Welz WS2000

It didn't take long for Standard to introduce the successor to its popular AX400. Outside of Japan, this radio was marketed by Diamond as the Welz WS1000. Here it is a year later and we have the AX400B/WS2000. Without any arguments, this radio is THE smallest receiver on the market. And it's not just a normal receiver but one with wide-band coverage. Standard has revised its coverage to drop down to 100 kHz whereas the WS1000 could ONLY go down to 500 kHz. Other improvements include twice as many memory channels and search banks, more search pass frequencies and a few other improvements. Having played with a WS1000 lent to me by a generous owner of two, I enjoyed the brief encounter and wasted no time in acquiring my very own WS2000. Actually, it's a Standard AX400B direct from Japan but there's no difference between the radios (other than the fact that my manual is in Japanese)! I'll refer to my radio as the WS2000 in this review since this is the name most people will recognize. What follows are my personal impressions regarding the features and performance of this radio. This, in no way, should be viewed as an endorsement to purchase this radio nor is it intended to discourage anyone from buying it. I have no personal or business relations with either Standard or Diamond Antenna Corporations. These are simply thoughts offered to my fellow hobbyists who may be interested in purchasing this particular radio. I simply ask that this information be kept intact. A lot of hard work and effort has gone into the testing and writing of this review. I would appreciate it if every effort is made to keep this document whole with me as the original author. And if you want to share your thoughts about this review with me or have further questions, feel free to send e-mail. Thank you and enjoy! Rich Wells N2MCA Strong Signals web site

What You Get

WS2000

Antenna

Hand-strap (not sure if on European models)

Instruction manual

Model Tested

Serial #: 76F0204xx

Basic Specs

Channels	800
Banks	10
Coverage	100 kHz - 1300 MHz
Scan	8 channels/second
Search	20 steps/second
Steps	1 5 6.25 9 10 12.5 15 20 25 30 50 100 kHz
Modes	AM, FM, WFM
Sensitivity	0.5 - 1.0µV FM 0.7 - 1.0µV WFM 1.0 - 1.5µV AM
Conversion	Double
IFs	?
Priority	1 channel
Search limits	21
Search skip	90 frequencies
Auto-store	No
S-meter	Yes
Delay	1-9 seconds
Lockout	None
Attenuator	Global
Lock	Yes
Tone codes	No
Computer intf	No
Rotary control	Yes
Channel count	No
Data skip	No
Clock	No
Timers	APO
Weather	not programmed
Weather Alert	No
Light	Display
Power	2 AAs
Audio	90mW
Size	2.3" W x 3.8" H x 0.9" D
Weight	200g (w/batt & ant)
Memory	non-volatile?

Many thanks to Jonathan at Javiation in England for providing some obscure details I was not able to decipher from the Japanese verbage. The WS1000 manual was very well done and easy to understand. Filled with numerous illustrations, hints, an Index and large Table of Contents. I assume the WS2000 manual will be no different and it appears to be so from what I can glean from my Japanese copy.

I am expecting an English version of the manual from Jonathan (thanks again!) soon and if it contains anything surprising or noteworthy, I will update this review accordingly.

Construction and Physical
The WS2000 is a direct copy of the WS1000. No visible way to tell them apart as far as I can see except from the moniker on the front panel. With this in mind, I will simply use most of the text from the original WS1000 review.

This radio is well made and fit and finish are top notch. There is very little give and almost no "creaking" to the case. It fits and feels quite good in your hand. The radio itself is molded in gray with fine silver fleck. The controls, antenna and buttons are also dark grays and black.

The front panel houses the keypad, speaker grill and display. The keypad consists of 13 round buttons in two staggered columns located along the left- hand side. One of these buttons is Power (in red letters) which is used to turn the unit on and off. The other 12 are used for control and input with all lettering in white.

The speaker grill is composed of 17 holes which look remarkably like the grating on the old-fashioned metal cheese graters. Only 7 of these holes actually lead inside to the speaker while the rest are purely cosmetic.

