpful towards mastering the receiver.

I'll post more interesting tidbits as I find them. And here are a few items that I will open up to the forum and invite feedback about:

The MONI button is an interesting fellow on this receiver. It serves a couple of interesting functions which have been discussed both here and which are mentioned in the manual. One thing that it does is break squelch. The interesting thing that it doesn't seem to do is break is CTCSS code (or code search) implementation.

Folks familiar with the original purpose of CTCSS will recall from pre-trunking days, that all business base stations had a MONI button so that they could monitor other traffic on the frequency before transmitting, and thus prevent interference. One would think that this could be a useful function on the DV1 as well (albeit without the transmit option)--- I'm not sure why this has not been implemented as such. Yours thoughts are appreciated.

A second item comes from one line in the DV1 user's manual which is a bit cryptic in nature--- before checking in with AOR, I thought I would open it up for discussion here. On page 24 of the manual, Section 4-2 addresses an "Attenuator" function. The last line reads, "The AR-DV1 has an automatic attenuator function." Now what's that all about ???

Well time to get back to doing a little monitoring. So that ends today's AOR AR-DV1 Tricks & Tips. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures, and also looking forward to your comments here.

 

[Andy3]

MStep. If the auto attenuator function is anything like the one on the AR5000 and AR5001d, it switches in some att'n when there's a big signal (seriously big, like a transmission from your own transmitter). On the AR5001d, this big signal does not have to be 'on channel', just anywhere in the currently-selected band. IIRC, the 5000 only did it for on-channel sigs.
I can activate it by listening to (say) 1530 KHz AM and striking up my 160m transmitter, which feeds about 10 watts of carrier to a vertical antenna which is only about 10 feet away from my receive loop. Down goes the gain of the 5001d, and it pops up again when the local transmission has been off for around 5 secs.
The function can be disabled if required.

 

[MStep]

MStep. If the auto attenuator function is anything like the one on the AR5000 and AR5001d, it switches in some att'n when there's a big signal (seriously big, like a transmission from your own transmitter). On the AR5001d, this big signal does not have to be 'on channel', just anywhere in the currently-selected band. IIRC, the 5000 only did it for on-channel sigs.
I can activate it by listening to (say) 1530 KHz AM and striking up my 160m transmitter, which feeds about 10 watts of carrier to a vertical antenna which is only about 10 feet away from my receive loop. Down goes the gain of the 5001d, and it pops up again when the local transmission has been off for around 5 secs.
The function can be disabled if required.

Thanks for that information Andy. The DV1 manual doesn't go into any detail about the function, and as far as I know, there is no way to disable it, although why would one want to? Better to have some attenuation than to blow out the front-end of the radio.

Unfortunately portions of the DV1 manual is sometimes cryptic, and other times does not really fully explain features and functions.

 

[MStep]

Auto mode quick tip

Not sure if it is mentioned anywhere in the DV1's Owner's Manual, but regardless of what "Mode" the radio is in, if you want to get into Digital Auto Mode quickly, just press the MODE button and hold it for two seconds.

 

[MStep]

Another Goodie With MODE Button

Here's another goodie related to the MODE button. This has something to do with the radio automatically selecting certain parameters when in AUTO mode, and some of you may not have experienced this yet. But if you have, you'll know what I'm talking about.

We've all noticed that the sound in AUTO mode is generally more pleasing (a bit more bass) than the sound in FM mode. On occasion, while trying to program the radio on an FMN frequency but in AUTO mode, the 200 khz bandwidth will be selected by the radio when placed into one of the memory channels.

As you manually step through your memory channels, if you encounter this situation (where you would prefer to have the "FM 15" bandwidth as opposed to the "FM 200" bandwidth), simply press and hold the MODE button for 2 seconds and the radio will automatically change and then rewrite the memory channel with "FM 15" bandwidth.

As I mentioned, not everyone may have experienced this situation yet. I suspect that there are a few other "tricks" that you can accomplish with certain key functions, not all of which may have been discovered yet. Some may even be undocumented, or may be the result of firmware anomalies, so some of the tricks that work today, may not necessarily work in future firmware upgrades.

