Add on slot cards

[SigIntel8600]

Curious how many of you peeps use the add on slot cards and what do you think of them.

I have the CTCSS card - Works OK

The Recorder card - Playback audio is Low.

The Tone eliminator card - unsure what this does. If anyone could give some info, much appreciated. I tried to eliminate the radio hanging on EDACS beeps (Scanning conventional) but no luck

Thanks

 

[N1SQB]

AOR= Amazingly Overrated Receiver.

Helllo There!
I used to own the AOR-8200 MK3. I know what it does and does not do. First of all lets get to the basics. $500+ for a receiver and you cant at the very least INCLUDE PL tones? Then ok, its not a scanner so they offer it as an option. What about DPL tones? They've been in use for years. Not even as an option?....The other thing I disliked is the audio. 120Mw of audio. Thats less than a 1/8 watt. Then there is the image rejection or selectivity or the lack-there-of. According to the manual its 40 DB at best. That sucks,plain and simple. Next is the sensitivity. Im a big aircraft monitoring buff. 1.5 Microvolts sensitivity is abolutely useless. Consider that the new Bearcat BCT-15 scanner that sells for about $235 averageless than half the price of an 8200, has a sensitivity spec of 0.4 microvolts on 118-136 civil air band AND on the 225-400 Milair band. No sir! AOR is way behind the times and out of touch with todays real communications needs. I sold the darn thing quickly. I know its not meant to be a scanner. I did not buy it for that. But I lived in an RF hell area at the time and the radio failed miserably in the rejection and intermod areas. I lived one town over from a local airport. Unless I was right at the airport, all I ever got was the planes and static. No tower. My scanners, with the back of the set antennas were giving me both sides of the conversation. How can this be with the price tag on this radio? Its not just the portable either. Their top of the line tabletop does the same thing.No CTCSS unless you buy a card and NO DPL offered at all. This is a radio that you are suppossed to hook up to an OUTSIDE antenna. Icom does it too. Their IC-8500 has the same issues. If I am going to spend THAT kind of dough, it better come with a lot more than what they are currently offering..... Other than what I just stated,I like the radios. ;-)


Manny

 

[SigIntel8600]

Manny,

I do agree that not having PL/DPL standard is ridiculous. I was deciding on a handheld receiver and had it narrowed down to three:

ICOM R20 - Built in record, dual receive and PL/DPL made this a strong contender. As usual, they chopped up the 800 MHZ band way beyond the cell blocks.

Alinco DJX-2000 - Built in record, PL, Flash tune, Band Scope made this tempting. They also decided to chop up 800 MHZ way beyond the cell blocks.

AOR 8200 MKII - No PL without add on, extra cost for the computer cable, recording option also an add on. It all added up to a pass on this model.

I wound up going with the Alinco DJ-X2000E model. I also owned an R20 (Blocked) but sold it after a short time. I think AOR may be shooting themselves in the foot by trying to nickle and dime PL and record as add ons. I purchased an AR8600 with a P25 board.
The competition (Yaesu VR-5000) did not offer P25 or PL.

 

[N1SQB]

Sounds like you made the best choice considering the FEW choices there are. I dont get it and I dont think I ever will.Where do these people test these devises,in the middle of the nevada desert?,Colorado Rockies perhaps? This is why I use a lot of the Ham stuff,as much as I dont like mixing the two, for public safety monitoring. At LEAST most if not all my ham gear has pl/dpl tones. Good luck with your radio. Hope it works out for you.

Manny

 

[rfmonger]

I used to own an AOR 8200 as well.
Sold it a long time ago, along with an Icom R10, PCR1000 & a few of Opto's gadgets.
It seems AOR, Icom & the like are still a few steps behind the competition.
Don't get me wrong, I like the AOR scanners, they do have a "Pro" feel to them & look good.
They're certainly cool if you use them with software, ext antennas & want to monitor conventional freq's. But outside of that, boooo.

These AOR slot card options are lame.
(Are these serious receivers or Nintendo Gameboys ?)
A $100 RS/Uniden model can do it out of the box - AOR can't?
If theres going to be slot card option, the only one I would even think about is one that gives you trunking support. But of course that is a pipe dream.

As I stated in a separate post, Scanners in general are waaay behind the times.
I am just now returning to the radio hobby after more than a decade away from it (completely). Now that I'm back, it kind of surprised me that, with all the advances in technology we've made in that time - scanner/radio options are still anemic & very dated in terms of capability & features.

When I went shopping for a new scanner, I looked at AOR & Icom 1st (since I had owned them in the past). I thought I was in a time machine as I was amazed that pretty much the same scanners were the only ones available, save for a couple new black-box & base models.

For me it came down to the Icom R20 & the Uniden 396.
I ended up going for the Uniden 396T as it gave me the most usable features in one unit as well as the ever necessary ability to do Trunking.
I'm not a fan of trunking or trunked monitoring, I don't like it to be honest.
But it's necessary, so at the very least AOR, Icom, etc. Need to work out a deal somehow & get on the trunking bandwagon. Licensing, whatever. If it means increase in price, I am sure it would be ok with most so long as the bang for buck is there.

Also, I am not really worried about the cell-block stuff anymore.
It's not like the early/mid 90's so there isn't much to monitor there anyways, though I do understand the gaps can result in truncated 800 Mhz band limits & thats not cool at all, why they would design the scanner that way is beyond me.
I mean block out whats legally required, but leave everything else in tact, down to the Khz.

Not bashing AOR here, I like the AOR's but they simply don't seem able to do much on there own.
Untill they can do Trunking, PL/DPL, Digital Recording, better RX without a rooftop discone, etc. Then I'm gonna stick with the Uniden (handheld) models.

Far as base models, thats a different ballgame.
I am a fan of the AOR & Icom base models & am still debating an AOR 5000 or Icom 8500 down the line. (currently own an R7100).