The top panel houses the BNC connector, speaker jack, rotary control and volume control. The speaker jack is capped with a rubber flap which is a nice touch to help keep dust out of the internals. The volume control is a thin ring located around the base of the rotary control. It has an indentation to mark its position but since the edge of this control is serrated, it would help if it were marked in white for easier recognition.

The right panel houses the squelch control which is a rotary dial and quite unique for its placement. Adjustments take a little getting use to since you usually put pressure on it and turn rather than grabbing hold and twisting like most radios. It is marked with a little dimple to note its position.

At the rounded corner between the top and right panels is a metal loop for the hand-strap or if you wanted to dangle it from your rear-view mirror perhaps (watch out fuzzy dice)!

The left panel houses the FUNC key and SQL OFF key which is used to break the squelch at any time. Most radios today refer to this as the monitor button.

The back panel contains the unit id sticker and at the bottom, the slide-off battery compartment door. Sadly, there is still no belt clip. I was hoping Standard would design in a rear mounting fixture for a belt clip to be added before they released this WS1000 replacement.

Near the top are two molded bumps which serve to contain the rotary encoder and connections to the BNC since this radio is so thin.

Interestingly, the bottom panel has two holes in it which reveal two metal contacts. The original Standard Japanese ad for the AX400B has listed a dual cell NiCd pack and charging stand which probably makes use of these contacts.

Antenna
The WS2000 antenna appears to be the same as the one supplied with the WS1000. In my handheld antenna review, this antenna placed 16 out of 27. It excelled in the 850-900 MHz range, was average in the 400-512 UHF bands but produced bad results over the entire VHF range.

For more exact details on this antenna, check out my handheld antenna review on my Antenna page.

Features
Even though the WS2000 is the smallest radio on the market, it has more features than some of its largest competitors. Standard has done a great job with the level of functionality and flexibility squeezed into this tiny package.

The keys are decently sized and spaced and have a good feel and feedback. The unorthodox layout of the keypad takes some getting use to for frequency input since the number keys are arranged vertically and not in the normal keypad layout. The rotary control is a decent size, has several vertical grips, feels solid and has good feedback. It does have some lateral give which I hope is not a sign of future problems.

With such a small radio comes a small display. While the characters used to display the frequency digits are well sized, the number of features, and therefore indicators to be displayed are numerous. This results in small indicators for features such as auto power-off, battery saver, attenuator, etc. The display is placed at the very top of the receiver so when viewed from above, the indicators, most of which are on the top of the display, are partially blocked from view.

The display itself when viewed straight-on is fuzzy and needs to be viewed from above. Contrast is excellent and readable from above and to the sides. The backlight is green and gives very good illumination from the two edge-mounted LEDs.

As with most high-end imports, this unit contains an S-meter. It is displayed using 10 segments with the 1, 5, 9 and + positions clearly marked with block indicators used for the other 6 units.

The audio for this unit is wonderful given its small size. As can be expected from a radio this size, the audio is lacking in mid-range tones. Due to the number of openings through the front panel that lead to the speaker inside, the audio is just a bit muffled and can not reach the highs needed for rich sounding wide-FM signals. While the audio is rated at 90mW, it is surprisingly loud. It can be turned up about 2/3 before distortion sets in. I would classify the squelch tail as average.

Fresh out of the box, you attach the antenna, slap in two batteries and you're ready to go. Simply hold down the Power button and you'll hear four different tone beeps and in the display you'll see 'HELLO'! This is a nice use for powering the radio on and off and with the power-on resume feature, it allows you to keep the volume control where you last set it. Simply turn the radio on and you pick up right where you left off. Power it off and the radio will remember what it was you were doing for next time. Nice!

A good feature of this radio is that it runs on just two AA batteries. And it seems to run a good long time on them too which is great news! With a good set of alkalines, you can expect a good 10 hours under nominal usage conditions. The manual specs power consumption at 60mA which is probably squelched. With the battery saver on level 1, this drops to 16mA! I can only imagine what it is at level 9 and how long the batteries will run.