 

[MStep]

Quick Bank Change During Scan

Here is a quick little trick you can try--- not sure if it is adequately covered in the manual. And the effects may be different is you have some of your scan banks "linked", so I will discuss this as if banks are not linked in the radio.

Very simply, if you are scanning one bank, and want to quickly switch to scan another bank, all you need do is press the two digit bank number (for example 01, 02, 20, 35, etc), and the radio will immediately switch to the desired bank. If the desired bank has no channels programmed into it, the radio will switch to the next highest bank with programmed channels.

 

[MStep]

The Quickie One Button Favorite Channel Trick

Most of us have one favorite frequency that we have to get to in a hurry when in front of our DV1's. Perhaps a local police or fire channel. Here is a little trick that I use.

I've programmed both the upper and lower limit of search bank 33 with my favorite frequency. The radio always remembers the last search bank that you've used. So I always make sure that search bank 33 is that bank.

Regardless of what I am doing with the radio, if I need to get to my favorite frequency in a hurry, all I have to do is a quick single press of the "Search" key. And BINGO, search bank 33 pops up along with my favorite frequency.

The reason I selected Bank 33 is that in the event I forget to set it as my last used search bank, and some other bank comes up in search mode (or if I happen to be searching another bank at the time), it's just a quick double-press of the 3 key to bring my to Bank 33. (The "3" key, being in the upper right hand corner of the key array, is the easiest to get to.)

Incidentally, here is another trick you can do with the "Search" key. If you are in the middle of a search of a group of frequencies, and the radio stops on a channel that you want to continue to listen to, just hit the search key again one time and that frequency will pop out and into VFO Z.

And remember, when doing any searches, always make sure you end up in search bank 33 as your final search bank so that you can use The Quickie One Button Favorite Channel Trick.

 

[JASII]

With the latest updates, what is the actual scan speed?

 

[MStep]

With the latest updates, what is the actual scan speed?

I have seen no official documentation from AOR, but in my opinion, it's actually pretty good. It's certainly not 3 or 4 channels per second, as has been reported elsewhere. If I had to take an educated guess, having played with the radio over the past 4-5 months, I would guess at least 20 channels per second.

It may also depend on whether you have the unit set up to search and/or for scan frequencies with CTS or DCS tones--- that might slow it down just a bit.

 

[dmaria]

Received mine today. Is there a setting to keep the backlight on?

 

[n2pqq]

Received mine today. Is there a setting to keep the backlight on?

Page 46 of manual

F then 7 key

 

[dmaria]

Thanks. I found it right after the post. Now another silly question: Is D-CR and NXDN the same thing? There is a local police agency using NXDN I would like to pick up.

 

[MStep]

Thanks. I found it right after the post. Now another silly question: Is D-CR and NXDN the same thing? There is a local police agency using NXDN I would like to pick up.

I'm not in front of my radio right now, but I believe that's what comes up when you are tuned to a NXDN station. In any event, the best mode to be in when you are tuning is "AUTO"--- that's pretty much 100% in detecting the proper digital mode for a signal.

Once you see what the correct mode is while in "Auto" (it appears between the "D" and "DA" icons on the radio's screen), then you can switch to that particular mode and program in any other necessary parameters by clicking the main tuning dial, making your settings, and then saving same.

 

[MStep]

Dv1 linking function

As promised, I am going to post for information that you may or may not already realize about the Bank Linking function. This will primarily address Linking in the SCAN function, although much of this information may be relative to Search function linking as well.

When I first “stumbled” upon the Link screens, all of those numbers looked somewhat intimidating, so I put experimentation with the function on the back-burner for awhile until I got used to some of the more basic features of the receiver. Once I was comfortable with most of the other features, I took a second look at the Linking function.

In its most basic form, Bank Linking in either Scan (or Search) mode simply allows you to link any number of your Scan (or Search) banks together so that they will be scanned in succession.

There are ten different configurations that you can make and store. These can be called upon at anytime, or changed, or banks added or subtracted in any one of the ten “templates”, numbered 0 – 9.

