AR-DV10 How AOR Tried to Botch The Frequency Drift Hardware Design Fault

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n0ysq

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So sad, But typical response for AOR/Yaesu. I had an issue almost day 1 with it, They wanted me to work with them on the issue. I agreed to do so, All the way to unreturnable for a refund. They lied to me from the start.
 

c0ne

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Any company that calls itself Authority on radio communications, but ships their wideband receiver with a airband only antenna, is out of touch with their own business. They didn’t even knew it was a airband antenna, their consumers had to find out them self. Funny how they stated in their emails that DV10 need that antenna for the best performance... you can only draw one conclusion out of that, they didn’t even test it.
 

palmerjrusa

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A bit of a HF compare between the DV10 and the ICOM R-30

Were these comparisons carried out with the supplied antennas?

With one exception, doesn't look as if the AR-DV10 is a strong HF performer at all, it's night and day...and the ic-r30 at launch was $500.00 cheaper than the DV10.
 

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Any company that calls itself Authority on radio communications, but ships their wideband receiver with a airband only antenna, is out of touch with their own business. They didn’t even knew it was a airband antenna, their consumers had to find out them self. Funny how they stated in their emails that DV10 need that antenna for the best performance... you can only draw one conclusion out of that, they didn’t even test it.[/QUOTE

An airband antenna makes sense. It's one of the most likely uses for a hand-held radio out in the field. There is no suitable wide band antenna that would fit in the box. A telescoping whip is what most use, but it's still a comprise..
Problems or no problems you don't seriously believe AOR doesn't understand antennas? There is no such thing as a truely wide-band rubber-ducky antenna, look at Uniden or Whistler for example. Most likely you just comunicated with an individual not qualified to discuss technical details, a office clerk possibly? Any handheld radio from any manufacture ships with an antenna that is a serious compromise. AOR does mention the radio does not contain a ferrite core antenna for AM due to space constraints. They do use the earphone cord as an FM broadcast antenna.
 

marlbrook

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I agree, the R30 sounded best, but it is NOT a fair test.

The IC-30 was 'cheating' and receiving the frequency it displayed.

The frequency the DV10 was listening to would most likely only be 'close'to what it was displaying, and drifting further away as its temperature changed or the firmware kept trying to shift it to compensate (sigh)
 

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Silent Key
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I agree, the R30 sounded best, but it is NOT a fair test.

The IC-30 was 'cheating' and receiving the frequency it displayed.

The frequency the DV10 was listening to would most likely only be 'close'to what it was displaying, and drifting further away as its temperature changed or the firmware kept trying to shift it to compensate (sigh)

I'd really like to see this get resolved if at all possible. I'd love to buy one to match most of the capabilities of my DV-1. I can't imagine AOR doing nothing after all the development and expense to get where they are.
 

c0ne

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You would think so right? but this is what AOR had to say about that antenna after consumers sending e-mails for weeks..

"Dear Sir,



Thank you for your helpful messages.



Your feedback, as well as the feedback we received from other customers, has helped us to analyze some problems faced with proper decoding of digital signals. It appears that the supplied rubber antenna, which is fine tuned for the "airbands 110-140MHz", does in some cases not provide the necessary signal strength and signal stability on other bands, for a smooth decoding of the digital modes, such as in the 400MHz area.

In order to provide the best user experience possible, we have therefore decided starting from the next production to add a telescopic antenna free of charge into each receiver box. As you may know, by changing the length of the telescopic antenna, it is possible to adjust to specific frequency bands and signal strengths, for optimal performance. Customers will therefore have the choice to use the rubber antenna or the telescopic antenna, depending on their target bands.

Of course we are not forgetting our esteemed customers who already purchased the AR-DV10, as they will be able, upon demand to the official AOR distributors where they purchased the receiver, to receive the telescopic anntenna free of charge. The antennas should be available end-June/early July, so we ask for your kind patience!"

Like there are any digital signals like DMR/NXDN in the airband range... The supplied antenna is the stock yeasu one(SRA-13A) prior to people e-mailing them i believe they where not aware of this. Otherwise they would have mentioned it in the manual i assume(which they later did by adding a extra sheet op paper).

I agree on the fact that for a wide band receiver its impossible to find a antenna that does all, but still any dual band antenna was more suitable on a product advertised as a digital receiver, just like it makes sense yeasu includes this antenna(the one on the DV10) with their airband transceivers. like the FTA-450L etc.
 
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c0ne

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Also keep in mind, that most likely AOR is not the only one responsible for this mess.. Also Yaesu played a part in this, since the supplied certain parts.

Correction, i meant the: Yaesu SRA-18A (bnc model)
 
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c0ne

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Since i'm dumping e-mails anyways, here is another one prior before they "figured out" that it was a airband antenne.. Were they stated the receiver was fine tuned for this anntenna.

"Dear Sir,

Thank you for using the AR-DV10 and for taking the time to write to us.

We are sorry to hear that your first impressions are not optimal. Allow us to bring some clarification.

Poor reception: As you probably know from the official specifications, the sensitivity figures are rather good However the AR-DV10 has been fine tuned for maximum sensitivity with its supplied antenna. Any external antenna is likely to desensitize the RF stage unless an external signal attenuator is used to avoid too much signal. (This is mentioned in chapter 4 of the operating manual) In other words, a too strong signal will overload the receiver and only bring more noise, as you found out correctly."

so yeah, so little did they knew ;] Not long after this their e-mails became marked as confidential, because the started to realize that they had to admit some f**k-ups and did not wanted this to reach the wider audience. Sadly this was just the begin of the problems appearing, next what followed was the drift.
 
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palmerjrusa

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I agree, the R30 sounded best, but it is NOT a fair test.

The IC-30 was 'cheating' and receiving the frequency it displayed.

The frequency the DV10 was listening to would most likely only be 'close'to what it was displaying, and drifting further away as its temperature changed or the firmware kept trying to shift it to compensate (sigh)

Bad ic-r30 for not drifting and staying on the correct frequency...
 

marlbrook

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Bad ic-r30 for not drifting and staying on the correct frequency...
LOL, yes staying on frequency and not drifting is apparently 'old style' technology. compared to the DV10.

There again perhaps AOR did specially design it that way, mainly for high risk Gamblers:-
"Is your AR-DV10 exactly on the frequency it is displaying at this moment in time.? ...... Place your bets"
 

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merlin3rd

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Yes, but I doubt they are selling any. Unless buyers are going for the DX Engineering one which is the cheapest right now. That fact there are none available on Ebay is a good indicator that they are not selling. i'll stick with my IC-R30 for now. The IC-R30 has a wider frequency range, Bluetooth, GPS and a great control app for you smart phone.
 

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Silent Key
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I have confidence that AOR and Yaesu will eventually get it worked out, even if it requires a change in hardware components, design, or an entire new main board. Theses things don't get fixed overnight like we'd like them to.
 

c0ne

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I have confidence that AOR and Yaesu will eventually get it worked out, even if it requires a change in hardware components, design, or an entire new main board. Theses things don't get fixed overnight like we'd like them to.
Lets hope so, 4/5 years after release date they still ship the DV1 with a noisy switching power supply, so we will see. if you ever buy a DV10 make sure you buy a ferrite core aswell, because they still like to cut corners.
 
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