I have them both. The ICOM sure looks sexier, but they are both nice
radios The AR300A is more portable, though you can run the icom from
12V if you build a cord. [The power connector is an off the shelf
Molex.] The AR3000A has a funny power connector. It ships with a wall
wart and a plain cable going to pigtails, so you can also run it from
12V IF that cable hasn't been lost by the original owner.

The AOR can do some very strange stepping. It only comes in handy on
the old (and maybe still active) "air phones". Basically the AOR can
set the step and an offset. For example, if you wanted to hit 100.1,
101.1, 102.1, etc .you could set a 0.1Mhz offset and a 1Mhz step. I
need to check to see if the Icom can do that.

The Icom 7100 can output 10.7Mhz to a panadapter

If you listen to this recording (win amp required since it is ogg
vorbis)
http://www.lazygranch.com/sound/redf...6/tues_ogg.ogg
the Icom 7100 was the right channel, and the AR3000A was the left
channel. However, it is not a fair contest as the 7100 was on a UHF
blade antenna mounted on the roof of my SUV, while the AR3000A was on a
Diamond RH77C inside the SUV.

Both the 7100 and the AR3000A have a line level output. The AR3000A
needs a funny DIN connector cable that I built but didn't use for the
recording. My recollection is the AR3000A line output was unsquelched,
but I'm not sure. I know the Icom 7100 line output is squelched.

I don't know the current price for the AR3000A, but I got the Icom 7100
for $400 about two months ago. I've seen the Icom 8500 go for around
$700, which is also a good deal as it is newer and a bit higher in
bandwidth, plus fair HF performance.

For mil air, both these radios have reasonably high frequencies first
mixers (around 700Mhz), so they produce few mil air birdies.