AOR / ICOM Explanation needed.......

[Jake68111]

Ok, so I've been listening to scanners for a long time.

I had never heard of AOR or ICOM till registering for this site.

These aren't your typical scanners are they? What are these scanners used for? They aren't in the mainstream like Radio Shack scanners or GRE scanners.....

Can someone help a noob out to understand what these 'scanners' are used for? Do they pick up what the other scanners pickup? Can you transmit with these?

Whats up with these types of scanners, compared to a Radio shack one?

 

[KI4VBR]

Receivers....

Ok, so I've been listening to scanners for a long time.

I had never heard of AOR or ICOM till registering for this site.

These aren't your typical scanners are they? What are these scanners used for? They aren't in the mainstream like Radio Shack scanners or GRE scanners.....

Can someone help a noob out to understand what these 'scanners' are used for? Do they pick up what the other scanners pickup? Can you transmit with these?

Whats up with these types of scanners, compared to a Radio shack one?

Many of these radios are classified as a receivers rather than scanners. Although they are capable of scanning, they do not scan as fast as a normal scanner and not as many scanning options. Most of these receivers cannot perform trunking duties out of the box. Some allow computer control that can run programs that allow the following of a trunked radio system.

The strengths of a radio like you are asking about are usually tied to greater range, better sensitivity and sometimes better selectivity. The have multiple filtering options to eliminate natural and man made noise. These radios generally cover both the HF spectrum .5-30 mhz, vhf, uhf and higher. Most scanners dont go below 27-28 mhz and they also do not perform well at these frequencies. The receivers do perform well at the lower frequencies as long as a suitable antenna is used. Also, most scanners do not have a BFO feature that allows the reception of CW and sideband modes.

There are others on here who will chime in and add to the features and functionality of the receiver types of radios as compared to a scanner. Hope this helps some.

Best of luck getting into the HF world. You could spend days, weeks and years covering the HF spectrum as many of us do here on RR.

Please reply back with other questions.

Vince

 

[Jake68111]

Soooo, what must a individual want to listen to, to buy one of these receivers? Who would you recommend these for? They seem to be a bit more steep on the price.

These must be geared toward a whole different, genre, if you will, of listeners.

Sounds like a "give and take" relationship. It will pick up freqs lower then my Pro 106 but needs additional programming to receive the higher freqs......

I'm lost. Maybe I just don't understand.............

 

[jvdet]

additional programing - NO
better than Radio Shack - Yes *except they dont do trunking well if at all
and have been around longer

 

[abear27]

Think of it as a scanner that also allows you to intercept HF radio transmissions... You get basic scanner functions and a SW reciever, all in one unit.

I like these devices because you can sometimes catch interesting "non-local" things on the HF bands.

 

[Jake68111]

Ok, I think I'm catching on now..... I think the acronyms were throwing me off a little bit.

A bit more expensive then what I am used to. I'll have to do some of my own research concerning SW and the HF options that I have been missing out on......

Thanks for clearing a few things up for me and if I do decide to take the next step in this direction, I'm sure I'll be posting more in this section.

Thanks for all your responses!!!!

Jake