http://forums.radioreference.com/ A forum for the discussion of all ICOM scanning radios and receivers. en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:39:08 GMT vBulletin 60 http://forums.radioreference.com/images/misc/rss.jpg http://forums.radioreference.com/ http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/164923-video-icom-r-1500-action.html Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:14:47 GMT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYs17tiRlFk Someone posted a video of their Icom R-1500 in action on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYs17tiRlFk
Someone posted a video of their Icom R-1500 in action on youtube. ]]> ICOM Receivers ac7xc http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/164923-video-icom-r-1500-action.html http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/164379-icom-r20-memory-name-tags.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:26:42 GMT hi can anyone help with the name tags for the memory channels, i can put the name tags into the radio ok but i cant seem to find a way of switching from high case to low case so i end up witha name tag that looks like this-- PolicE or FirecoM there is 8 spaces for the text so when you start to... hi can anyone help with the name tags for the memory channels, i can put the name tags into the radio ok but i cant seem to find a way of switching from high case to low case so i end up witha name tag that looks like this-- PolicE or FirecoM there is 8 spaces for the text so when you start to enter the tag you get the first letter in hi caseand the rest in lo case and the last one in hi again.its got me beat im following the manual so now im stuck, anyone any ideas? ]]> ICOM Receivers deevee8 http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/164379-icom-r20-memory-name-tags.html http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/164346-icom-r20-v-uniden-ubc93xlt.html Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:24:51 GMT Launceston Radio Scanner Guy (http://launcestonradioscannerguy.blogspot.com/) Icom R20 v Uniden UBC93XLT Over the past few days I have been doing some head to head testing of the Uniden UBC93XLT and the Icom R20 in various locations over a group of the most common frequencies I listen to (see... Launceston Radio Scanner Guy

Icom R20 v Uniden UBC93XLT
Over the past few days I have been doing some head to head testing of the Uniden UBC93XLT and the Icom R20 in various locations over a group of the most common frequencies I listen to (see below)

