AOR 8200 MK3 Receiver review, I always wanted and AOR scanner, even from a very early age I understood the quality and desirability of this awesome little radio. This radio has
always been way out of my reach due to the price! This radio at the time of writing this review (15/12/13) is a whopping £495! I used to work for a very large insurance company
and when I left they very nicely gave me a few quid so I though now might be my only chance to own one of the best receivers in the world! So I took the plunge this time last year and I
now finally own this amazing scanner! I found a brand new one on eBay that was bought but never used and paid £400 for it!
Bargain! I could not wait until it came through the post! My first impressions of this radio are that it is a lot smaller than I imagined it to be, on the
pictures online it looked a lot bigger! Also you can really tell the quality of the radio, I have owned many radio scanners over the years from Realistic’s to Yupiteru’s and this is by far the
best one of them in my opinion! All the buttons feel really nice to the touch and the display and buttons light up a lovely green colour!
In the box you get:
BNC Telescopic Antenna
Medium Wave Bar antenna
4 x AA NiCad Batteries
AC Wall adaptor with 12v DC Output
Fused 12v DC Cigar/cigarette lighter socket
Belt Clip & Screws
Carry Strap
As always with AOR the accessories that are included are top quality and have a great feel to them.
At the top of the radio you have a volume and squelch knob and a BNC socket for the
telescopic antenna and a slot for the MW bar antenna
At the bottom you have a slot to add different cards that you can buy as extras from AOR,
these in my opinion are silly price accessories and I think they are about £80 each! The cards
are:
AOR EM-8200 External Memory Card
AOR VI-8200 Voice Inverter Card
AOR CT-8200 CTCSS Card
On the left hand side of the radio you have a rocker switch that can be used for changing channel and frequency and a rotating switch that can also be used for various tasks within the
menus. The key lock button and the monitor button are also located here, you also have a sliding card ejector located about half way down the radio on this side also.
On the right hand side of the radio you have the Power Supply socket and the socket for inserting the RT8200 cable (or similar) so that you can program or use a Frequency counter
like I did
On the back of the radio you have the belt clip and battery compartment and the serial
number (nothing exciting)
When you turn the AOR 8200 MK3 radio on you are greeted with a nice message saying “Welcome to the new world of AOR” this is a nice touch and after a second or so you get to
the screen you were last on for example the frequency. I do find this radio SO difficult to use! This is most likely down to me being stupid but it’s
very menu driven and drives me crazy! This radio is capable of doing so much and I find actually working out how to do it an impossible task! I don’t even use 10% of what this radio is capable of which is a shame really. Regarding sensitivity of the receiver, it’s quite hard to say as I am by no means techie or experienced in the clever side of operating, but compared to other radio’s I have owned I can say that this radio is very good! I have listened to some HF stations coming through on my
father in-laws Carolina Windom antenna and it sounds awesome! I do a lot of VHF listening on my radio’s and have found that everything that comes through on my other scanners comes
through no problem at all! My main problem with this radio is that it is so hard for me to use! I have struggled for ages
trying to figure it out and have no luck at all, I much prefer a simpler radio like the Yupiteru MVT 7100 (amazing radio!) Don’t get me wrong this radio receiver is the best one I have
ever owned and it really is amazingly well put together and thought out, they have been making this model for a long time and they really have perfected this little radio, sadly
it’s just not really for me. So overall if you are looking for a highly desirable and fully featured receiver than this radio
is for you! One thing to consider is that 4 way rocker switch on the left side really gets annoying as you keep catching it and knocking your radio of frequency! This maybe
something that can be “turned off” but I really am not sure, at least there is a HUGE manual that comes with it! Seriously though this is a fantastic radio receiver to own and you will not
be disappointed with it I’m sure!
I hope this has helped you if you are thinking of buying this radio? I am not at all technical but I am a long time user of scanners/receivers so I hope that you have found this useful, I have now since sold this receiver as it was just way to difficult to use and for the money it cost you could but quite a lot more!
Thanks for reading!
Here are some more photos of the radio: