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Reviews For: AOR AR-2002

Category: Receivers: Scanners

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Review Summary For : AOR AR-2002
Reviews: 2MSRP: N/A
Description:
VHF/UHF receiver/scanner
Base/Mobile
25-550 / 800-1300 MHz (5/12.5/25 KHz steps)
AM/FM/WFM
20 memories
Dimensions (W*H*D): 138*80*200 mm
Voltage: 12-14 VDC
Manufactured: 1985-19xx
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.aorja.com/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0024.5
DXTUNER Rating: 2008-10-04
Powerful little receiver Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Even in this day of super-fast trunking scanners and APCO-25, the AR-2002 is a fantastic VHF/UHF receiver to have on the desktop. Strength of reception is 2x that of the finest Uniden scanner available and, as the reviewer below mentions, the sound quality is highly pleasing. For monitoring aircraft or railroad, a few select channels on 2 meters, or 'listening' to TV, the AR-2002 is definitely the one. Just punch in the frequency on the keypad & enjoy the finest possible reception. This is a powerful little receiver -- a cute little powerful receiver. Its smaller than the stock web photos might lead you to think; really not much larger than my hand.

The bar-lighted S-meter (green to red) is really cool to look at as the transmissions come in, especially at night. The small knobs for volume and squelch are solid & tight; they have that professional feel when compared to typical police scanners. The little VFO is also very stout with rubberized coating, but the tuning is detented -- you can't do any fast search scanning with that (nor with the slow-scanning programmable option).

Although the AR-2002 doesn't trunk, doesn't fly through 1000's of channels in seconds flat and cannot decode P-25 digital, its worthwhile to have for choice listening outside of police. I also had a Yaesu FRG-9600 (the AR-2002's competitor in 1985); the AR-2002 outperforms that one hands-down. No contest. The AR-2002 usually sells for $175-$280 on Ebay. If you're serious about quality of reception on VHF/UHF, you should seriously consider having one of these.



UK1 Rating: 2005-11-04
Basic, but great at what it does Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This radio is perhaps my favourite receiver ever. It shouldn't really be called a scanner, as it only has 20 channels which it scans very slowly. Searching is no better -- you sit there holding down the Up/Down keys trawling through the bands at about a pathetic 5 steps/second! No, this is a receiver. It's at it's best sat on your desk listening to one frequency. And that is after all the most important function of any radio, and one which the AR-2002 excels at.

Quite simply, although this is a 20-year old radio, I doubt anything else can touch it for simply monitoring the frequencies it covers. It is sensitive (not overly so), has good selectivity, good resistance to strong signal overload; and very nice, clear audio quality through an extension speaker. What more can you want, except fast scan/search?

It is well made and reliable. Mine is still perfect despite many years of use. It was a couple of kHz off-tune when I got it, and recalibration was very simple. The keys are sensibly sized, as is the unit itself -- it could be used in the car.

The rotary tuning dial is a great feature.

No, I would still take this radio over any of the Bearcat/Realistic base stations, with their overload problems and mushy audio. It may be basic, but it's not been bettered IMO.