Being a great fan of the original AOR 8200 a few years back I was keen
to see how the latest version fared in this day and age, after all scanners
have advanced in features since the first 8200 hit the shelves back in the
1990's. Also I wanted to see if the minor glitches that the original model
suffered from such as interference in the form of spurious signals which would
halt a scan and the speaker would splutter some horrible noises. So when Bob
Stewart from Stewart
aviation gave me a call to say he was sending one out
to put through its paces I was rather looking forward to it. For this reason
I will be exploring the changes in this review see my review on the original
8200 for more detailed exploration. This review is mainly to explore the changes
between the models.
User Manual
As far as I can see it is the same as the original, however there is an addendum
sheet enclosed
pointing out the improvements made to the MK3.
First impressions.
Okay so what looks different about it? Well for a start it's changed colour.
Gone is the army green colour, replaced by a black guise. When I first saw
this change I was not at all impressed, to me the green was a lovely colour
but as time has gone by I have grown to really like it. It's a bit like when
they bring out a new shape car, I always hate the new look at first but as
time goes by I usually end up realising the new shape is for the best. (Unless
we are talking about a Subaru Imprezza the old shape was definitely the best).
Also worthy of note is the rubber feel of the original case is no longer. Next
obvious change is the telescopic aerial as opposed to the whip one supplied
on the original. This telescopic comes with a swivel joint so you can use it
from all angles even with the receiver lying down. This to me is an improvement
over the original aerial as I always ended up sticking a telescopic on it to
bring out it's best.
Another change not quite so obvious is the change in place of the "0" and
"." (AFC and Offset respectively) buttons. Not sure why this is but obviously
someone thought it would be better.
Other changes that are not visual are as follows:
A new
A Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator
(TCXO) instead of the
old simple crystal this is to reject spurious signals that the original
model suffered from.
A change with the s-meter.
Increased capacity Ni-mh batteries.
Changes made to the battery compartment.
Changes to the display/keypad lighting, complete with auto switch.
Now then lets explore all these details to see if the 8200 MK3 is an improvement
over the original model.
The changes to the battery compartment are easily identified by the extra
room. The original model when trying to insert batteries was a tight fit to
say the least, especially if you tried to insert alkalines. Sometimes I would
wonder if the case would split. On the Mk3 this problem I am happy to say has
been rectified. One thing I did notice when compared to the original model,
the battery closure is a lot harder. On the original I would just snap it shut
very easily and is one of the things I always will remember as I found it akin
to a rolls royce or jaguar where rather than the door slam shut you would here
a nice "Snick". This does not appear to be the case with the MK3
and to be honest I found the closure of the battery compartment a chore. The
other changes are that it comes supplied with Ni-Mh batteries which is a definite
improvement over the ni-cads as the battery life was about 4 hours use with
the NI-Mh I experienced around 6 hours continuous use, and a lot longer when
monitoring a single ch. with the battery saver selected. The radio came supplied
with 1500 mah cells and I presumed the charger circuit has been upgraded to
allow charging of the Ni-Mh batteries. However this is not the case and AOR
do state to allow for longer charging times up to 22 hours using the built
in charger circuit, ideally using an external charging supply for optimum results
is the way to go.
The Display light has been improved immensely over the original model giving
a much brighter display on the keypad as well as the main display. This makes
for good night time monitoring. A lovely feature that has been added is the
auto switch in which case when in a scan and the 8200 stops on an active frequency
the backlight will be displayed for a period of approx 5 seconds. This will
also work in manual or vfo mode switching on at every fresh transmission. Obviously
there will be extra drain on the batteries but this feature can easily be switched
off for extra battery life. Congratulations AOR this is a feature I have been
asking for in a scanner for a long time and is a most welcome addition.
In use
In Use Comparing it on UHF to my other receivers I have to say I am impressed,
very Impressed! Tuning to signals that any of my other scanners struggle with
I Found the 8200 Mk3 brought them in loud and clear with the supplied telescopic.
This is definitely the best scanner I have used at pulling in the signals on
UHF at the time of writing. I don't know if this is an intended feature of
this model but it is definitely better than the original model which
I thought was no slouch anyway. Example: To receive a certain towns shopping
centre security on my other receivers requires me to stand in the attic (Loft
converted) and move around until I just about manage to find the signal. The
8200 MK3 pulled it in with 3 segments of the bar graph in the lower bedroom
next to my spurious giving computer monitor! Another user in the 440 Mhz area
which is in a black spot where I live and my 780 requires a fair bit of moving
around to get a reasonable signal came in on the 8200 on full strength on the
s-meter I know these are not 100% reliable but the audio backed up what the
s-meter was telling me.
Moving down to VHF 165-170 Mhz again the signals came booming in again I was
very impressed and I believe that yet again it is better than the original
Model.
