Well that wasn’t part of the plan!
A few days ago I made a trip down to the best toy shop in the world, Martin Lync & Sons in Stains, London. My plan was to pick up the Yaesu FTdx10 radio and other bits to start putting my HF gobox together.
Best laid plans and all that stuff and just before I set off to London I noticed that ML&S had a used AOR AR-DV1 digital receiver posted on their web site. This has long been a radio on my shopping list but at over £1000 not something I could justify or afford just now. But this one was at a price point that I could afford if I traded in my current Uniden SDS100 digital scanner.
All I can say is that it is sitting very nicely on my desk, ‘m starting to program it up with my favourite frequencies and it’s looking and sounding “GOOOOOD”
What are my first impressions of the radio. First of all, even though it has an excellent reputation I was a little apprehensive because last year I bought it’s smaller brother the AOR DV-10 hand held scanner. It really wasn’t all that good. I think that the one I had had faults on it and it wouldn’t do what it was supposed to do which was the main problem but I just wasn’t happy with it. In the end ML&S took it back and replaced it with the Uniden SDS100 which has been a very good scanner but it’s really made for the American market and to use the RadioReference online database for programming which doesn’t work in the UK.
The DV1 is far more conventional and used standard channels and banks to store frequencies which I prefer. While the DV1 is VERY good and this one appears to have no problems but there are one or two things to be aware off if you are buying one.
It’s an old radio and has old radio design and features. The display is a low res LCD rather than a modern bright TFT/OLED so it’s a bit tricky to read but it works. It’s also quite small and even with my glasses on I need to use a magnifying app on my phone in order to see it!!
Programming channels via computer. Basically there isn’t any software that you can download and install on your computer. There is an online website/app that allows you to carry out programming memory channels but it’s not the best and quite “clunky”. It is however better than trying to program directly on the radio via the front keypad.
No direct computer access to upload channels. When you have finished using the online programming tool you have to write the CSV file to an SD card, transfer that to the radio and then read the file into the radio. Again, it works but it’s “clunky” and slow if you are doing multi edits and writes.
But these are small issues and if the radio work than they all be lived with.