And when the power starts to run out, you'll hear the power-on beepings three times and the display will show the HELLO message and then 'batt' to indicate the low battery condition.

I also decided to get the soft carry case for this radio. It's well designed and mine was pretty cheap (US $10). It appears well made and is lined inside with black felt. The radio slides in from the top and it fits snugly. Just like this, the display is still visible. There is a detachable (snap) cover which comes over the top of the radio between the antenna and rotary control covering the display and secures with a Velcro closure.

On the back of the case is a belt loop which will probably come in handy since there is no stock belt clip. The front of the case has several holes punched for the speaker. There are impressions on the side and front for indications of where the various keys are and works nicely considering you can't see the keys themselves. There is also a cutout on the right side for access to the squelch control.

Set Mode
Since the keypad is limited due to the size of this radio, many of the options normally associated with dedicated keys on most radios are accessed via a number of pre-defined settings that can be enabled/disabled or adjusted to your preferences.

Here's a listing of the settings available for modification when you enter Set mode :

Preset Mode Features
The WS2000 comes from the factory in Preset Mode. The first ten memory channels have been pre-programmed and can be accessed simply by pressing the appropriate number key. Using the rotary control, these frequencies can be changed and if desired, written back to one of these ten memory channels. You'll probably make use of this since most of the chosen frequencies (ranging from 3 MHz up to 904 MHz) aren't very useful. You also have the capability of changing the receive mode and overriding the frequency step.

While displaying a memory channel, simply turn the rotary control to change the frequency to see if you can find something interesting. If you need to change the receive mode, simply hold the FUNC key and press the 2 MODE key and the mode will cycle through WFM, FM and AM.

If you find an interesting frequency and wish to store it in one of the ten memory channels, simply hold down the desired number key for about 2 seconds. There will be a beep and the memory channel is changed.

To light the display, hold down FUNC and press the 1 LAMP key. The light will display for 5 seconds then turn off. Using the Set Mode menus, you can change it from 5 seconds to toggle but we'll get into that later.

The key lock function is also available and is enabled by holding FUNC and pressing the 6 KEYL key. The key icon is displayed and most buttons and the rotary selector are inoperative. Use the same key press to disable the key lock.

The Power key will continue to function which is nice and in Expanded Mode, you can use the Set Mode to enable use of the rotary control while key lock is enabled.

Next, the manual indicates how to perform two types of radio resets. The first is termed VFO Reset and shows how to reset all settings but leave the memory contents intact. The All Reset is used to return the radio to the condition it was in the first time you took it out of the box.

Advanced Operations Features
We now enter the Advanced Operations section of the manual. The WS2000 is pre-programmed with a frequency band plan that tells it what receive mode and frequency step should be used by default for every frequency entered by the user. Since this radio is intended for use in Europe and Japan, you'll find plenty of places where the receive mode and step size are not set properly for our use here in the US.

To change the step size, you'll have to get into Set Mode which is a menu type system allowing access to many of the receivers adjustable settings. Enter this mode by holding FUNC and pressing 0 SET. Using the rotary control you can step through the various settings that can be changed. The step size setting is indicated by 'StP'. From the factory, it is set to Auto. To change it from this automatic setting to a desired step size, simply hold down the FUNC key and use the rotary control to see the available choices. When the desired step size is displayed, release the FUNC key and press CL.

Similarly, you may have to change the pre-programmed receive mode. You can change it in VFO mode as previously described. However, it only applies to the frequency currently being displayed. As soon as you change the frequency (using the rotary control or key presses), the automatic mode will kick in and reset your selection. To turn off the automatic mode selection, go into Set Mode and look for the 'AtmodE' setting and turn it off.

Described next in the manual is how to change the lamp operation, key beep, battery saver and auto power off settings. The display lamp comes set for 5 second illuminations. You can change this to toggle mode. Simply get into Set Mode and change the 'LAmP' setting from 'nor' to 'tGL'.

