Scanner comparison MVT7100 , XLT80, R10

 

Comparison MVT7100 , XLT80, R10

Aural  and visual inspection

 

 

	MVT7100	XLT80	ICR 10
External appearance
Appearance	Black color	Black color	As cellular phone
Dimensions		Is litle bigger than MVT7100	As cellular phone
Squelch	Not correct. There is a gap between squelching from noise and squelching to noise ( abt 20 degrees)	Correct	Corect (??)
Function knob	Yes û ( change of mems , etc)	No	Yes ( change of mems etc)
Back Light	By switch temporary	With button	Button
Lock keybopard	Yes ûswitch	Yes û button	Yes - button
Screen	LCD	LCd	LCD dot matrix
Monitor	Button	NO	Button on keypad
At start up	Shows last used operation	Scans memories	Shows a message ôprovided by ICOMö (programmable on off ) Shows last used operation and also scans across band ( power on resume)
Electrical data û bands /sens etc
Bands	Full band to 1.6 GHz	66-86 137-140-160-174 406-420-450-470-512 806-966 memorizes last band scanned	Full band to 1.3 GHz
Sensitivity	MW: low SW: fair V-U: good	Poor to fair	MW: low SW: low VU: good to very good
Images	+365 MHz	+21.7 MHz	Yes û some signals above 1 Ghz
Overloading	Comes from the SW band û 25 MHz I think ( band to occur : 165-180) û mostly in normal mode û used with ext antenna- wires above 4 m	??	With wires above 5 m : 1. on SW over load on same band from sinals >9+20 db 2. Noises on VHF
Modes	All mode ( AM NBFM FM SSB)	FM on V-UHF AM on 800+ band	All mode ( AM FM SSB CW)
Attenuator	Yes	No	Yes
Passband	Abt 15 kHz on AM/NBFM Less than 100Khz on WFM	Less ?	Abt 15 kHz More than 150 kHz on WFM
VFO /temp memory	Yes ûone	No	Yes
HF SSB operation
ECSS	Not 100% corect ( fair )	-	Fair to good
ECSS error	+1.3/-0.25 kHz (L/U SB )	-	0/-0.15 (L/USB)
ECSS decode	LSB also listens to USB and vice versa	-
SSB bandwidth	4 kHz	-	>4kHz
NB û ANL	-	-	Included û switchable
VHF-UHF operation
AFC	No	No	Yes ( shows tuning )
Scanning facilities
Steps	0.05, 0.1, (only SSB) 1,5,6.25,10,12.5,20,25,50,100 khz separate step per mode	5 kHz on VHF 12.5 kHz on UHF	0.1, 1,5,6.25,8,9,10,12.5,15,20,25,30,50,100 and usr prog (all modes) same step for all modes
Scan programs	10	-	20
Prg scanning	Per mem bank
Mode scanning	Per mem bank
Priority CH	One only	One per bank
Bypass freqs	500		Stored on R bank
Auto scan facility	NO	No	On Q bank ( 100 mems)
Audio detect scan stop	NO	NO	Yes
Step speed at given time (scan)	3.2 MHz ( ref 148-150 Mhz scanning on XLT)	2.03mHz	1.68 mHz
Delay	4 sec
Skips	1 sec	-	5, 10 secs .resume
Dial selct freq	Ye		Yes
SIGNAVI	-	-	Yes ( 5 steps x BW)
Voice scan control	-	-	Yes
Memories
Memories	1001- 10 banks of 100	50 û 5 banks of 10	1000 mems ( 50 x 20 )
Mode scan	Yes	No	Yes
Bank scan	Yes	No	Yes
Prog scan	Yes	NO
Bank priority	No	Yes ( 5)the X1 chs	Yes the X1 chs
Mem write	Manual on next memory after searching	Direct memory ( providing you set it first)	Totally manual (determine mem , mem write )
Mem auto write	No	No	During porg scans
Memory data	Freq, mode, step, att ,skip, prg	Freq	Name Freq mode att skip step
Memory copy	Via the VFO	NO û verification first	Yes
Mem lock	Yes ( pass mode )	Yes (L/O)	Yes ( progr per mem )
Bypass mems	Yes	-	Yes û100
Mem edit	Yes ( reprogrammig)	-	Yes
Mem name scan	-	-	Yes
Connectivity
Batteries
Batteries	4 x NiCad ( included)	4 (not included)	4 Nicad
Save mode	Yes û 3 steps	No	Yes (1:4 /1:16 )
Battery low indicator	Yes ûtwo types	Yes	Yes û
Battery type switch	NO	Yes	Yes
Battery charger û internal	Yes	Yes	Yes
Power on after save mode	<1 sec	-	>3 SEC
Audio
Audio	Good ( trebled)	Fair (not high trebles)	Very good
Audio via heads	Good	Fair	Very good
Heads socket	Mono plug	Stereo plug	Mono plug
Audio hiss	Yes	Yes	Muted
Heads included	Yes	Yes	NO
OTHER
Set mode	No	NO	Yes ( opening msg, beep, LCDcontrast ,backlight ,mem skip , prg skip, swe, scan delay , interface comms)
Computer Interface	No	No	Yes CIV mode
Beep sound	Yes (prg)	No	Yes (prg)
Reset mems	Yes	?	Partial û full
S meter	Yes û 10 bars	No	Yes û7 bars
Mains adaptor	Yes 12V	Yes 12V	Yes 12 V
Car adaptor	Yes 12V	NO	No
Belt clamp	Yes	Yes	Yes
Support
Band scope	No	No	Yes û 10 bars
Interface û prg	No	No	Yes
Learning curve	Relatively easy though little complicated ( comparing to XLT)	Bit difficult at start	Difficult and complicated necessary to use the guide

