This question goes to the capabilities of our rig. I use this highly capable rig just as I used the R71a it replaced-HF utilities and SW broadcast. But I know my habits are not doing this thing justice. What are you guys with R8600s using yours for? I don't think there are any R8600 owners near me save for one person but I'd like to expand the horizon on the higher frequencies. I've used it for marine and VHF/UHF police stuff but what else can I chase with this thing on my D130J? What's out there that I can sink my fangs in? I've got the Lambo but I don't know where to drive it
Not sure of your interest above HF ridge but I use my 8600 for about everything! It is truly a fantastic receiver and I find I'm finally migrating away from using my much older Icom R9000 and R7000s.
If I had to pick, I probably use my 8600 for railroad monitoring the better percentage of the day.
Any rail lines are far from me so it's almost more like chasing DX but on the AAR rail frequencies!
I also tune around the aircraft bands, both civil and military but aircraft monitoring never had a high interest with me for some reason.
I also like to just tune around mainly the VHF (136 to 174 MHz) range with the bandscope set to display maybe 1 MHz of spectrum. I seem to see more weak or very short duration transmissions with the bandscope set below its widest span of 5 MHz.
Amazingly, I don't use it much for the digital modes it will get but will when railroads actually start using NXDN if that ever happens here.
I would love to use it for DMR as we have a ton of that here using conventional single frequencies but unfortunately, the 8600 does not handle DMR. I know many have sent feature request to Icom to add DMR if possible in a firmware update for this model as well as the new R30 portable.
I know the R8600 hardware can support DMR but its anyone's guess if it can be added via firmware and of course the biggie, will Icom do it. I guarantee they would sell more of both models if they added DMR.
It's kind of funny but I always wanted a receiver capable of Icom's D-Star mode. Now that I have one, all the DStar ham repeaters have switched to DMR or P25! Just my luck. I did get to monitor some DStar on my R2500 a couple years back but it was already fading away in popularity. Today, I think there may be one 2 meter and one 440 repeater left in this area that use that mode and they are seldom on the air.
If I were you, I'd turn the bandscope on and start tuning around the V/UHF ranges and see what you can get!
I also lookup distant VHF stations across both Missouri and Illinois (I live right on the border of both) and see what I can get. I get great distant signals out of Illinois with that state being so flat. Same goes for Missouri more to the north northwest of me. I like to lookup what I hear here in the database. That's kind of fun and I find I can spend hours just tuning around like that!
Somewhere out there is a settings list that someone posted that customizes the bandscope to look more like an older signal analyzer screen. I personally like this much better than the default waterfall display that you see when you turn the scope feature on. Especially when tuning around above 30 MHz. For HF stuff, I do favor the waterfall look.
One of Icom's HF transceivers shares the same screen and bandscope as the R8600. The scope settings were written for the amateur transceiver (forgot the model) but apply to the R8600 also.
Let me know if you want to try that and can't find it and I'll dig up a link for you.
All in all, these radios are very nice and tons of fun!
Enjoy!