76.03750 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
76.40000 STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE (SES) DISASTER
76.48750 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
76.91250 ST JOHNS AMBULANCE
77.00000 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
77.12500 TAS AMBULANCE SERVICE SIMPLEX
77.52500 STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE (SES)
78.62500 TAS AMBULANCE SERVICE MT BARROW
78.65000 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
79.03750 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
79.06250 TAS AMBULANCE SERVICE WESTLAUNCESTON
79.56250 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
79.65000 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
79.66250 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
79.83750 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
79.93750 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
463.25000 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
464.25000 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
466.60000 TASMANIA FIRE SERVICE (TFS)
118.10000 HOBART TOWER
118.70000 LAUNCESTON TOWER
123.45000 AIR SIMPLEX
123.80000 ATC-NORTH
126.50000 ATC-LAUNCESTON
126.70000 GEORGETOWN CTAF
128.85000 AERO CARE
129.50000 QANTAS
130.22500 JETSTAR
130.35000 VIRGIN
136.12500 JETSTAR
157.53750 PN SIMPLEX
157.57500 PN SIMPLEX
157.77500 PN SIMPLEX
158.00000 PN SIMPLEX
162.37500 PN MIDLANDS
162.60000 PN DAZZLER
162.61250 PN MT ARTHUR
414.02500 PN TASRAIL
473.50000 PN SIMPLEX
475.07500 PN SIMPLEX
53.87500 VK7RAA 6M
70.32500 ACC SERVICES
72.02500 ACC SERVICES
72.12500 CONNORVILLIE
72.27500 LES WALKDEN
75.59000 BEAMS BROS TRANSPORT
76.85000 BENLOMAND WATER
77.08750 LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL
77.15000 GEORGETOWN COUNCIL
77.65000 TECS
77.88750 ARMAGUARD
78.01250 WEST TAMAR COUNCIL
78.28750 LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL
78.31250 LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL
78.47500 FORESTRY TASMANIA
78.55000 GEORGETOWN COUNCIL
79.00000 WORKS INFRASTRUCTURE PTY LTD
79.13750 FORESTRY TASMANIA
79.33750 LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL
79.47500 FORESTRY TASMANIA
145.42500 2M AMATEUR SIMPLEX
145.47500 2M AMATEUR SIMPLEX
146.45000 2M AMATEUR SIMPLEX
146.57500 2M IRLP
147.00000 VK7RAA 2M
156.37500 MARINE CHANNEL 67
156.40000 MARINE
156.60000 MARINE CHANNEL 72
156.80000 MARINE CHANNEL 16
159.64000 REDLINE
160.48000 JONES WASTE
162.08750 TAXICOM
162.31250 SUNCOAST EXPRESS
162.50000 BORAL
163.06250 STORNOWAY
163.07500 CSR LIMITED
163.08750 CENTRALCABS
163.12500 ACC SERVICES
163.42500 TECS
163.57500 TECS
163.60000 STAR TRACK EXPRESS
163.86250 OXBERRY
163.91250 OXBERRY
166.27500 HANSON CONSTRUCTION
168.11250 GT TAXI
419.70000 TAS AIRPORT
438.55000 VK7RAB
463.17500 ACS SERVICES
463.52500 METRO
464.42500 RACT
465.40000 OXBERRY
467.17500 TECS
467.47500 CASINO SECURITY
469.65000 TOTE - MOWBRAY
469.70000 OPTUS/LCC TIP
471.47500 SHORT TERM RENTAL
471.62500 SHORT TERM RENTAL
471.82500 YORK PARK
471.85000 SILVERDOME
471.90000 SHORT TERM RENTAL
472.22500 BOAGS
472.82500 M D DUNCAN
473.10000 TARGET
474.17500 TAS POLYTECHNIC
474.22500 QVM MUSEUM
474.37500 LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL
474.70000 REDLINE FREIGHT
474.77500 UNI SECURITY
474.80000 SSL SECURITY TASMANIA
474.85000 TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT
474.87500 LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL
474.92500 GUNNS
474.95000 JACKSON MOTOR COMPANY
475.00000 CHURCHILL PARK PARTS
475.02500 RACING
475.05000 AGPS SECURITY
475.12500 THE JAC GROUP
476.42500 UHF 01
476.45000 UHF 02
477.40000 UHF 40
480.50000 LAUNCESTON CUP SECURITY
484.55000 QANTAS
484.80000 BOAGS BREWING
485.25000 OXBERRY
486.37500 SCTV (SIMPLEX)
487.35000 TNT
488.55000 OXBERRY
488.70000 TECS
491.67500 OXBERRY
492.60000 LC STAFF
494.92500 LAUNCESTON CITY COUNCIL

I have also ran a search of the following bands in each location with each radio to look for any frequencies where the radio locks up due to broadcast band / pager overload or other issues like that.
70-80MHz (VHF Mid), 118-137MHz (Air band), 156 – 174MHz (VHF High), 462 – 512MHz (UHF) 865-870MHz (EDACS)

For these test’s both scanners were using their standard aerials, running off fully charged batteries with the squelch set to just past the noise threshold.

Location 1: My house.
I live about 2 km as the crow flies from the centre of the CBD about half way up a large hill that has a number of radio towers / users on it. I am also LOS to Mt Barrow which has a number of broadcast and two way users pumping up some large amounts of power.
The first test here where I had both scanners programmed the same and scanning the above frequencies while sitting on my desk, I noticed from this test that the R20 had some problems on the Air band and VHF high band with what sounds like FM broadcast or TV audio overload. The UBC93XLT seemed to lock on to signals in the UHF band the best and both units were about the same on the VHF mid band with the UBC93XLT having a slight problem on 72.025MHz with what sounds like FM broadcast band audio.

Running the search test here on both radios showed that the R20 seemed to have the most problems around the 74-76MHz band and again on the Air band, The UBC93XLT was very good on all tests with it pulling in UHF signals better and hearing more of the EDACS control channels.

