RadioBanter - AOR 7030 and 7030Plus. Substantial differences?

I have an AOR7030...........it isn't a bad unit, but after a few years,
silly problems show up, such as.................switches that have
debouncing problems, a cheap mechanical encoder that seems to have noise
problems; this problem could have been cleaned up with an XOR function in
the microcontroller. The performance of both of the units is pretty
similar, otherwise, unless you are in a very strong signal area. AOR
addressed the IP problem by switching to shielded leaded inductors in the
front end filters, so IP3 in the transition region is slightly improved. The
reason for the improvement is because the original inductors' cores
saturated at high signal levels. This change didn't really make any real
difference in the midband regions of the filters. I am not sure why they
didn't go to bandpass filters the way the other manufacturers chose to do.
AOR chose to remove the shielding from the synthesizer, so one of the
prominent users (Dave Zantos) observed a problem with "white noise"
superimposed on the received signal with the "Plus" model.
On a final note, you can't go wrong with either one. When I phoned one of
the distributers, and asked them the differences between the two models, the
person I spoke to merely parroted AOR's advertised specifications. In other
words, they really didn't provide a satisfactory answer. If it were a
choice between the two units, I would probably go for the "Plus" model,
because it does use the optical encoder for the main tuning; still, they
still use those cheap, failure-prone mechanical encoders for the other
functions. It may sound like I have a very negative view of this receiver,
but I really don't. I just think that for the price, it should be more
reliable. There are two reasons that I am still keeping
mine.........................first of all, it was a Christmas gift from my
wife, and secondly, it is really a fun receiver, with all of those menu
functions.

Pete

Telamon wrote in message

....
In article ,
(Gerry) wrote:

Hallo, sorry for my terrible English. I program to change (or to
upgrade) my 7030 with 7030+. Are there important differences between
two? I refer to the general quality of listening, to the IP2&IP3, to
the noise. The greatest number of memories or the alfatag characters
doesn't interest me. Has someone tried both side by side? I ask this
because I have read conflicting opinions. Some say that are not
differences and others that 7030+ is very better. Very thanks.

You are mixing apples and oranges a little bit as the ³more memories²
and ³Alfa tag² is the result of the FPU7030 option.

Specifically the plus unit has added or improved:
IP2&IP3
Lower noise synthesizer
Improved antenna input transformer
Improved IF filters
Optical instead of mechanical encoder for the main tuning knob
Includes the FPU7030 option

If you were to do this I would also go for the NB7030 option. The auto
notch works real nice and the noise blanker sometimes helps.

I can¹t help you with a before and after as I bought the radio upgraded.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California