70Mhz fire is an area I usually steer clear of as reception on most
receivers in the location I live is very scratchy to say the least. But again
I was very pleasantly surprised with the results with all the local stations
coming in loud and clear. In fact I have realised what I have been missing
out on and it's all thanks to the MK3.
Taking a look at civil airband and I found the MK3 outstanding bringing
in my control tower frequency in loud and clear. s-meter readings were half
full for the tower side of the conversations. Plenty of other scanners have
stumbled at this hurdle, some not being able to hear the tower at all.
Scanning.
It was also a pleasant improvement for the 8200 MK3 not to keep momentarily
stopping on inactive frequencies due to spurious internally generated signals
this was a big criticism of mine with the original model. Yes some of the
glitches are still there such as different frequency ranges needing a higher
squelch setting but not to the same extent as before. Now then here I found
a slight problem with the MK3 handling different reception modes when mixed
in the same bank. The problem seems to be that when AM mode ch's were mixed
with FM modes the Mk3 quite often just skipped past them, this was a problem
I found with the original model. To back my theory I changed the modes to
FM and the MK3 stopped on the transmissions every time. I then entered all
AM mode ch's into a separate bank and I appeared to be having no problems whatsoever.
This is all to do with
AGC and PLL lock
characteristics. Ideally the same mode and frequency ranges should be
'grouped' together for best results.
Obviously it would be better to put certain modes into specific
memory banks. Incidentally it appears to be the VHF A.M. signals that get ignored
with UHF FM being fine. In all fairness
AOR do point out in the manual that for best performance similar reception modes
should be grouped together. Also similar frequency ranges should be grouped together
as they are also sometimes missed when mixed with other frequencies in a bank.
This is not the first time I have come across this, I believe
the Alinco DJX 2000 has these characteristics, not to the extent that signals
were ignored but the scanning process was slowed down somewhat. In the case of
the 8200 it appears to be the first frequency in most cases that
was being ignored. One remedy I found was to put in a "Dummy" memory
into the first memory allocation of each bank as I suspect the radio takes time
to adjust to different frequency ranges. E.g. a bank of pmr freq's in the 165-170
Mhz range say for arguments sake in Bank "D" The first memory allocation "D00" I
programmed in 166.000 as there are no users of that frequency in my area this
I believe gave the 8200 time to settle down to the lower frequency climes of
uhf and so by the time it got to my stored active frequencies it managed to recognise
them and would stop on them.
Image frequency.
I must admit I was rather surprised when I thought I had found a new user
on 77.00MHz only to find out that it was a local skip co on 167.800 MHz. If
my memory serves me well then I'm sure on the original version I had 166MHz
ambulance frequency coming through on 453MHz. I am used to finding on sets
with out triple conversion setups to be hearing images 10 or 20 Mhz apart but
to find images 100's of mhz apart I have never come across before. In all fairness
this only showed the once and what was indeed a very strong signal with other
frequencies being well behaved when it came to handling image signals.
CTCSS/DCS
Every decent scanner in this day and age should come equipped with this feature
right? Well I am sorry to say that the 8200 MK3 does not, yes you can buy an
add on slot card for around 70 quid but this just is not good enough in my
opinion. The 8200 should come with this feature built in or at least a free
slot card thrown in free. This scanner has loads of features and that is what
keeps it as one of the top scanners, but to not supply complete with these
features I believe is a big "No! No!" £70 on top of the price
of the unit makes a big hole in anyone's wallet. I would have liked the chance
to see if the slot card when fitted was more accurate than on the original
version where the 8200 would show two different tones, leaving you wondering
which was the correct one. (I used to get my Icom R2 to confirm any tones found
with the 8200) I heard this glitch was gone in the MK2 version so I would like
to think the same with the MK3. With this in mind I contacted Richard Hillier
from AOR via email asking if I could loan a Card and the next day a CTCSS (Or
CT card as AOR call it) was sitting on my mat. In a black colour to match the
colour of the radio as opposed to the original green.
Eager to check out if the problems had been fixed I am happy to say that yes
the old problem of showing two different tones appears to be no Longer! The
8200 appears to be very reliable at finding the tone in use. Trouble is there
appears to be a new problem, For a while the feature works flawlessly (Incidentally
when using tones the 8200 gives a much crisper reception) but every now and
again I found that although it would stop on the correct tone being used, no
audio would come out of the speaker. In a scan the active channel would stop
and display the signal strength on the S-meter but no audio would come out.
This was a problem on all frequency ranges.The only remedy I could find
for this was to turn the unit off and then back on again, In some circumstances
I had to deactivate the use of tones altogether. Another thing I found which
I don't know whether it is a problem or not is that a user I know to be using
tone 69.3Hz when the tones were being searched with the 8200 the tone 69.4Hz
was displayed. Looking into the ctcss settings revealed possibly why this was
the case. The 8200 or the CT card rather does not come with the 69.3Hz tone
so rounded it up to the nearest value. My 780 does not have this setting either
and in that case you are not able to use tones at all for this user so I suppose
the 8200 does make up for not having the tone by using the next available tone.