Location 2: My office at work.
I work in the centre of the CBD so this test was quite harsh as I have a few different transmission sources close by and a number of computers running as well.

The scan test produced much the same results as what I did at home with the main difference being that the R20 has some issues with locking up on the three UHF CB frequencies but the UBC93XLT was fine on these. I also noticed the R20 locking up on a couple of frequencies around the 78MHz area.

The search test produced much the same results on both radios with the R20 locking up on a few more frequencies in the UHF band and the UBC93XLT having issues around 72.100MHz. From here I could get 2 EDACS control channels on each radio.

Location 3: Freeland’s lookout Trevallyn.
Every radio I have tested here has had issues of some sort due to the fact it sits between 4 broadcast sites and has a direct view in to the CBD, so I was interested to see how badly these radios would play up.

The scan test showed a number of issues with both radios on the low VHF frequencies around the UHF frequencies, the R20 seemed to suffer slightly worse in the lower UHF band and the 70-80MHz band plus some issues on the air band where as the UBC93XLT seemed to have more issues in the low VHF band, the audio was much the same on both with the R20 sounding better on the VHF air band.

Running the search ranges showed quite a number of problem frequencies on both radios across the bands, both radios were much the same on VHF Mid, air band and VHF high but on UHF both really dropped it with the R20 having some real problems between 406 – 418MHz on a large number of frequencies where as the UBC93XLT still had issues but not as badly or on as many frequencies.
The EDACS search got 7 control channels on each radio the R20 had a couple of frequencies in this band it locked up on badly.

Overall:
Both radios preformed fairly well and each had good / bad points, overall the R20 seemed to have the most problems and the lack of a useable “lock out” feature really takes away from this. For the price I feel the UBC93XLT is the better value radio. ]]> ICOM Receivers tanger32au http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/164346-icom-r20-v-uniden-ubc93xlt.html http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/163620-icom-ic-r5-tips-tricks.html Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:56:30 GMT Just picked up an R5 and I am having a blast with it and thought I'd throw in some tips and tricks, especially how I get around the lack of any "bank links".

These are probably obvious to many, but here we go:

* Topping off batteries - Normally I charge out of unit for total safety and effectiveness, but sometimes I like to top off the batteries on the run rather than run them through full charge/discharge cycles. The charger won't activate unless the batteries totally die, or are swapped with another set. For topping off, I either pull one battery momentarily and put it back in, or put the charger on a switchable outlet. Toggle the power on the outlet, and now I can activate the charger without pulling the batts.

There is a 15-hour timer that will shut off the charger, and the manual specs the charge current at 120 ma. Theoretically, if you have very high-capacity batteries, and only give it a 15-hour charge, it might be possible that you are never charging your high-capacity batteries fully, unless you re-cycle the timer and then KEEP AN EYE ON IT.

Best bet is to charge the batts out of the unit with an external charger for total safety and a guaranteed full charge.

* On some of my memories I have ctcss PL tone-squelch activated. Yet when I do a memory scan, the R5 sometimes skips right over them, and I can see that the transmitter is active. The PL tone is programmed correctly, and the transmitter is emitting a PL tone as checked on another receiver. I thought it was me programming it wrong - nope - I've found that every so often, I have to drop to vfo mode, and actually toggle tone-squelch on and then back off for the system in *memory* to open up on the properly programmed pl decode tone. Very strange, and I've reset the cpu a few times. What's weird is that I've seen this behavior on the RX7 as well. Still looking into this one.

* Overload / interference:
Luckily I'm not blasted with RF at home so the front end is holding up fine - even on half-wave vhf / uhf dipoles - but I'm mainly using this portable with the included antenna. If I did suffer interference, I'd check what antenna is set for AM or FM use (bar, external, earphones). Manual warns about interference using the bar or earphones. YMMV.

* Audio is strong enough to drive an MFJ-281 small communications speaker very well. Almost as if there wasn't any limiting resistor inline. Not sure about the resistor, but this combo, which also works fine with the RX7, can easily be heard all over the house - maybe even mobile, but I'm not going to even think of fiddling with it mobile. :)

* Lack of Bank Links:
Everyone is familiar with the ALL or just a single-bank scan, and wish we could do bank-links. I do, but I've found a way around it in a kind of reverse-logic fashion.