To disable the key beeper, find the 'bEEP' setting and turn it to off. It is nice to have the beep volume controlled by the volume control itself. You also have control over the battery saver feature. It comes turned off and you must explicitly enable it and set it to one of four values. Simply look for the 'SA' setting and change it from OFF to 1, 3, 5, or 9. Whenever the battery saver is enabled, the SAV indicator will be displayed.

Be warned that if this is enabled and you do a scan operation, you'll only scan as fast as you've set the duty cycle for the battery saver (if you set it to 1 you'll get 1 channel/second scanning; if you set it to 3 you'll get 1 channel/3 seconds scanning!). This does not seem to effect search rates. I had hoped this would be remedied for the WS2000 but no such luck.

This radio also has an auto power-off feature designed to turn off the radio should you forget. Simply look for the 'APO' setting and turn it on. The APO indicator will be displayed. The manual indicates the unit will shut off after 30 minutes of receive or key press inactivity and that warning beeps are emitted one minute before the radio intends to turn off.

I did not test this feature but find it unnerving if the manual is correct in stating the unit will not turn off if there is receive activity. I would hope this is not true because it defeats the purpose of this function and works contrary to all other radios I have seen.

Expanded Mode Features
Once you get use to operating these basics, you can put the radio in Expanded Mode to gain access to all this receiver has to offer. Simply go into Set mode, find 'Preset' and turn it off. Pressing the 7 V/M key will now toggle you between VFO and Memory modes.

When in VFO mode, turn the rotary control to change the frequency by the currently selected step size. The manual is clear to point out in several places that this control uses a Quick Encoder System whereby rapid turns of the control cause large (non-linear) frequency changes. It's nicely implemented making it easy to jump around.

You can also use the keypad to enter the desired frequency. The radio automatically finishes entry when the third decimal number has been input. To finish entry before this (e.g. 42.6) simply press the decimal key (which is also marked as ENT) after the last digit.

As you might have noticed, by the receiver terminating entry after the third decimal place, it does not allow you to enter the fourth digit should you desire (e.g. 450.5875). This is a minor annoyance and if you have the step size set appropriately, simply click the rotary control one step and then back. Even when the radio is in Auto-step mode, it does not correctly "round" the frequency to the appropriate value.

Next the manual indicates how to program a user-defined key to activate one of the settings available in Set mode. This key is referred to as the My Key and allows you direct access to a Set mode setting without having to enter Set mode and hunt it down. While I normally left the Set mode on the Step setting since it was accessed frequently, I could see how you might want to set My Key to the Battery saver, Attenuator or Dual Watch setting for easy access.

What follows in the manual are descriptions of how to enable the rotary control during key lock, how to set the squelch to open for a minimum S-meter setting (a la AR8000), activating the attenuator, reducing activation of the S-meter for low-power signal work, and how to change the fast step (FUNC + rotary control) digits used in VFO tuning.

Other options covered in sections that follow relate to memory operations, search bank setup and priority operation which I cover below.

Memory Operations
The WS2000 has 800 channels in 10 banks (0-9) or blocks as they are referred to in the manual. Nice to have twice as many channels and 2.5 times as many banks. Makes this receiver much more flexible for everyday use.

Standard chose to implement the memory channel numbering differently for this radio. All banks start with a '00' channel and end with a '79' which helps us puny humans keep track of which channels are in which bank. So bank 0 is composed of channels 000-079, bank 1 is 100-179 and so on. Very nice and ergonomic.

A few other changes have been made to memory as well. Channel 000 was used on the WS1000 for the priority channel. It was not allowed to be used as a 'normal' channel so bank 0 only had 99 channels compared to banks 1, 2 & 3 which had an even 100. Now any channel can be designated as the priority channel from the SET menu. Nice job!

The search banks use to be 'tagged' onto the end of memory but not so for the WS2000. On the WS1000, memory channels 400-419 were used to hold the ten frequency pairs for the search banks. The 20 search bank frequencies are now part of the SET menu.