 

Opinions:

Yupiteru MVT 7100

MVT was my first radio of this type taken one and half years ago

MVT seems to be a good scanner that is a radio wise system ( ie you start the radio and it shows your last choice) easy to learn easy to use and very nice to operate . Good also to use it as a SW radio with good sensitivity and numerous memories but on MW and LW it requires external antenna, otherwise it can only listen to local (powerhouse) signals .Also good audio in both cases ( headphones and internal speaker ) with abt 8 hours of continuous operation when used as radio in low to normal volumes .

Its battery save mode has 3 positions with a scan point every 1, 2 and 3 secs. Every memory except the freq , mode, and attenuation still contains the step mode (??) used when it as programmed.

Scan programs are immediately modified once step is changed

The receiver is easily overloaded once you use external wire antenna as I , with overloads occur on he 165 û180 mHz part from some very strong SW stations. Also during the nights with power house signals on the SW bands and with its telescoping antenna in full size some signals still can pass this bands . From birdies size , it has numerous across all bands . Some of them are near to S9+40 even on att mode ( eg 269.7MHZ )

Its pass freqs do not occupy the memories . Only one priority channel only.

During save mode the scanner picks up a signal trace tone with a rate of 1 2 3 secs

I prefer it from XLT in general

It is the winner in scanning speed

Update : MVT has three mysterious drawbacks: 

-Often the radio can stuck in a frequency so that it cant change memories , obeyt to button orders etc .I can still happen if adio is iwitched off and on again .The thing is solved easily after you press C/AC for several seconds!
-During battery change and immediate switch on (?) , RESET can be made by itself Thisis a toital damage as everything can be lost: memories ,scan ranges , deleted freqs etc. This is the most danfgeous sistuiation  and you need to reprogram it . UNfortuately this radio is has not PC interface  for fastter reporgrammiing. Although it is  qite easy to redo the work the stiff butons mke the job harder...
-For unknwon reason it happened once to not only remove everything but also block itself sevral bands. Bands were on 260-3xx (unmeasured) 830-860 914-959MHZ - two and otehr smaller . Forunately a simple RESET corected that. 

Uniden Bearcat XLT 80

I bought this scanner from the local market for a friend , as a gift. I kept it in order to preprogram it and give to him later. The seller told me that this is the latest model Uniden made

Very simple scanner too costly regarding to MVT in specs and operation. I waited something more from it namely at last two scanning steps ( say 5 and 10 kHz for VHF , 12.5 and 25 kHz for UHF)other wise it is very annoying to wait scanning esp in the 800 + band . It is good for persons not requiring anything but listening to pre-determined stations

Mysteriously in contrast to what is stated in the specs the 800 + band with FM mode seems to use a AM type mode û capable also to listen to FM TV subcarriers found on the lower end of this band , and some NBFM signals sich as from remote telephones were not listen-able but only as æemptyÆ carries ( better discriminator than from others)

Very few birds have been found

As less sensitive than other models it is not efected with overloads when used it with external wire antennas.

What I liked much in it is the usage of a STEREO heads socket not used in other models.

 

ICOM R 10

This is the æradioö for e friend of me after he has seem mine. IN general this is s very complex having the philosophy and the design of a cellular phone and required a big learning curve in order to use it and program it as I wlways must to consult the op guide.

Full menu driven , with the philosophy of the latest models of ICOM (als for the R 75 SW receiver ).

From performance it exceeded the audio of MVT ( so : higher bandpass on SW bands and better audio amplifier ) and the sensitivity of MVT esp on the VHF /UHF bands when both radios used in parallel . I did not like however the way of memory programing and band change as it required to use the FUNC button at the left side of the speaker

Some of the nicest features were the total mute when there was no signal as well as the auto memory write search

It s attack time while in save mode was abt 3 secs

IN general : R10 is the winner in features and functionality

What I did not like: Its headphone socket was too bad that very easily the head pug is pulled out à..

 

 

Comparison between receivers:

I m sorry but parallel tesing between R10 and MVT was nearly imposible as after the T splitter the wires used behaved as antennas that effected reception too much giving more than 3 æbarsÆ of signal in certain cases and in some QSOs different users produced different signals in each model ( say : user 1 gave higher for MVT user 2 gave lower for MVT)

As in general :

SW : MVT gains in reception diring the most bands. Its S meter is more sensitive than R10

2 m : R 10 gains better

400 mHz : again R10 better

UHF / TV : MVT was little better

 

 

 

 

Comparison between antennas

 

 

Freq MHz	Whip XLT	Whip R10	Telescopic shortened	Telescopic Full
67	<5	4+	4	9
215	2	6	4	9
411	4	6	6	6
484	5	3	4+	-
644			1	3
653	<1	2	2+	7
668	6	6	6	9
780	3	6	2	5
796	7		5	9
970	5	5	4	7