Which wideband hand-held receiver should I purchase?

[racin06]

I'm going to purchase one of the following:

Alinco DJ-X2000
Icom IC-R20
AOR AR8200 Mark III

Frequency Ranges (Mhz):

Alinco - 0.1000 - 2149.999
Icom - 0.1500 - 3304.999
AOR - 0.5000 - 3000.000

Modes:

Alinco - NFM, WFM, AM, CW, USB, LSB
Icom - WFM, AM, CW, USB, LSB
AOR - NFM, WFM, SFM, WAM, AM, NAM, CW, USB, LSB

Memory Channels:

Alinco - 2,000 (50 channels, 40 banks)
Icom - 1,250 - (1,000 regular, 50 scan edges and 200 auto memory write)
AOR - 1,000 (50 channels, 20 banks)

The AOR is about $100 more than the Alinco and Icom. A few questions -

1. Do I really need NFM, SFM, WAM and NAM that the AOR offers? What is the advantage of having these bands?

2. If I choose the AOR, I will be missing out on the 0.1000 - 0.4999 Mhz range. What will I be missing?

3. If I choose the Alinco, I will be missing out on the 2150.000 - 3000.00 or 3304.999 Mhz range. What will I be missing?

Which receiver should I purchase? Your opinions will be much appreciated.

 

[N_Jay]

I guess the question that comes to mind is "What do you want to listen to?"

 

[racin06]

I guess the question that comes to mind is "What do you want to listen to?"

To be honest, I like to listen to just about everything.

 

[mciupa]

If I choose the AOR, I will be missing out on the 0.1000 - 0.4999 Mhz range. What will I be missing?

Some European AM Broadcast stations, such as BBC , some CW(Morse code) and SSB . Lots of beacons repeating continuous tones.

 

[ka3jjz]

Many folks buy wideband rxs because they 'like to listen to everything' and then are disappointed when whatever radio they choose, doesn't perform well everywhere. I ran a scanner/swl net in the Baltimore area for almost a decade, so I have some backround in this.... :wink:

Any wideband rx is going to be lacking in one or more areas. This is because most times, the manufacturer will cut corners or just have some poor design problems. For example, listening in the LW portion would be unproductive; while it's true some Euro broadcasters are heard there, they're not an easy catch by any means particularly in the Midwest. I would bet that the sensitivity of each of the rxs you mention is pretty crappy below 530 khz ; some maybe around 1 mhz or so.
This is due to the fact that some manufacturers deliberately attenuate these freqs to avoid overloading problems.

HF performance may not be the greatest either. While signal levels in the Midwest aren't quite as strong as, say East Coast reception in the evening on 49 meters, I'll tend to bet that overloading and splatter will be a problem if you put too much of an antenna on it.

The point is simple; buy HF receivers for HF, scanners for the scanner bands. You'll be much better off, and less disappointed. You can find many places to get ideas about HF receivers on places like Eham.net, or buy the latest Passport to World Band Radio - it has thumbnail reviews -sometimes even more detailed ones - on everything from portables to the big rigs like the NRDs. It's well worth the investment. Eham even has some comments about scanners, too.
You can find out a great deal about various scanner models by checking out the various Yahoo groups. There's no better way to find out about a particular radio than from folks who are using it. You may even find folks in your area, which would be more valuable. Of course, since you're in Indiana, I would assume you'd join the Scan Indiana mailing list at qth.net - lots of knowledgeable folks there.

73s Mike

 

[richster]

I agree 100% with Mike. I have owned an Alinco DJ-X2000 for a couple of years, and most recently an Icom IC-R5, and both perform rather badly below 30Mhz. I don't even use these two for anything below 30 Mhz. I have an old DX-302 for that, and the beastie still works great.

As for frequencies above 2000 Mhz, I have a friend who owns an Icom IC-R3, and it is very deaf up there. I would Imagine the Icom IC-R20 is just as deaf, but never had my hands on one to see for myself. My Alinco works pretty good from 30 Mhz to 1.2 Ghz. It really performs well in the 700 Mhz to 900 Mhz area.

Mike's words of wisdom are true, I was disappointed when I found out how deaf my Alinco was below 30 Mhz. But it is a very good scanner none the less. Also be wary the scan speeds of these "receivers" are not very fast. The Alinco boasts 30 ch/sec scan rate, but it's more like 10. The Icom IC-R5 is some what faster, and I hear the Icom IC-R20 is unbelievably fast for a "general coverage scanner".

Regards,
Richster.

 

[SAR923]

Look at it this way. Assuming that you have no digital trunk systems in your area, you can buy a Pro-94 trunking scanner on sale at RS right now for $120. You can then buy a Grundig Yahcht Boy 400PE at http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/0400.html for $130. For a total of $250, you get two radios that are both much better at what they do then getting a wide band receiver at twice the price. The problem with wide band receivers is the antenna and trunking. An antenna that works to pick up the BBC at 9.610 kHz is going to do a lousy job of picking up a local trunk system and none of these wideband receivers can do trunk tracking. The concept of a wideband receiver is better than than actual product is in practice.

 

[Voyager]

A few questions -

1. Do I really need NFM, SFM, WAM and NAM that the AOR offers? What is the advantage of having these bands?

There are likely already SFM systems operating in your area. If the FCC has their way, all NFM systems will convert to SFM. If you want to listen to the common scanner entities (PD, FD, EMS, Etc) definitely go with one that supports SFM (really, SNFM - they abbreviated it to get to 3-digits)

NFM is the mode most PD, FD, EMS comms uses today. That would seem to be a must if you want to listen to everything because without it you won't be able to listen to much.

NAM is not in use yet that I know of.

2. If I choose the AOR, I will be missing out on the 0.1000 - 0.4999 Mhz range. What will I be missing?

Most likely, you won't hear anything there anyway.

3. If I choose the Alinco, I will be missing out on the 2150.000 - 3000.00 or 3304.999 Mhz range. What will I be missing?

Same as above. Above 1500 MHz, you won't ever hear much unless you're directly in the path of microwave links, and then it will mostly be digital.

Which receiver should I purchase? Your opinions will be much appreciated.

I can't believe the Icom doesn't have NFM, let alone SNFM. It almost HAS to or you wouldn't receive any public safety comms on it.

I would go with the AOR mainly due to the support of future modes as well as current modes. Why buy something that is on its way out?

On the other hand, none of them will monitor a trunked system correctly.

Like the BC296D/PRO-96D thread - it's a matter of which features YOU like best. We can't answer that for you.

Joe M.

 

[K2KOH]

Check out ebay for a used Icom IC R10. It's also a wideband receiver, minus CTCSS tones, but it does real nice on HF, VHF and UHF. Top frequency is 1300 MHz...I own one, and it's worked nicely for HF, VHF and UHF aero.

 

[Voyager]

"If a canoe had six wheels, how many pancakes would it take to make the doghouse fly?"

27? :shock: 8)

Of course, I say that not knowing the dimensions of each pancake and the size of the doghouse. :wink:

Joe M.