As mentioned earlier, when in Expanded Mode, the 7 V/M key is used to toggle between VFO and Memory modes. When in Memory mode, the M indicator and associated memory channel number are displayed. Using the selector, you can scroll through the memory contents. Or you can hold FUNC and press the up and down arrow keys. Either way, only programmed channels can be seen; empty channels are skipped over. To go to a specific channel, simply key in its three-digit memory channel number.

To store a frequency in memory, you'll first need to bring up the desired frequency in VFO mode and make sure the appropriate receive mode is set. Now hold FUNC and press the CL MW/MC key. The display will show you the lowest- numbered empty channel. If you want to accept this channel, press the same keys (FUNC + CL MW/MC) and you're done. If you want to put the frequency into a different channel, you can change the channel number using the rotary selector, the FUNC and arrow keys or simply key in the desired channel's three-digit memory number.

For future revisions to this radio, I would like to see the minimum channel number mentioned above replaced by the next available channel number after the last channel programmed (a la MVT-7100/7200/9000). This minimum channel number approach only works well when programming bank 0. After this, it becomes a chore to remember the last channel you programmed when programming the rest of the banks.

To erase a memory channel, simply display it in Memory mode, hold FUNC and press the CL MW/MC key. You'll be prompted on the display with 'CLr' to make sure you understand you are erasing the contents. If you want to proceed simply press the same keys (FUNC + CL MW/MC) again or press CL MW/MC to cancel.

It is also possible to erase the contents of an entire bank/block. Simply go into Set mode, locate the 'bCLEAr' setting and press the key that corresponds to the bank you wish to erase.

Once you've programmed your radio, it is possible to lock the memory so that memory channels can not be programmed or erased. To activate this feature, simply go into Set mode, locate the 'Pro' setting and turn it on.

There are also features that allow you swap the contents of any two memory channels as well as copy the contents of a memory channel to the VFO.

Scanning
Once you've got your radio all programmed, you're ready to put it into action. Simply hold FUNC and press the 8 SCAN.D key. This starts the radio scanning all programmed memory channels and the SCN indicator appears. If you wish to scan a single bank/block, start the scan operation per above and then press the number key of the associated bank/block.

Note that this scanning operation is similar to the operation of the Icom IC-R10 (all or one). Radios of this caliber should not be so hamstrung. At the minimum I would like to see the approach that the MVT-7100/7200 uses; key in a limited set of banks using the keypad and then start the scan. This allows up to N banks to be scanned which is much more flexible than one or all.

When the scanning operation stops on an active signal, there are three options available to determine which action is taken next. The manual refers to these three types as Pause, Busy and Hold. Pause allows the radio to pause on the signal for a specified time before it resumes scanning regardless of whether or not the transmission is still active. The Pause delay can be set between 1 and 9 seconds and comes from the factory set for five.

Busy will stay on the signal as long as it is active and then resume scanning once it goes away. Hold will stop the scan and remain on that memory channel even after the transmission stops. The SCN indicator blinks indicating the scan can be resumed by turning the rotary control by one click.

Once the scan has been started, the FUNC + 0 SET key is used to cycle through the Pause, Busy and Hold options. The radio comes from the factory set for Pause. For Busy, the block B indicator appears in the upper right hand corner of the display. For Hold, this indicator blinks. If there is no indicator displayed then the radio is set for Pause.

If you've stopped on an active channel and wish to stay on it indefinitely, simply turn the rotary control 1 click. The SCN indicator will flash and you'll stay right there. Click it once more; the SCN indicator disappears and you're scanning again. Similarly, to resume a scan when stopped on an active channel, click the rotary control two times. To change the direction of the scan, click the rotary control two times in the appropriate direction.

My empirical measurements placed the scan rate at 8 channels/second for frequencies numerically ordered within a bank.

A problem with the WS1000, which persists with the WS200 as well is that there is no channel lockout capability per se. To implement a form of lockout you must use the select scan capability. Similar to the AR8000 and MVT-9000, memory channels can be specially tagged. Channels which have been tagged can then be scanned in this select scan mode.