The Owner's Manual does not completely explain some of the more nuanced features of bank linking, but this is what I have discovered.

1) No matter how many Banks are linked in each template, and no matter how many of the ten templates you have set up with various bank numbers in each, only the last template you used will be active when you turn your radio back on.

2) Except for the last configuration you used, every one of the templates remains “dormant”--- none of them become active until you access it and then press the “Enter” key. Once the Enter key is pressed, that becomes the new working configuration for Bank Linking in your receiver. That means you don't necessarily have to remove banks from any of the non-active templates. You can have the same bank listed in any number of the templates.

3) When scanning with your radio, in order for the Bank Linking to “kick in”, you have to either start scanning (or searching) in one of the banks that are linked, or you have to jump into on of the linked banks while scanning (or searching). Once you've done either, only the Linked banks will scan (or search).

4) There is a way to de-link all banks. Just leave one of the ten templates completely blank, and then access and press the enter key. Since none of the Banks are listed in that template, you have essentially turned off any Bank Linking by choosing the blank template. When there is no bank linking, the radio will only scan (or search) a single chosen bank at a time.

5) Some folks miss Page 2 in the Linking Menu--- that provides some interesting options for the banks which you have chosen in any given template. There is a “Delay” time setting, which tells the receiver how long to pause after a transmission completes before it starts scanning again. And the is a “FREE” time option, which is the same as forced-resume. It tells the receiver how long to stay on an active channel before it forces scan to begin again, even through the transmission has not completed yet.

Importantly, it seems that the last set DELAY time and FREE time appear to operate across all banks of the radio, even in non-linked banks.

6) You can set up Linking for just one bank. Why? If you want to take advantage of the Delay and Free time settings, but only want to scan in that single bank.

7) Something that you can't do yet (hopefully this could be incorporated into a future firmware upgrade) is to mix SCAN and SEARCH banks. There are several receivers that do this--- the radio scans a few banks, and then searches a few bands, and then repeats the process. This makes for more powerful monitoring options.

If you've discovered any other tricks or have any other tips about using the LINKING function, please feel free to add them in this thread.

 

[MStep]

How To "Inventory" Your DV1

One of the things that always challenged me about using my DV1 to search for new and exciting frequencies was the lack of any way to quickly “inventory” or "catalog" my DV1 before an extensive tuning session, so that I know what frequencies I already have stored in my radio, and what swaths of frequencies I had to concentrate on.

The Butel software currently allows you to view your radio on a bank-by-bank basis (or export the full database into a spreadsheet, but is still presented bank-by-bank, and somewhat skimpy on the details and difficult to sort), and I needed something better and more complete that would allow me to “look” at my whole radio's contents in a neat and orderly fashion---- to see all the banks at one time, and all of the frequencies that I have stored in every channel--- everything in one large, sortable “database”---- something that I could create quickly and easily when I needed it.

I turned to Jeff, the creator of eSPYonARD to come up with a solution to my problem. Lo and behold, several days later, I had a wonderful new addition to the “Pro” version of his program that does just what I am looking for.

Now, in the course of 5 or 6 minutes, and directly through the serial cable, I can quickly download vital information that I need about each channel right from the DV1 through Jeff's program and in CSV format, to be opened by any spreadsheet program (I use LibreCalc, which is free; Excel is supported, as are many others). I can now search and sort my entire radio, either by frequency, text descriptor, mode, and several other parameters.

“Quicklog” mode just gives you the essentials for each channel. That's something you would likely do before any monitoring session. But there is a fantastic option to turn the Quicklog feature OFF--- that puts you into "FULL" logging mode--- it then takes around 15-20 minutes, but now you get nearly ALL the parameters for every channel--- this is something you might likely do once a week or so to help catalog, inventory, and double-check every parameter in your radio.

Sorting by frequency is what is most critical for serious users of the DV1. Having this giant database of information in front of you in spreadsheet form will quickly allow you to determine if a “newly” logged frequency is something which you may already have programmed somewhere in your DV1, or if in fact, it is a brand new catch. It also helps you spot potential dupes, or if certain parameters are incorrectly programmed. For example, you can see what channels you have bypassed in the radio.