The only problem I can see here is if there is another user on the 69.4tone
then you will be hearing both users.
Signal Meter
There have been changes made to the S-meter the most obvious to me being that
when a carrier is dropped the segments disappear altogether whereas as I recall
from the original they would die down slowly in turn. This is a definite improvement.
PLL error!
This was something I used to see quite regularly on my old 8200. It occurred
usually when in manual mode when the battery saver feature was active. Sometimes
it would just display "PLL ERROR" on its own accord, possibly when
it cycled between sleep and awake causing some sort of circuitry failure. The
remedy I found was a power off and on again. With the MK3 this problem I am
happy to say is no longer there.
Computer control.
The 8200 comes with complete support for computer control. With AOR offering
a free download of
their software. With other third party programs freely available. One such
program being JAOR which offers loads
of features and has a nice display.
The
computer programming cable comes in at a whopping £74.90!!
( I think AOR like to get every last penny out of your already depleted wallet)
I cannot for the life of me see how they can justify this price for a cable,
unfortunately if you want to get the best out of this receiver then you are
going to need one. Stewart
aviation supply these also.
Final comments.
The 8200 has been with us for some years now and because AOR have made mk2
and MK3 versions it is obviously because it is a success. This radio has loads
of features which make it stand out from the crowd even after Years in service.
This is a brilliant receiver and quality is second to none. AOR have obviously
listened to the public and made certain changes to suit, but have kept with
the original design/Menus as this was a winner to start with and has stood
the test of time.
Yes there are problems with frequency ranges being recognised but as stated
above loading a "Dummy" frequency into the first memory bank appears
to solve the problem. The ctcss problem definitely needs looking into for any
future versions (A MK4?). Oh yes come on AOR throw in a free ctcss (DCS capability
too would be nice) slot card that is what is letting the fantastic little set
down. The competition (Alinco DJX 2000) has it so why not the 8200?
The danger in doing these reviews is that a lot of times I grow to love a
set that much I sometimes send a cheque off and keep it. I was worried that
this would be the case with the 8200 MK3. Indeed I would love one of these
all I need to do is get saving! This receiver is definitely in the top 3 of
my all time favourite scanners, one I would be proud to own. Yes there are
other receivers that come complete with CTCSS/DCS thrown in but there is something
about this set that just gives it the edge. Add CTCSS/DCS and it would romp
home. Overall score
Thank you.
Thank you to Bob from Stewart
aviation for the loan of the review scanner. Stewart aviation have the
8200 for sale on their site with delivery speed second to none. Also thanks
to Richard Hillier for his help during the course of this review.
AR8200 MK3 specification
Specifications subject to change without notice due to continuous development
of the receiver. E&OE.
Frequency Range 530 kHz to 3000 MHz *
(Actual frequency input 100 kHz to 3000 MHz,
performance between 100 kHz to 530 kHz is not guaranteed).
* Cell blocked in the USA for FCC rules
Receive Modes WFM, NFM, SFM, WAM, AM, NAM, USB, LSB, CW
Sensitivity 500 kHz ~ 1.9 MHz AM 3.5 µV (10dB S/N)
1.9 MHz ~ 30 MHz AM 2.5 µV (10dB S/N)
30 MHz ~ 470 MHz AM 1.5 µV (10dB S/N)
NFM: 0.85 µV (12dB SINAD)
WFM: 1.5 µV (12dB SINAD)
470 MHz ~ 1040 MHz NFM: 0.9 µV (12dB SINAD)
1040 MHz ~ 2040 MHz NFM: 9.0 µV (12dB SINAD)
2040 MHz ~ 3000 MHz NFM: 25 µV (12dB SINAD)
Selectivity SSB/NAM 3kHz (-6dB) 9kHz (-40dB)
AM/SFM 9kHz (-6dB) 20kHz (-40dB)
WAM/NFM 12kHz (-6dB) 25kHz (-40dB)
WFM 150kHz (-3dB) 360kHz (-20dB)
Power requirements 4 x AA internal batteries or 12V to 16V d.c. external supply
190mA (nominal) consumption
Dimensions 61(W) x 143(H) x 39(D) mm approx excluding projections
Weight 340g approx including batteries and aerial
Operating temperature -5°C to + 50°C
Audio output 120mW (8 OHM) THD 10%
Memory channels 1,000 (20 banks)
Select scan channels 50
Priority channels 1
Search banks 40
PASS channels 50 per search bank + 50 for VFO search
Scan/Search Rate 37 steps per second (nominal)
AOR 8200 MK3 
