AR-DV1 Overview, Features & Package

Summary: A tour of the AOR AR-DV1 desktop SDR digital voice receiver: what it covers, what it decodes, what’s in the box and its main features.

What the AR-DV1 Is

The AR-DV1 is a compact desktop wideband receiver from AOR covering 100 kHz to 1.3 GHz (cellular frequencies are blocked on the US consumer version). It’s a software-defined design that decodes analogue and digital voice, has an SD card slot for recording and backups, and runs from a 12 V DC supply.

Modes

• Analogue: AM, synchronous AM (SAH and SAL, selectable sideband), FM (wide and narrow), USB, LSB and CW.
• Digital voice (automatic detection or manual): D-STAR, Yaesu digital, Digital CR / NXDN, dPMR, DMR (including MOTOTRBO), APCO P25 Phase 1 and the Alinco EJ-47U digital format. There’s no TETRA. See AR-DV1 Specifications & Digital Mode Compatibility.

Main Features

• 2,000 memory channels in 40 banks of 50, with 12-character titles; 40 search banks; three VFOs (A, B and Z).
• Selectable IF filter bandwidths, AGC, manual RF gain, auto notch and noise reduction.
• CTCSS, reverse tone, DCS and a voice inversion descrambler (not on the US consumer version), plus noise, level and voice squelch.
• Priority channel, frequency offset, step adjust, alarm and timer recording, and a sleep timer.
• SD/SDHC card interface: record received audio as WAV files, back up and restore memories, update the firmware.
• USB (micro-USB) for control from a PC using AOR’s command list. No PC software is supplied.
• Direct conversion from 100 kHz to 18 MHz, superheterodyne above.

In the Box

AR-DV1 receiver, AC power adapter, telescopic antenna, SDHC memory card and the printed operating manual (which includes the command list). The manual notes PC software is not supplied.

Squawker

There’s no Squawker export, Connect or Programmer support for the AR-DV1. It does load and save memories as CSV files on its SD card, so Squawker data can still be used with some effort: see AR-DV1 Loading Frequencies From Squawker PC & Squawker Online.