hth999
Member
I had my ARDV1 for a few months now. Purchased from Universal Radio. I was hoping a few firmware updates would help, but they have not. I have the current firmware installed. What I am experiencing is overloading of the radio's front end. It is dreadful. For example: In my location ( Pinellas County, FL ) we have a 50,000 kw daytimer at 820 khz. The transmitter is about 10 miles from my location. For HF listening I use a Wellbrook Loop, for anything above 30 mhz I use a Discone antenna ( 108-1.3 G ) On the AM Broadcast Band, I have intermodulation from 820, all across the band, making it impossible to listen to any station except 820.. This station also causes intermodulation up thru the SW and Ham bands as well, making SW and Ham band listening impossible. Now comes the Airband frequencies. I can't monitor them with my Discone antenna because local FM stations causes the noise floor to rise way up, causing intermodulation as well. I can hear 2 FM stations ( garbled audio ) in many spots from 118-136 mhz. This is unacceptable for a 1200 dollar radio. AOR should be ashamed at themselves. I bought this radio after seeing several youtube videos, with the person happy or endorsing the radio.
I also have to say I own over 30 radios. None are as bad as this one. Heck, I have several portables that are better, way better. I know I can use different filters for this problem, but I shouldn't have to use anything for a 1200 dollar radio. I did purchase a variable attenuator which will attenuate from 0-20 db, and it does work a little, but not enough. Another thing is in the manual AOR mentions a " automatic attenuator " Are you kidding me? Another issue is audio quality. I find the AM audio quality is, well BAD. It sounds robotic, not natural. FM is good, WFM is good, and P25 is good.
My SDR Play at 130.00 is a much better radio! Has anyone else experienced these problems? Perhaps I have a bad radio? Please let me know as I am about to put this on Ebay. I'm really unhappy with it. I also called AOR and spoke with Taka. He told me the ARDV1 was made with " Design Compromises " He spoke about the Bandpass Filters are not " tight " enough. Anyway, I thought I would share my experiences, and see if anyone had a solution that would help. I do enjoy DXing the AM Broadcast Band, SW and the Ham Bands, as well as 2 Meters, 70 CM, etc.
I also have to say I own over 30 radios. None are as bad as this one. Heck, I have several portables that are better, way better. I know I can use different filters for this problem, but I shouldn't have to use anything for a 1200 dollar radio. I did purchase a variable attenuator which will attenuate from 0-20 db, and it does work a little, but not enough. Another thing is in the manual AOR mentions a " automatic attenuator " Are you kidding me? Another issue is audio quality. I find the AM audio quality is, well BAD. It sounds robotic, not natural. FM is good, WFM is good, and P25 is good.
My SDR Play at 130.00 is a much better radio! Has anyone else experienced these problems? Perhaps I have a bad radio? Please let me know as I am about to put this on Ebay. I'm really unhappy with it. I also called AOR and spoke with Taka. He told me the ARDV1 was made with " Design Compromises " He spoke about the Bandpass Filters are not " tight " enough. Anyway, I thought I would share my experiences, and see if anyone had a solution that would help. I do enjoy DXing the AM Broadcast Band, SW and the Ham Bands, as well as 2 Meters, 70 CM, etc.