While this new feature of the program allows you to view and sort parameters for all channels--- you can use other portions of Jeff's program to download individual banks not only to view, but also to write to the DV1. When doing banks individually, the spreadsheet data for those banks are gathered in the background whenever the MEM-BANK routine is run, so no extra time is required to create a single-bank database. (MEM-BANK is where memory channels are displayed in the program, and Banks and Channels can be edited, copied, renamed, moved, or new ones created).

You must have some knowledge of using a spreadsheet to sort properly--- even though you may be sorting by one column, you need to include all columns so that all the relevant information stays together.

The entire eSPYonARD program has become my “Swiss Army Knife” of features and functions that are not provided by the radio alone, and many of which are so unique that they are not available in any other program. Audio logging in the eSPYonARD program has been a great advantage when identifying what went on, by having the ability to listen to what was actually said after an unattended Scan or Search. A special ALERTS function is also available in the “PRO” edition to notify listeners when specific channels/frequencies are activated.

The ability to quickly create an entire sortable database of frequencies is just another great advantage of having eSPYonARD at your disposal and ready to go at a moments notice.

You can find more info about the program here:

ardv1

 

[MStep]

Followup To My Last Post On This Thread

In my last post in this thread, I spoke about one of the newest features of eSPYonARD, the ability to create a giant spreadsheet database of all the channels in your radio, and being able to easily sort or search for various parameters and settings for each channel. This helps check for errors in programming, spot dupes, and provide other information to the serious DV1 enthusiast.

The full operation of the database creation requires a spreadsheet program--- I use LibreOffice Calc, which is part of the very excellent and free LibreOffice Suite of programs. You can also use Excel, or just about any other spreadsheet program.

Once you've opened and assembled the CSV file in your spreadsheet, there are a few things you might want to do to get the information organized. There are several blank columns which contain no information and which you can delete. In addition, when we begin our work, you'll probably want to get rid of the double-spacing between lines. The best way to do this is to highlight the first cell with data--- is likely cell A3, and all the way down to the very end of your spreadsheet-- make sure you get all your columns highlighted, so that when you do your sorting, everything stays together as it should. You want to make sure not to highlight anything in Row 1--- those are the Headings, and you don't want to include those in the sort.

I usually start out by leaving things sorted as they were first presented--- by Bank # and Channel #. Those should be columns A and B. You'll have to find the sort option in your spreadsheet that allows you to pick the sort criteria in your database/spreadsheet. Any sorting will eliminate the double-spacing, and allow you to scroll through your spreadsheet more easily, to spot any programming anomalies.

If you've already run the program and tried this new feature, you'll notice that I've formatted my frequency cells to show 5 digits after the decimal place, and I also highlighted my frequency column with a yellow background.

If you should decide that you want to sort by frequency, your sort criteria would start with Column C, then A, then B. But most spreadsheets also allow you to search for specific frequencies and other data, and often you don't have to sort to do the search properly.

I have included a screenshot here--- I wanted to give you an idea of what your CSV file should look like. I've downloaded the entire radio, and not just one bank, but the screenshot only caught most of Bank 35. My entire database/spreadsheet is actually 686 rows long-- that includes every channel that is programmed into the radio. To speed up the process of assembling the data, empty channels are not captured. As I said, this is an excellent way to spot anomalies in your programming--- you'll probably see several in this screenshot. I'll leave it up for a few days to see what you catch, and then I'll put up another post outlining some that I found.

This was done using the newest feature in eSPYonARD, and no other program currently allows you to assemble the information in this fashion and in this depth so easily and efficently. If you have the PRO version of the program, go into M-BANK, make sure you turn Quicklog Off (select "No"), and then right click on FULL DB--- this will start assembling your data. More information about accessing the database through the program is provided in the PDF file which is included with program, or which can be downloaded separately from the program's website.

P.S. Sorry about the poor quality of the screen capture below folks--- my bad.