Icom F5061

[steele_lpd]

Is there anyone who has used one of the ICOM F5061 radios? I was shown a listing on ebay where the radio is $389.95. There is another ebay listing where the same person is selling a "unit" to make the radio not only narrow-band complient but also P25... and the card is only $89.95. Both the radio and the other "unit" are listed as new... so for under $500 I can have a new narrow-band P25 radio?!

[stevelton]

Narrowband yes, but I dont think that radio with the ut-119 will do P25 digital.

Looking at Icoms website, the 5061 will do IDAS digital, which is Icoms "digital system", geared mainly towards business band users, not really for public safety. If one agency bought these radios to make a switch to digital, then any other agency that would want the ability to operate on their channel would have to have an ICom radio with IDAS bound on it.

I am not %100 sure on this, this is just what Im reading, so I am 98%.

Looks like the Icom 9511 and 1718 will do P25 and narrowband, so if you want P25, those may be what you want to look at.

Not sure though if you did get one of those that YOU would be able to program it to receive on someone's public safety channel, as I think you need some type of "key" to program the radio with so it would match the other P25 radios in use.

Steven

[bruch]

The F5061 is NOT P25 capable, it will do IDAS which is NXDN Digital with that add on board at 6.25 khz bandwidth.

Bob

[fireandems13669]

i am aware of the board you are talking about on ebay.I contacted them and informed them they were not p25 boards but it never changed.

The P25 Radios are the following ,F70,F80,F1721,F1821,F2721,F2821,F9011,F9511

The F3161,F5061 only do 6.25 IDAS/NXDN Digital

[steele_lpd]

Thanks for everyone's input... My first reaction when I found the bay listings was "it's too good to be true".

[fontanei]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned: Icom's IDAS digital modulation scheme sounds alot better than their P25 counterparts. To me its clearer.

[fireandems13669]

Thats for sure the IDAS 6.25 Modulation is great. I enjoy using it

[linkinpark9812]

That's pretty nice! Now I am not very familiar with the Digital Use of Radio (don't even have a digital radio scanner), but does it get "further" distance? What I mean is that since it send it in a digital format, doesn't it get better through noise than analog? And also, as you were saying, digital seems clearer.

I heard that P25 has a Nasal-sound, so I was wondering if IDAS is like that?

Thanks!

--linkinpark9812

[N2DLX]

Listen for yourself: NXDN Information

In my experience, you don't get more range, but you get much clearer audio on the fringes due to the lack of static and noise. However, analog makes it out just a smidge further if you have an ear for trying to decipher crap through the noise. That clearer audio in a weak spot is nice, but as with any digital system you'll get garbled audio rather than just increasing noise as you cross that coverage edge.