68
June 1997
structions are step-by-step. My favorite
line of the manual came in Chapter 1—In-
stallation: “If any of your home entertain-
ment electronic devices have RF leaks, the
Centaur will find them.”
Ten-Tec has done a fine job of design-
ing and putting together the Centaur, espe-
cially when you consider its price tag. At
the same time, the amp’s very efficient
cooling system comes at the cost of some
noise. The price and features are certainly
right, however, so if you can manage this
Reviewed by Paul Danzer, N1II
Assistant Technical Editor
Sounds good! That was my first impres-
sion when I turned on this little black box
with its Euro-styled front panel and a few—
very few—knobs and push buttons. In fact,
the radio’s exterior styling really distin-
guishes it from the traditional, utilitarian
approach of most general-coverage sets. It
also has a remote-control box, similar to
ones that commonly come with VCRs and
TV sets, something that sets it apart from
its peers (and makes it look for all the world
like a satellite TV receiver). This is defi-
nitely not ham gear!
The overall effect of the AR7030—with
its swooping display window; black,
brushed-finish front panel; textured-finish
case; and flush, hex-head hardware—is
striking. It’s compact, quite handsome
and unique, but its real beauty is more than
skin deep. The AR7030 performs very well
too, and lives up to its designation as a
“high dynamic range general-coverage re-
ceiver.” Our relatively early production
unit AR7030 did not quite meet AOR’s
dynamic range specification of 100 dB
(measured at 12.7 MHz), but it came quite
close at 14.2 MHz (see Table 2).
To put it into a ham’s perspective, our
original AR7030’s dynamic range perfor-
mance was a bit better than that of the
Yaesu FT-1000MP (see “Product Re-
view,” QST, Apr 1996) but not quite as
good as the ICOM IC-756 (see “Product
Review,” QST, May 1997). That certainly
puts it in good company.
I may have set a new record. Within
three minutes I had pushed enough controls
to have a totally unintelligible display on
the front panel, no output from the speaker
and no clue as to what to do. Okay, when in
doubt, read the manual—and there on page
2 is a paragraph with a bold-faced title:
“Overview—read THIS if nothing else.”
Then, three paragraphs down, is the sen-
tence: “If you really mess up the settings, a
LOAD DEFAULT facility has been in-
cluded so that you can return the set to its
out-of-box condition (except for memory
contents).” Push one button, turn one knob,
push a second button (all well marked) and
we are back in business. I wonder how they
knew I would do that?
AOR AR7030 Communications Receiver
What’s So Special about this
Receiver?
The AR7030 is the result of a collabora-
tion between AOR and well-known UK
designer John Thorpe. The AR7030 is built
in the UK, and it has just about every fea-
ture you want—IF gain, RF gain, BFO,
passband tuning, treble and bass controls,
and memory storage of frequency, mode
and all settings (100 memories!). You can
save (and load) up to three receiver setups
in the special setup memories (A, B or C).
Want to listen to music on a shortwave
broadcast band? Select AM or synchronous
AM, set the tone controls, memorize a few
frequencies and you are ready to go! SSB
your choice? Preset the filter bandwidth to
2.0 kHz, the mode to USB or LSB and
memorize the settings.
Want to change from one preset to another
or start over with a new mode, frequency, gain
and filter? You can use either the front panel
controls or a remote control unit.
Normally, I would not open up a review
unit. We usually leave that to Mike Gruber,
W1DG, and the other folks in the ARRL
Lab. But in this case, with so much
crammed into one small box—and the use
of hex-head screws
it was a challenge I
couldn’t resist. And, inside, it is beautiful!
A mixture of DIPs and surface-mount com-
ponents sat on a shiny board with readable
component labels. Looking for test point
TP4? The label is fully visible, and not
under a nearby component. Even the thick-
ness of the metal case was impressive.
The AR7030 features dual conversion,
with IFs at 45 MHz and 455 kHz. AOR
claims the IF filters are “self-aligned by the
receiver, using advanced microprocessor
control.” According to AOR, the displayed
filter bandwidth actually represents the
bandwidth measured by the receiver!
As you would expect from a modern
receiver, two VFOs are included, A and B
(which AOR calls Active and Background,
respectively). Each VFO has an associated
memory of mode, volume, tone, filter band-
width, passband tuning, BFO frequency, IF
gain, RF gain or attenuation, AGC, squelch,
scan delay time, scan mode and, of course,
frequency. These settings, depending on
the mode selected, can be stored in each of
the available 100 memory locations.
The front panel has a comfortably
weighted tuning knob with adjacent
FAST
and
MODE
controls. The tuning knob has a
nice quality feel to it, and the faster you
spin, the greater the tuning rate. A
FAST
button allows you to quickly move the fre-
quency to anywhere in the “dc” to 32-MHz
range. The AR7030 tunes in 2.7-Hz steps,
but you won’t hear any chuffing in this set.
Two
MODE
push buttons cycle through the
available modes—AM, synchronous AM,
NBFM, data, CW, LSB and USB.
One knob and four push buttons under
the display are keyed to the display. Their
use depends on the menu settings. They are
truly multifunction controls, and this where
this receiver gets interesting—or confus-
ing, depending on your point of view.
The AR7030 requires 15 V dc, which, in
the case of our unit, was supplied by the
external ac adapter that came with the ra-
dio. AOR says the radio will operate using
a power source from 12 to 15 V dc but “with
degraded performance at 12 V.”
BOTTOM LINE
This is a slick, attractive, quality-
made receiver with practical and aes-
thetic appeal—and with a price tag to
match. It’s a terrific performer, but the
use of menus instead of dedicated
controls might confound some users.
shortcoming, the Centaur could be your
next—or your first—linear.
Manufacturer: Ten-Tec Inc, 1185 Dolly
Parton Pkwy, Sevierville, TN 37862;
tel 423-453-7172; fax 423-428-4483. Manu-
facturer’s suggested retail price, $750.