Hi Butch, IMHO, you got the best of the wideband handhelds I've owned and 
used.  To better answer your questions, I went back maybe two years, and dug 
up a piece I sent to one or maybe both of the blind ham lists after 
answering a question from a blind fellow with SW interests, who wasn't on 
that list.  which is quoted in part below.  (Only thing I forgot to include 
in that piece, was a real comment on battery life.
Two AA NIMH cells, or for that matter, 2, AA Alkaline cells will give much_ 
better and _Less expensive battery life than the Yaesu Rechargeable AA pack. 
That pack has a novel design, cells are well fastened together with a square 
terminal space appearing on each of the two cells.  These squareish 
holes/may not be really square, it's been nearly 3years since I've had one 
of these radios, anyway, when put in the radio/that pack will only go in one 
way, with the pack's terminals on its' underside, they correspond to two 
"nibs" in the battery well, which suffice both for receiving charge via the 
ext power port, and for giving back power to the radio.)
If I can be of further help, call me, thanks, Danny Dyer, Wb4idu.

"In terms of wideband handheld all band all mode strictly receivers, Ive had 
and used,

3Icom R10s, 3or4Yaesu VR500s, and an aor1000.

All work on all bands, giving AM, NFM, WFM, USB, LSB, and CW modes, but 
there's a good bit of difference between them.
However, each individual vr500, and each r10, acted very similarly, although 
I didn't
have all of them at the same time, but did use them under similar 
circumstances in much the same area /same house, with much the same 
antennae.

All three have full keyboards,  They're configured differently, but all can 
be programmed for speciffic freqs, modes, mems, etc.

Not sure if the aor1000 can be programmed via computer, but The Icom and The 
Yaesu have software and cables, and I've used the Yaesu, which worked but 
was
not very screne reader friendly.

.

My favorite of the batch is the vr500.

It runs on only 2 A Acells, or 5-14VDC, and has _Much better battery life 
than the Icom, and somewhat better battery life than the AOR, both of which 
use
4 A As, or 5-14VDC.

The r10's a __________Battery ____________Hog!

Icom has best/fullest sound, the radio and speaker are a _good bit bigger, 
and the aor1000's size and sound characteristics are similar to those of the 
R10.

but the yaesu's, sound though a little tinnier is certainly adequate, and 
because the radio is so much smaller, it's much more portable and less 
visible
than the other two, which are somewhat like the "brick type HTS.

In my oppinion, of the widebanders I've used,
the vr500 has a good attenuater and a very good narrow keyboard setting 
which really helps with AM, SSB, and CW, adjacent station interference.

Overloading can certanly be a problem with any of them in a strong signal 
situation, and on AM and SW, at night.

All Of the receivers need a different ant for US WX broadcasts,

An Icom Stubby Marine Band Duc  10-15$s Seemed Best.

a 20-50 inch telescopic antenna works well for AM/SW broadcasts,

and a 23foot or so piece of wire soldered to the center pin of a bnc 
connecter connected to the radio will do nicely.

The OEM Ducks, seem pretty widebanded, and except for all of their poor 
performance on WX freqs, seem to do pretty well elsewhere, _especially 
considering the _extremely wide range of freqs they serve.
Any of these radios need a softcase,

OEM, or something else/camera/cellphone/something, to protect them from hard 
floor hits.  The Yaesu's metal case with plastic back is the most robust, 
the AOR, hard plastic the least.
If I remember properly, Icom makes a leather case available for the R10/not 
included with radio, Yaesu has an optional neopreme leatherette type 
softcase, and I'm not sure about the AOR.

Finally, None Of These Radios Will Do as well over a particular portion of 
the broadcast spectram, as will as a radio or scanner particularly designed 
for
that portion of the spectram.

A portable fm-mw-lw-sw receiver will do much better for those particular 
freqs than will any of these,

and a basic scanner will do better on particular public service bands.

But these little guys give a portable all band, all mode, and pretty simple 
way to check up on activity over the "DCToDark radio spectram, and if that's
what you want, and your expectations are keyed to their reality/so you're 
not expecting a Sony 2010 performance on SW,  you may find them to fill a 
useful
nitch for you.

I don't have any for sale or swap, and I'm not connected with any 
manufacturer or seller, just trying to be of help.  Sincere thanks for both 
the list,
and the bandwidth.

Danny Dyer, Wb4idu.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Butch Bussen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 2:08 PM
Subject: vr-500


>I went to aes yesterday and spent my Christmas money and bought a vr-500.
> At first look, it seems fairly usable from the keyboard, I've figured out
> how to change modes, and write to memory.  Seems fairly sensitive,
> although i wonder what the duck that comes with it is optimized for.  If I
> go to th weather channel, I get a better signal if I curl my fingers
> around the antenna.  Anyone else on list got any comments or experience
> with this thing?
> 73
> Butch Bussen
> wa0vjr
> open Node 3148
> Las Vegas