Nordic SW Center - New options for the AR7030

The AOR NB7030 and FPU7030 options for the AR7030

Whatever your interest in DXing, and whichever magazines you read, you will have become aware of the interest caused over the last 18 months by the AOR AR7030 Communications Receiver. You may well already have firm views on the receiver. You may fall into the camp which thinks that it is the best value of money on the market at the moment, and that it makes a quantum leap in terms of performance, holding the centre ground between the very best analogue and digital receivers.

Alternatively you may find it too fussy to be of any use, too small to be convincing, and impractical for practical listening.

It is likely that your present views will become further polarised with the advent of this package of modifications.

What will you get...?

The kit itself comes well packaged, complete with clear fitting instructions and operating instructions designed as an addition to the owner's manual. As well as screws and headers for connection to the existing PCB's, you get a PCB, an updated microprocessor (type AT89C55) and an EEPROM (type 24C64) for increased memory capacity.

So what are you buying....?

In short, a noise blanker, a notch filter, extra memories and the facility for each memory to have a textual identifier, and new timers. It is possible to purchase just the integrated circuits if you don't want the notch and noise blanker. But you can't have the notch and noise blanker without the extra IC's. OK?

Fitting the new bits......

The PCB takes up about a quarter of the space inside the receiver, looking downwards, being about the same size as the optional filter daughter-board. If you have fitted this, you will have to relocate it near the back of the receiver: the NB7030 board has to be sited near to the front of the receiver at the right hand side. Essentially to fit all the modifications you have to remove the old microprocessor from its holder and push in the new one, stuff in the little EEPROM into a hitherto unoccupied holder, solder in three multipinned headers to existing boards, and screw the new PCB to the side of the case.

Should I do it?....

Not if you are of a nervous disposition. If you have a small soldering iron, a steady hand, and some experience of soldering up PCB's it should not be difficult. Soldering one of the headers is best described as a bit tricky because it has to be soldered from the top of the board behind the front display. But this is preferable to disassembling the whole front of the receiver. My advice that if your only experience of soldering has been limited to household plumbing, and the instructions are not perfectly clear to you - get someone else to take the stress for you and stay away from the inside. It is also necessary to take earthing precautions when handling the integrated circuits.

On the whole, I think the designer has been skilful in supplying a board which gets in among the audio and IF circuitry relatively painlessly.

What does each of these options do? And how well?

Let's start with what for me is the minor feature, the new timers. The receiver's clock can now be programmed to include date and month. This enables ten "multi-timers" to be set up to switch in to any memory setting over the period of a year. At first sight this might have a limited appeal, but it would be possible to set up one night of unattended DXing switching in to various frequencies for just a few minutes each. A tape machine could also switch in.

The noise blanker...

You may know of my history of disappointment about the performance of noise blankers. I think this is partly because share prices in blanker manufacturers have remained low ever since the general demise of OTH radar. (Woodpecker). It also seems to be a fact that noise blankers only really come into their own in the presence of strong transient spikes. Most DXers erect antenna systems away from these anyway. Put it this way, with my usual antenna I only generally receive distant electrical storm interference (crick-crack). I have not been able to notice any improvement to the audio under these conditions with this noise blanker (neither did I on my Yaesu or my Drake). If I connect a short antenna to my modified 7030 and switch on my desk lamp, I hear a loud click. With the noise blanker switched in, the click totally disappears. Clearly it is working - its threshold level can also be adjusted - and it may have some uses, particularly for the listener in noisy areas with limited antenna possibilities.

The notch filter...

This is a beauty, and possibly worth the expenditure alone. The single filter, which operates in the audio circuitry claims to be better than 50 dB over most of the tuning range. It is manually tunable from 150 Hz to 6 kHz. Even when in manual mode, it is semi-intelligent because the tuning rate slows down as it approaches a heterodyne. When manually tuned, the filter locks in a fashion - it will stay tracked to drifting heterodynes. It will also hold its setting as you slowly tune it. It is interesting to put the receiver on AM mode and a wide filter and watch the filter continue to lock on to the 5 kHz whistles as you tune down the shortwave broadcast bands. The frequency at which the filter is operating is also displayed to the nearest 100 Hz. The automatic notch search mode does exactly what it says, although covers only 300 Hz to 6 kHz. It works seamlessly and is able to lock on to CW signals. The display also tells you whether you are in the automatic mode or the manual "slow tuning - about to pounce on a hetero - mode". It might have been nice if the notch filter had gone down to, say, 10 Hz to get rid of rumbles caused by slight variations in carriers beating together. In practice the pass band shift can be adjusted to meet this need.

