Hello John,

Yes, I'm very late in the game to jump on the '7030 bandwagon; but I did recently purchase an AOR AR-7030Plus receiver. The fact that the radio is soon to be discontinued was something of a motivating factor. I’ve considered and rejected the ‘7030 off and on since it was first introduced in the mid-90’s. Having fitted the radio out with 3 crystal filters and the notch/noise blanker, I find the ‘7030Plus to be quite a nice performer, indeed.

From my early experience with the radio, I’d say the ‘7030 certainly gives performance in the same league as the Drake R8B. I’ve generally tended to prefer the many knobs and buttons, but I find the ergonomics of the ‘7030 to be quite navigable. The remote does facilitate things quite a bit, and I’ve found that with my sample, the remote really doesn’t require precise aiming.

The only thing I find lacking on the ‘7030Plus is the absence of a sideband-selectable synchronous detector (e.g. as in the R8B, SW8(A), Sat800 or Eton E1/XM). The synchronous detector gives a nice lock, to be sure; but the R8B and Eton E1’s combination of synchronous selectable sideband with PBT offers a nice flexibility in the AM mode.

That said, the ‘7030 is very well suited for ECSS reception. And, as Joe has mentioned several times in this forum, the AOR 2.4 crystal filter provides very nice audio indeed for ECSS reception of SW broadcast signals.

The low current draw of the ‘7030/Plus is another nice point: at a 0.5 amp draw on 12 – 15VDC, the ‘7030/Plus will go a long way on a small battery, such as the 18Ah battery that I got for use with the radio. This, coupled with the relatively small dimensions of the radio, makes the ‘7030 pretty well suited for outings.

It seems, John, that your comparative review of the AR-7030Plus and the R8A puts these pretty much on the same par performance-wise. From my preliminary runs with the ‘7030Plus, I’d have to say that I’m much in agreement with you (I ran an R8A as my primary receiver for about 5 years). Do I ultimately prefer the ergonomics of the Drake R8A and R8B? Sure. But, then, it’s always great to have a new radio to play around with. And in truth, I don’t find the ergonomic arrangement of the ‘7030 to be quite as onerous as some have found. Admittedly, this is simply a matter of one’s personal tastes and preferences.

I’ll definitely keep my eye open for the release of AOR's AR-7070 next year. It will be interesting to see what AOR produces with this shift toward DSP. Indications suggest that the ergonomics might be a bit more to your tastes than the ‘7030 (well, the keypad is to be inboard, at any rate!). Not that you'll necessarily be in need of any new receiver...what, with your IC-7700, you're pretty much set!

Best of DX to you,

Junius