So instead of locking out the channels you DON'T want to scan, you must tag those channels you DO want to scan. You then place the radio in select scan mode and leave it there. Then each time you start a scan, only the tagged channels get tested thereby bypassing all the channels which would normally be locked out. Not only is this method tedious but it tends to slow down the scan rate (since it must look for the next tagged channel) which is already very slow.

Searching
The WS2000 allows two types of searches to be performed. The first is a form of ad-hoc VFO search while the second is configured using one of the 20 available search banks.

The VFO search is really a form of the procedure used to program one of the 20 search banks. In order to program a search bank's lower and upper frequencies, they must first be registered. The limits are specified in VFO mode and each frequency is registered using the FUNC key in conjunction with one of the two arrow keys.

The search is then started by using FUNC + SRH.D. The display will show 'S--' to indicate a VFO search is underway and you can watch the frequency change.

To perform a bank search, you'll probably have to program up one of the twenty search banks. The radio comes with the first ten banks programmed but they are not very useful here in the US.

To start with, the search banks are broken up into two sets, A & b (the nomenclature used in the manual and on the display itself). At any one time, you have either set A or set b active. Since there are 20 banks, there are ten banks in set A and ten in set b. Each bank is specified by using one of the ten number keys on the keypad.

Each search bank is composed of a lower and upper frequency. The lower is referred to as A and the upper as b; just like the two sets. To get a look at the currently programmed search banks, go into Set mode and scroll until you get to 0-A. Then hold down FUNC and use the rotary control to scroll through each frequency pair for the ten banks. From the factory, search bank set A is made active while set b is in standby. To switch this so that the search bank data for set b can be viewed and/or used, use Set mode to change the 'Srh-b' option from 'A' to 'b'. Upon doing so, you'll notice that a '.' appears in the memory channel/search bank area of the display. This is to indicate that set b is in use. If there is no '.' display, then set A is active.

To change the frequencies for a search bank, the above method for setting up and starting a VFO search must first be used. Now with the frequencies registered, start the search then press and hold the number key of the search bank to be changed for about a second. There will be a beep and the search bank changed will be displayed briefly.

Once the search banks have been programmed, a search is started by pressing FUNC and SRH.D. Notice the 'S-N' displayed where 'N' is the bank number being searched. The SRH indicator also appears.

Whichever bank was last displayed in Set mode will be started by default. In this way, Set mode can be used to configure which search bank is searched each time a search is started.

Once a search has been started, another bank can be searched by simply pressing the appropriate number key. To search the pair of frequencies last registered in VFO mode, simply press the '.' key. That means there are really 21 search banks for the WS2000! To switch between sets A and b, you'll need to go into Set mode and set 'Srh-b' accordingly. Some people might find it useful to program their My key to toggle the Srh-b setting.

Like the WS1000, the step size and receive mode used for any search are taken from the VFO. This is pretty lame since most radios allow the step size and receive mode to be programmed for each bank along with the frequency pair. This makes searching a pain and definitely lessens the power of this radio. You must also be cautious whenever you switch from one bank to another to always make sure the step size and receive mode are set properly. If not, you have to stop the search, set them accordingly and then restart the search.

Similar to scanning, the Pause/Busy/Hold option can be specified. Also, the rotary control can be used to manually pause a search, to resume a stopped search or reverse the search direction.

A useful feature for searching is the Search Pass Memory. The WS2000 allows up to 90 frequencies to be specified that will be skipped when performing a search. These frequencies are another extension of the normal memory channels and are designated P00 to P89. While performing a search, if the receiver stops on an active frequency which is undesired, simply hold the FUNC key and press the 9 PW/PC key. There will be a beep and the specified frequency is written to Search Pass Memory (unless all 90 have been written).

Similarly, you can fill up the Search Pass Memory ahead of time with known frequencies. Simply key in the frequency in VFO mode. Hold FUNC and press the 9 PW/PC key. Use the rotary control or key in the memory number to write the frequency to and press FUNC + 9 PW/PC again.

Once there are frequencies in Search Pass Memory, you can view them. From VFO mode, simply hold FUNC and press 7 V/M twice. You'll see the PM indicator appear and the channels number will be displayed preceded by a P. Use the rotary control or FUNC + arrow keys to scroll through memory or simply key in the two-digit memory number.