The RX5 isn't the fastest thing around, and scanning all memories or all banks is probably too frustrating to use if you have more than a handful of memories, so I am trying to shorten up the amount of memories in each bank creatively.

At any rate, I have two ways of dealing with the lack of bank links with an adjustment to how I program it. The key is to SKIP everything, and then enable what you want back in - possibly with a "hot bank" thrown in that has all frequencies un-skipped. This only works if you keep your bank lists a bit smaller than you would normally do with a real scanner.

Ideally, each bank would be filled with very specific categories or systems, rather than just random programming for this to work well.

Option 1: SKIP every memory channel you program into the banks. Then selectively un-skip the "hot" freqs in each bank. Now you can use the ALL-bank-scan feature and there's your hot list which jumps around from bank to bank so to speak. Of course now you can go to a single bank of interest and start un-skipping the rest of the channels in the bank and do just a single bank-scan if things get really interesting in that bank.

Option 2: Duplicate your "hot" frequencies into a single bank, perhaps bank-A, and DO NOT skip them. However, leave all the memories in the rest of the banks SKIPPED. Like above, selectively go into the other banks and un-skip a few more of the more interesting channels. Now when you do an ALL bank scan, you'll scan your hot-bank of duplicates (ie, BANK-A), and a handful or more of the channels you un-skipped in the other banks. Like above, if you find something interesting, you can now stop on a specific bank and start un-skipping the channels inside the bank and do a single-bank scan.

Again very tedious so at some point you'd want to reach for a fast scanner instead. With the R5, I just tool around like this and when something gets interesting, or I'm in a certain area, I'll just manually scroll around in a bank. Kind of a different type of ops than with a fast scanner.

I haven't actually purchased the software and am giving the scroll-knob a real workout. This thing intrigues me, so I'm thinking of putting out a "out of the box" experience kind of thing to help get some past the manual ... at least just for a leg up in the beginning.... Next time perhaps...

Having fun with the R5! ]]> ICOM Receivers hertzian http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/163620-icom-ic-r5-tips-tricks.html http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/163011-icom-rx7-wfm-problem.html Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:59:44 GMT Have you guys seen this video? How is the WFM reception in the states?

YouTube - 1st icom ic-rx7 video showing poor reception on wfm in the fm radio band

(I'm assuming this guy is in the UK.) ]]> ICOM Receivers nickcarr http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/163011-icom-rx7-wfm-problem.html http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/162896-ic-r1.html Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:28:54 GMT I have had this scanner for sometime now and am wondering if it takes a college degree to program it, I have one channel in it for sherrif and it recieves nice, ANy help? Jim Cushing, WI I have had this scanner for sometime now and am wondering if it takes a college degree to program it, I have one channel in it for sherrif and it recieves nice, ANy help?
Jim
Cushing, WI ]]> ICOM Receivers wisconsinjimmy http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/162896-ic-r1.html http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/162812-another-icrx7-question.html Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:24:55 GMT does the icom icrx7 have adequate power to supply an external speaker ?. or does it have the current limiting resistor like some handhelds ?.

any comment's about the mil-air reception ?.

mi sincerest thank's for all the help so far. ]]> ICOM Receivers pdfdems286 http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/162812-another-icrx7-question.html http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/162866-ic-r2500-p25-modify.html Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:34:13 GMT cioa are new to the forum and 'I bought an IC-R2500.
my model and made in japan and there 'attack on p25, I put the module and' I unlocked the frequencies do not feel anything but absolute silence, I thought at least to hear the x gsm, instead nothing.
someone tell me if I even put the form ut-118 (dv) to work well? I also heard that the sub is sent in digital mode by making a small change, but do not know where. someone has other info I can 'help? ]]> ICOM Receivers max-ribelle http://forums.radioreference.com/icom-receivers/162866-ic-r2500-p25-modify.html