If you've discovered the joys of 222 MHz, or you'd like to (and youshould], then ADl's AR-247 FM mobile rig is an excellent choice on avery short list.

CQ Reviews:

The ADI AR-247222 MHz FM Mobile Transceiver

BY RICH MOSESON; W2VU

Front panel of ADls AR-247 mobile rig for 222-225 MHz. The controls are easyto access, even without looking at the radio, and the big LCD display makes for

easy viewing when you do look at it. (Photo courtesy of ADI.)

In any market dominated by a fewlarge companies, smaller firms mustdo something different in order to

compete. whether it's offering lower­priced products or variations that the"big guys· don't have. That rule appliesin amateur radio , where three largecompanies dominate the equipmentmarketplace. How does a smaller com­pany set itself apart to "stay in thegame"? In the case of ADI, one way hasbeen through the bold step 01 introduc­ing the first new mobile rig in years forthe 222 MHz band-the AR-247.

Before we talk about the radio,though, let' s take a few minutes 10 ex­plore the band and its recent history.

The 222 MHz BandAmateur radio in the Un ited States hasa primary allocation at 222-225 MHz.However, the band is so lightly used thatit's been called "the fo rgotten band,"and the FCC even took away two mega­hertz of it several years ago. Why is thisband so lightly used and why should youconsider investing in equipment for it?

First, let's look at the characteristicsof the band. Halfway between 2 metersand 70 centimeters, 1.35 meters (alsoknown as 135 centimeters, 1.25 me­ters, and 125 centimeters) shares someof the best features of each of thosebands. Its normal ground-wave range issimilar to that of 2 meters, but its snort­er wavelength allows signals to morereadily penetrate buildings. On theother hand, signals here are less likelythan those at 440 MHz to bounce off

'Editor. coc/o CO magazinee-mail: <w2vu @cq-amateur-radio.com>

20 . co • December 2000

buildings and other objects, resulting inmultipath (picket-fencing) . Tropo "open­ings" and distances are similar to thoseon 2 meters, and you'll find aurora andmeteor-scatter possibilities here aswell. There have even been a few doc­umented cases of sporadic-E prcpaqa­tion reaching as high as 222 MHz, anarea in which greater research and ex­perimentation are needed. Hams whooperate 222 will tell you that it also hasa distinctive "personality" that's hard todefine in words. You just have to expe­rience it. In addition, the band is lesscrowded than either 2 meters or 70 cen-

timeters (for reasons we'll discuss in amoment) , so if you're looking for a placeto get away from the crowds but stillhave good VHF coverage, this is theplace. One other benefit : It is the onlyband below the microwaves where allhams have voice privileges, regardlessof license class.

So why is the band less crowded thanits neighbors? First of all , the amateurallocation at 1.35 meters is not world­wide. It is not available to hams in Eur­ope, or perhaps most important from anequipment perspective, in Japan. Herein the U.S., the band used to extend

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centimeters (AR-447). and it has all thestandard features that you 'd expect ina modern FM mobile rig . It receives from215-230 MHz, transmits only from222-2251, and offers three power lev­els-5, 15. and 30 watts . The radio has81 memory channels. including onequick-access "can" channel (I put223.500 MHz. the national simplex fre·quency, into that slot) . Each memorycan store a dozen different parameters,including receive frequency, transmitfrequency offset and direction (on 222.the standard for all repeater frequen­cies is negative offset , 1.6 MHz),CTCSS tones or DCS (digital codedsquelch) codes, and more. There is anoption for code squelch (C.SO) onreceive which keeps your receivermuted until a three-digit digital code isreceived. This also permits the systemto be used (in a network with other sim­ilarly equipped radios) for paging.Mem­ory contents may be shifted into theVFO, if you would like to tune from apreset frequency,

There are three memories that arereserved for specific functions, so keepthis in mind when you program them.Channel 1 is the "dual watch" channel,where the rig will periodically listen foractivity, even if you 're on another fre·quency (this feature may be turned onoroff). Put in a frequency that you 'll wantto be able to keep track of, perhaps afavorite repeater, In addition, the fre­quencies in channels 11 and 12 set outthe limits of the programmable bandscan function. Be sure the frequency inchannel 11 is lower than the one inchannel 12, and that both represent theborders of the frequency range youwant to scan in the band-scan mode. If

Rear view of the AR·247. Note the large heat sink and pigtail connections forpower and antenna. (W2VU photos)

The AR-247The AR·247 joins AOl's single-bandradios for 2 meters (AR-147) and 70

from 220-225 MHz, and amateur radiowas a secondary allocation (althoughthe primary user, government radicle­cation, rarely used it , so it was effec­tively an exclusive amateur allocation) .Because it's not a worldwide amateurband, equipment has been rather limit­ed, and because equipment is limited.so is usage. Another problem is that theFCC spent nearly a decade decidingwhether to reallocate some or all of theband to other services, and this "limbo"status for the band was an even greaterdeterrent for manufacturers and ama­teurs alike to invest in equipment for220. Why build or buy a radio for a bandthat might soon be taken away?