To erase a frequency from the Search Pass Memory, display it, then hold FUNC and press 9 PW/PC. When prompted with 'CLr', press the same keys again to erase or CL MW/MC key to cancel.

My empirical measurements place the search rate around 20 steps/second.

Priority
As mentioned earlier, the priority scheme was revised for the WS2000. And it is definitely an improvement. The WS1000 used memory channel 000 as the priority channel and it could not be used as part of bank 0. The WS2000 uses the Set menu 'Pri-no' option to select which of the 800 channels will be the priority channel.

Once selected, the dual watch feature is used to enable checking of your priority channel every five seconds. To enable this during a scan or search, simply press FUNC and then same key you used to start the scan/search (the 'D' in SCAN.D and SRH.D stands for Dual watch). Notice the block D indicator which appears in the display.

If you want to enable dual watch when viewing memory or using the VFO, you'll have to go into the Set menu and turn on the 'duAL' setting. Again, the block D indicator will appear in the upper left corner of the display.

VHF/UHF Performance
For starters, I always check for birdies. Scanning from 25 - 1300 MHz I counted 184. That's right up there with my MVT-7100 but it's put to shame by most lower coverage Radio Shack and Uniden models. This shows us about a 10% improvement over the WS1000's 200 birdies.

To see if I could detect any better filtering over the WS1000, I drove to a nasty part of town that inundates a receiver with lots of strong cellular, paging, TV and FM broadcast signals. This is usually a good test of a receiver to see how well it holds up under pressure in a hostile environment.

Using the stock antenna, results were fairly good for a radio of this caliber. There were a few FM images just below the FM broadcast band and some in the band as well. There were also a few FM/FM and FM/TV intermod mixings here as well. The VHF aero band was surprisingly clean. VHF hi had just a few 800 public safety data channel images as well as some strong TV images and intermod. UHF aero was pretty clean too with only a few 800 MHz cellular data channel images. The low to mid 400s were busy with cellular data and voice channel images and just a little pager intermod. The low 900s had some cellular data and voice channel imaging as well.

Doing some searching of the typical public safety bands in VHF-lo, VHF-hi, and UHF showed just little problems that could be 'fixed' by bumping up the squelch slightly or using the search pass feature. Minor pager intermod was present in the 160 railroad band.

I next switched to doing the same tests but using several enhanced antennas for various frequency ranges to further stress the receiver's design. The overall results were very positive. The FM band got a little noisier due to a few more TV and FM broadcast images. A couple of pager images popped up in the VHF aero band. Some more pager images showed up in VHF-hi as well. Just a little more problem with TV images in the mid 200s and the low 400s got a tad noisier with 800 data channel images and the low 900s faired as well.

Next, I sat down with the WS2000 at home and compared it to the latest offerings by Alinco and Icom as well as to an older Yupiteru which is roughly in the same price class. I compared these radios on frequencies between 31 and 932 MHz using the same antenna for each frequency tested. In the results table below, for each frequency, I ranked the radios from 1st place to last. If a radio did not receive the test signal, a 0 was registered.

Using the above rankings, I took an average for each radio (using 5 for a value of 0) which placed the radios from first to last as follows : MVT-7100 (1.5), WS2000 (2.1), DJ-X10 (2.7) and IC-R10 (3.3).

As you can see, overall performance of the WS2000 is quite good and appears to work better than the WS1000. For its diminutive size, the WS2000 offers a good blend of sensitivity and selectivity putting it right up there with the popular Yupiteru. A bigger problem appears to be selectivity which is much too wide regardless of whether you use AM, FM or Wide-FM.

HW Performance
Next up was a test of HF performance. While at home, I chose a number of signals using my Sangean ATS-909 between 5 and 20 MHz. In the results table below, for each frequency, I ranked the radios from 1st place to last.

* : For the indicated frequencies, the WS2000 was able detect a signal and open the squelch but the actual transmission was difficult, it not impossible to hear above the static.