Will I ever fly this thing?....

The notch filter and the noise blankers are called up from menus controlled by the much used buttons at the front. Yes, the menu tree is now bigger, and the same joys and anxieties meet the user of the modified receiver in the same way that you greet an updated program of your favourite word processor. Every improvement means more features, more power, more things to learn and more chances of getting lost. But for me, I found the additions logical and intuitive. For example the notch filter is found by pressing the "FILTER" button and the noise blanker is called up via the "RF-IF" option.

Memories are made of this.....

The receiver's memory capability has been increased to 400. The scanning facility will cover any block of a hundred of these. Each memory can also store up to 14 characters of text. The full range of ascii letters - upper and lower case - are available including numbers and punctuation marks. But no accents, bold or underlined! I must admit that I was a little bit prejudiced when contemplating this feature. It did seem a bit of a gimmick, which might have some use for amnesiac broadcast band listeners, and how shall I put it? - anoraks who prefer playing with equipment to using it. However, I went with the spirit of the new facility and spent a couple of hours putting in all the common African and Latin American short wave stations. So when I now call up memory number 216, it reads across the top of the display: 9.645.00 Bandeirantes B I have chosen to put in the station name followed by the ITU code. I have found the 14 characters is usually quite enough to be able to identify a station without too much painful abbreviation. Now, to have memories which tell you the name of the station, however prettily, is to me a limited virtue. (Although it has to be admitted, it looks quite impressive on the display). The additional feature which makes it particularly interesting is the one called the "Ident Preview" option, which can be switched in or out. As I tune my receiver down the 31 m.b. I come near to 9515 kHz. At this point the words Novas de Pas B appear, for three seconds, over the part of the display normally occupied by the signal strength indicator. This would remind me of what Brazilian could be found here. The ways in which the identification previews present themselves and can be recalled are rather complicated for me to describe them in just a paragraph although the instruction sheets do a good job. But I will address the inevitable question - what if I have committed more that one station to the receiver's memories of the same frequency. Well, initially, the one with the lowest memory number shows. However by pressing the MENU button it is then possible to show any other memories on the same frequency. There is also a clever copy and paste facility which enables memory details to be transferred to other memories - useful if you want to feed in all frequency outlets of Radio Bandeirantes. I am sure there are many ways this alpha-numerical display could be employed. It could be used as a note book - times, dates of logging, ITU codes and even jokes can be logged in. For example as I tune past the frequency of 5070 kHz the epithet "DANGER BIGOTS!" leaps out at me. Martin Elbe has christened the identification facility "Little Richard" in honour of the AOR UK Sales manager, Richard Hillier. When I tuned my receiver down the band and enquired what a station was, Martin would read the display and say "Little Richard says it is Radio Cora".

Should I buy one....?

In my mind there is no clear answer to this. There are compelling reasons why somebody looking for a good modern receiver should buy a 7030 in its basic form. But at 198 these modifications are not cheap. It depends on most decisions in life concerning expenditure - opportunity cost. My advice would be this (and I await a deluge of contradiction): If you have the basic receiver and you are a reasonably serious DXer, the first thing you should do is to improve the filters. Do not buy the Collins filters - go straight for the 2.4 kHz 8 pole crystal filter. I use this nearly all the time, and the performance is superb. The next one to get is something like the Murata 3.0 kHz ceramic filter. This is good for Synchrophase listening. These two, together with the daughter board to mount them on them, come to about the cost of the options I have described above. Then when you have a birthday, go for this new board and software. The notch filter will certainly improve the quality of your DXing. If you are an ace DXer you will have every worthwhile frequency already stored in the memory you were born with; if you are a lesser mortal, the station identification feature could save a lot of time flicking through the back pages of WRTH. I would like to thank Richard Hillier, UK Sales Director of AOR for lending me a review sample. The company can be contacted on e-mail at: info@aor.co.uk URL: http://www.demon.co.uk.aor or by phone on +44-1773-880788. The address is AOR (UK) LTD, 4E East Mill, Bridgefoot, Belper, Derbyshire, DE56 2UA, England. I am Don Phillips 197 Queensgate Bridlington YO16 5QU, U.K. phone - 01262-672316 e mail: donuk@compuserve.com Mail me!