Fortunately , the FCC fina lly made upits mind (in 1991), taking 220-222 awayfrom amateurs, but at the same timemaking 222-225 a primary amateurallocation. In a later action, the FCCalso gave hams limited access to 218­219 MHz for high-speed data links. Nota single amateur station has been puton the air on 218-219,but that's a wholeother issue. In any event, even thoughit's been nearly a decade since the FCCrealigned the band, the pattern hadbeen established that typical dual-bandFM rigs covered 2 meters and 440, butnot 222.

Now some equipment makers arestarting to test the waters by including222 in mul tiband VHF/UHF rigs, andADI has taken the somewhat risky stepof introducing the AR-247. the first newFM mobile rig in years devoted exclu­sively to the 1.35 meter band.

www.cq-amateur-radlo.com December 2000 • CO • 21

Top inside view of the 247. The circle at the left is a bracket that fits around thespeaker to keep it from vibrating.

On the AirOf course , the true test of any radio ison-the-air performance, and the AR­247 passed wi th fly ing colors. Signalreports were excellent, and receivedaudio was loud and clear, even in a rel­atively noisy mobile env ironment. Oper­ation is quite intuitive, and programmingnew repeaters on the fly was relativelyeasy. I am fortunate to live in an areawhere there is a reasonable amount of1.35 meter activity , so I was able tomake a variety of contacts on severaldifferent repeaters.

ADI has taken a risk by bringing a 222MHz mobile rig onto the market. Theother manufacturers are certainlywatching to see if it succeeds. If youwant to see 222 become a "main­stream" ham band and want to have asimilar level of equipment choices forthis band as we do for 2 meters and 70centimeters-and you want an excel­lent radio at the same time-then youcertainly should consider the AR-247. Itis vi rtually the only high-powered 1.35meter transceiver with the featuresmost of us have come to expect fromour VHF mobile rigs today. List price is$324.95, and it's generally selling in the$275 range.

panel buttons, but are placed on the micfor safer use while driving.

The cable of the supplied mic has alumpy thing right near the connector.This is an RF choke that was added toeliminate problems that had beenencountered with direct frequency entryfrom the microphone's tone pad. Themanual says the microphone jack hasa pin containing receive audio, but ADItells us this was eliminated at the lastminute because of PC board layoutproblems. Therefore, if you're using the247 for digita l communication, you'llneed to run two wires between the radioand the computer or TNG-one fromthe rear speaker jack for receive audioand another to the mic jack for transmitaudio and PIT.

The radio's back end is taken up most­ly with a large heat sink, which does itsjob well. Other radios I've had get quitehot after extended high-power use. Thisone doesn't. Also on the back side arethe power and antenna connectors, bothon pigtails with connectors attached, inorder to minimize the radio's overall size.The case is metal, and the circuitry insideis neatly laid out and well-manufactured.There's even a three-point device to holdthe speaker in place. Presumably, this isto help prevent speaker damage in high­vibration settings.

A Quick TourThe front panel of the AR-247 is well laidout, and the most commonly used con­trols are easy to learn for "no-look" oper­ating while driving. In addition, themicrophone contains f requency upldown keys and four buttons-call chan­nel, VFO, memory, and MHz- for eas­ily accessing a variety of frequencies.These four buttons duplicate front-

then be quickly entered into memoryjust by clicking the press-to-talk (PIT)key on the microphone.

In VFO mode, frequency steps areuser-selectable at either 5. 10, 12.5,20,25, orSO kHz. Plus, there's a "MHz" but­ton on both the radio and the micro­phone that lets you easily change fre­quency 1 MHz at a time.

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channel 11 has the higher of the two fre·quencies. it will do a full band scan. Theonly memory-related feature found inmany other mobile rigs that's missinghere is alphanumeric memory labeling,so you'll have to remember which fre­quency is for which repeater.

There are three scanning options forthe receiver: full band scan, program­mable band scan (see above), andmemory scan. You may also set thescan function to operate on either a timebasis (about 3 seconds on each fre­quency) or a busy-channel basis (stay­ing on a busy frequ ency until about 3seconds after a signal drops). In addi­tion, you may program any memorychannel to be skipped during memoryscanning. The rece iver wi ll also scan toidentify an unknown CTCSS or DCScode on a received signal. The code can

22 • CO • December 2000 Vis it O ur Web Site

Before you buy anything, though, tryto find out about 220 activity in yourarea . If there isn't much, don't let it stopyou. Just find another equally-interest­ed ham and buy two radios! Then starttelling everyone else how great theband is and stir up more activity . •

Note1. Transmit range can be extendedto cover the radio's entire 215-230MHz tuning range. Thi s will be par­ticu larly helpful for hams in Canada,where 220- 222 is still an amateurallocation, and for MARS memberswho have nets in the MARS alloca­tion above 225 MHz. In the unlikelyevent that anyone is able to jumpthrough the necessary hoops to getpermission to run hiqh-speed pack­et on 218--219 MHz, this modifica­tion will allow the AR·247 to operatethere as we ll. To make the mod,remove the bottom coverand find thered wire loop (the only wire visible).Cut it, cover both ends with electri­cal tape or heat-shrink tubing, andthen do a soft reset of the radio byturning it on while holding down theMR key on the front panel.

Bottom interior view of the AR-247. Note the wire loop that can be cut to expandtransmit range to 21Er230 MHz. (See note 1 for possible applications and

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