Using the above rankings, I took an average for each radio which placed them from first to last as follows : MVT-7100 (1.4), DJ-X10 (1.7), IC-R10 (2.5) and WS2000 (3.6).

It was sad to see the WS2000 perform so poorly. The WS1000 was no great treasure for HF monitoring but it did post better results than these. I wonder if the VHF/UHF circuitry was augmented at the expense of HF reception?

Ranking

Here's the ranking criteria

Things I Like

Size, of course

More memory and search banks

Use of 2 AAs and how they last

Great audio

Wide range and flexibility of options

Selectable priority channel

Hold, busy, pause scan/search options

Things I Would Change

BELT CLIP! BELT CLIP! BELT CLIP!

Single/All bank scanning

Search limits that store step size and receive mode

Scanning speed needs a boost

Memory channel lockout

Function key that you don't have to hold down while making selections (a la AR8000/DJ-X10/MVT-9000)

Summary
One great package. That pretty much sums it up. Considering all the coverage and functionality packed into something you can carry in your shirt pocket, it's one heck of a radio.

This radio manages to squeeze in many features allowing it to run up there with the big boys. 800 channels. 21 search limits. VFO. Wide receive. Great audio. Rotary control. Adjustable backlight. Battery saver. Auto power-off. Attenuator. Multi-use priority. Pause/Hold/Busy scan/search. I continue to be amazed at what this radio can do!

Maybe at some point they can squeeze auto-store into the firmware. That, and the ability to store step size and receive mode for the search limits would round out this unit nicely.

Now if we can just get Standard to bump up the scan rate, allow more options than all/one bank scanning, fix the problem with scanning and battery saver, and add a belt clip!

Recommendations
If you are looking for the smallest radio out there for covert monitoring or perhaps a second unit as a novelty, look no further than the WS2000. With such wide band coverage, great sensitivity and loads of features, this little marvel is sure to please and be taken along often.

When you consider the competition, the WS2000 doesn't fall far short. Since this radio is so small, it limits the LCD and therefore what can be displayed. This rules out any possibility of alpha-tags, bandscope or other nifty display features that take up LCD real estate.

It doesn't have the extra-extended receive like the competition but not many of us play up there anyway. The WS2000 does have all the other good stuff that counts though. And at a price that competes as well.

If you really want HF coverage for casual listening, the WS2000 is probably not the radio to try. Sensitivity is pretty bad and unlike most of its competition, it has no ability to tune single-sideband. If you are looking for a small package around the same price, check out the Alinco DJ-X10 or iCOM IC-R10.

While the MVT-7100 is still the king for HF/VHF/UHF sensitivity and audio, it is also the largest unit of the group and due to its age, is kind of spartan when it comes to features.

I'm glad to see that Standard has done some work to improve the filtering of this unit compared to the WS1000. That's one of the major reasons I didn't pick up one of these. In some ways I wish I had though. But now, I have it's younger sibling to take along. And what a fine addition to my collection it makes!

Update - November 18, 1997
A recent WS2000 buyer had the following to offer :

Read your review and wanted to add that after purchasing a 2000 I am extremely disappointed in the radio. All works well but it has a great deal of intermod. I mean major intermod. Any local police transmission in the 30 MHz band bleeds over into all other frequencies from 500 khz to 65 MHz. End result....back for a refund.

I suggest you check this problem out on your unit. Find a local (within a mile) transmitter in the 30 MHz range and try it. You will find that it is a real problem. BTW, the 1000 sitting right next to the 2000 does not have this problem.

Keep in mind that this is one person's experience. But it does point out the importance of immediately testing out your new radio on all the frequencies and in all the places you like to monitor. This will make you aware of any potential problems allowing you to explore all your options.

Also keep in mind that if manufacturers are aware of a serious problem, they often update the radio to lessen or alleviate it. Such a radio change will be found on later production runs of that model. This makes it necessary to test all radios and to be advised when buying a used version since it could be from an earlier run.

October 20, 1997

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Copyright © 2010 by Richard J. Wells