AOR.AR-3000A PLUS

[WARLOCK]

looking at one of these AOR AR-3000A plus i know they are old but are they any good and what is the meaning of the plus ? what would be a good antenna to use with such a radio and can they be connected up to a computer ?

[owza]

Some info here

http://www.thiecom.de/english/ar3000ael ... 00a%20plus

Looks solid!

[RogerD]

They're good, but annoyingly fiddly in some ways.

F'rinstance, to change mode you have to use the tuning wheel - which you will probably have set in the 'fast' mode where it moves through lots of steps per turn of the wheel. This means that a small nudge of the knob moves the mode selection through several options, trying to get the one you want means trying to get a rotational accuracy of a millionth of a degree
- which isn't helped by the awful kind of knob that seems to ignore some movements one way, but the slightest nudge the other way is registered too easily, just to make it even harder to select the option you want.
You can use the up/down buttons, but they are really close to the tuning knob which you'll move by accident unless you adopt an uncomfortable thumb manouevre from above.

Sadly, with a little more care and attention and a few more bytes of program code in the firmware, maybe they could have allowed pressing 1 for AM, 2 for FM, 3 for USB etc - even if it wasn't marked on the front panel the 'power users' would have got used to it and would have appreciated it!

Also have an annoying tendency to stop scanning on no evidence of activity on a channel, then resume eventually. And it locked onto the channel above or below the one in use. And long loud squelch tails on FM.

And mine sometimes would 'jump' past the optimum tuning for an HF SSB signal, going straight from too low to Donald Duck too high, with no way to reach the right tuning somewhere in between, despite the display seeming to tune in the right steps.

Brilliant radio in its time, 50ch/sec scanning was the best in the field for many years, now outclassed by the 100ch/sec Unidens.

These days it's more versatile (if you have the space and funds) to have a separate HF rig and scanner (if there's anything left worth listening to)

[WARLOCK]

Bought the aor ar-3000a plus and I am very pleased with it it receives better than any of my other radios-yaesu frg-7700/target hf3/icom r70/uniden ubc 3500xtl, It may be old it may be slow but boy can it receive and that at the end of the day is what a radio receiver is for.So once again OLD SCHOOL is better .

[Andy]

Warlock, I find it hard to believe that a 3000a+ can receive on HF better than those purpose-designed HF RX's you mention. Better than the 3500, yes - but the others....
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of AOR and I used to have an AR5000, but it seems strange.

[WARLOCK]

Hi Andy,i must admit I was very surprised with the receiver on this old radio but I can only tell it as it is,The reason it receives I think so well is the signal is so clean and crisp as there is so little background noise not like the other HF radios I have , The filters are much better in the AR-3000Aplus which mine is than the AR-3000A I have been told by the members at my local radio club, I have no reason to lie about this radio or its reception as I am not trying to sell it to anyone,I know how well it receives and that is all that matters to me,If you are ever passing through Cambridgeshire you are welcome round for a cup of tea and I will gladly show you just how well this radio receives .
warlock1946..26-TM-134 .