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AR 8600 Manual PDF
AR 8600 Manual PDF
EQUIPMENT AND ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR MONITORING POST Bob Parnass, AJ9S
bobparnass@monitoringtimes.com
http://www.parnass.org
uV
0.6
132-foot center fed Zepp antenna.
Our AR8600 Mark 2 overloads below
30 MHz without attenuation and is severely
0.4
stricken with AM broadcast intermod. The
Mark 2’s built-in attenuator does not com-
pletely eliminate the problem, but reduces it
better than in the original AR8600. The more 0.2
expensive NRD545 and IC-R8500 are nearly
intermod free under the same conditions.
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
❖ Finicky Squelch MHz
The squelch has three modes: carrier op-
erated, voice operated, and signal strength. channels with a variety of modes (e.g., NFM, balance of attenuation and antenna.
The squelch tail is slightly longer than our SFM, AM, NAM) requires a compromise The Mark 2’s VHF and UHF perfor-
AR8600 during FM reception in normal op- squelch setting. The squelch doesn’t close mance is on par with other scanners. Listen-
eration. Our Mark 2’s squelch threshold var- consistently in SSB when using it in the car- ers with more space should consider an
ies by mode and that means that scanning rier operated mode, regardless of the squelch ICOM IC-R75/Uniden BC780XLT combina-
knob position. Luckily, the voice activated tion alternative.
Measurements squelch mode works well during SSB recep-
tion unless it becomes confused by a high noise The AR-8600 Mark 2 receiver is available
AOR AR-8600 Receiver S/N 551213 level, e.g., 4 MHz band conditions on a sum- for $889.95 from Grove Enterprises, 7540
mer night. Hwy 64 West, Brasstown, NC 28902; 800-
List price $999 438-8155 or email order@grove-ent.com.
AOR U.S.A., INC. ❖ Wrapup
20655 S. Western Ave., Suite 112 The AR8600 is sol-
Torrance, CA 90501 idly built. The wide spec-
Phone: 310-787-8615 trum coverage, front panel
Fax: 310-787-8619 illumination, flexible step
http://www.aorusa.com sizes, and adjustable
memory banks are assets
Frequency coverage (MHz): we’d like to see in more
0.1 - 3000 receivers. It oozes with
features and options, but
Steps: 0.05 kHz - 999.95 kHz the multiple keypad se-
in 0.05 kHz increments quences make the
AR8600 Mark 2 difficult
NFM modulation acceptance: 7.7 kHz to use and program.
Changing the mode and
Attenuator: step size requires several
15 dB @ 14 MHz key presses. The 143-
15 dB @ 40 MHz page AR8600 manual is
15 dB @ 155 MHz much more comprehen-
14 dB @ 460 MHz sive than the Yaesu
14 dB @ 860 MHz VR5000 manual, despite
a few omissions.
Intermediate Frequencies (MHz): The most important
1) 243.85 or 754.85 improvement in the Mark
2) 10.7 or 45.05 2 over the original AR8600
3) 0.455 is in reception below 30
MHz. Our Mark 2 is
Audio output power, measured at speaker jack: quite usable for short-
400 mW @ 2% distortion wave reception when
teamed with an external,
Squelch tail near threshhold (1 uV @ 155 MHz): 40 ms. adjustable attenuator and
an outdoor antenna. The
Practical memory scan speed: 12 channels/sec. original AR8600 was more
Search speed: 26 steps/sec. easily overloaded, and we
could not find the right