R8600 Icom IC-R8600 v AOR 8600 Mk2

[Token]

Well in the QST review they published AM sensitivity numbers as well. I'm not sure what this number is but they say 6.32 uV but then per band they mention @ 120 Mhz it's 1.64 uV and 0.68 uV with the preamp off and on. I guess the 6.32 value is an average over the 1.8 Mhz - 3 Ghz range..?

If you read the Lab Notes in the QST review you will see they say "overall the sensitivity is very good to excellent above 15 kHz, all the way to 3 GHz. Sensitivity drops off to more than 1 uV below 15 kHz." So I have no idea why they say "0.1 - 30 MHz, 7.96 uV; 1.8 MHz - 3 GHz, 6.32 uV" and none of their presented numbers are anything like that bad.

Because of this thread I got myself a SINAD meter. My calibrated sig gen only goes to 1024 MHz, I have other sig gens that go higher, but they are not in cal. I started at 1000 kHz and went up to 1020 MHz, sampling various points (mostly the ham bands, but also 120 MHz and 380 MHz, in AM, FM, and SSB. The worst AM sensitivity (6 kHz, 10 dB S+N/N) I got was at 1020 MHz where it was 108.5 dBm, about 0.84 uV (Preamp ON) and about -100 dBm, 2.24 uV, Preamp OFF. The best was -112.5 dBm, about 0.53 uV (Preamp ON) at 28000 kHz (-103.5 dBm / 1.64 uV, Preamp OFF). I did note a steady decrease in sensitivity from about 400 MHz up, and I may need to confirm that my cable was not contributing more than I thought as I went up in freq.

I also did the same sensitivity checks in USB, and I did 12 dB SINAD for FM. The numbers were consistent with the results in QST, with a slight degrade as I went up in freq.

So my cable is a possible unknown, and might have been presenting slightly more loss than I had it marked for. In which case the numbers I came up with can be considered worst case for my example, with the numbers being possibly better than presented.

T!

 

[AOR-262]

Well in the QST review they published AM sensitivity numbers as well. I'm not sure what this number is but they say 6.32 uV but then per band they mention @ 120 Mhz it's 1.64 uV and 0.68 uV with the preamp off and on. I guess the 6.32 value is an average over the 1.8 Mhz - 3 Ghz range..?

@devicelab

Reviews are never user-realistic. WE the users of products are the real life reviewers of such products.

If you read the Lab Notes in the QST review you will see they say "overall the sensitivity is very good to excellent above 15 kHz, all the way to 3 GHz. Sensitivity drops off to more than 1 uV below 15 kHz." So I have no idea why they say "0.1 - 30 MHz, 7.96 uV; 1.8 MHz - 3 GHz, 6.32 uV" and none of their presented numbers are anything like that bad.

Because of this thread I got myself a SINAD meter. My calibrated sig gen only goes to 1024 MHz, I have other sig gens that go higher, but they are not in cal. I started at 1000 kHz and went up to 1020 MHz, sampling various points (mostly the ham bands, but also 120 MHz and 380 MHz, in AM, FM, and SSB. The worst AM sensitivity (6 kHz, 10 dB S+N/N) I got was at 1020 MHz where it was 108.5 dBm, about 0.84 uV (Preamp ON) and about -100 dBm, 2.24 uV, Preamp OFF. The best was -112.5 dBm, about 0.53 uV (Preamp ON) at 28000 kHz (-103.5 dBm / 1.64 uV, Preamp OFF). I did note a steady decrease in sensitivity from about 400 MHz up, and I may need to confirm that my cable was not contributing more than I thought as I went up in freq.

I also did the same sensitivity checks in USB, and I did 12 dB SINAD for FM. The numbers were consistent with the results in QST, with a slight degrade as I went up in freq.

So my cable is a possible unknown, and might have been presenting slightly more loss than I had it marked for. In which case the numbers I came up with can be considered worst case for my example, with the numbers being possibly better than presented.

T!

@Token

Wow - you've gone and done a lot of work back there. I'm impressed. Slightly above and beyond my knowledge but nevertheless you obviously know what you're doing.