UNIDEN Verses ICOM

[Trifit65]

Members,

By purchasing UNIDEN, I will be giving up the ICOM functionality for receiving extended frequencies up to 3GHz. ICOM scanners can recieve from 1Mhz to 3 GHz, but UNIDEN only goes up to about 1300MHz.

My question is: Am I really missing out on anything within those high GHz frequencies? Is anyone actually transmitting in those frequencies? Is there much action there?

Perhaps if I DID purchase the ICOM capability to scan into GHz frequencies, there would not be much to listen to there anyone ...

I'm trying to figure which to buy ... ICOM or Uniden ... and what's the most interesting feature... the Unidens APCO, or the ICOMs extended high frequencies?

Thanks

Tom C

[JMR]

What is it that you want to scan? If your main goal is to scan public safety, air or what ever you are right they would not really be operating that high. Which models of ICOM and Uniden are you looking at? Keeping this line of questions in one thread will probably help alot in getting good feedback as well.

[dustin486]

According to this bandplan, which is most likely old.. sorry if it is (does someone have the latest one?), there really isn't that much to hear in that area:

1350.000 - 1400.000 DoD
1400.000 - 1427.000 Radio Astronomy
1427.000 - 1429.000 Land Mobile - Police, Fire, Forestry, R/R
1429.000 - 1435.000 DoD
1435.000 - 1535.000 Telemetry
1535.000 - 1543.000 SAT - Maritime Mobile
1605.000 - 1800.000 Radio Location
1660.000 - 1670.000 Radio Astronomy
1660.000 - 1700.000 Meteo - Radiosond
1700.000 - 1710.000 Space - Research
1710.000 - 1850.000 DoD
1990.000 - 2110.000 TV Pick-up
2110.000 - 2180.000 Public Common Carrier
2130.000 - 2150.000 Fixed Point-to-point (non-public)
2150.000 - 2180.000 Fixed Omnidirectional
2180.000 - 2200.000 Fixed Point-to-point (n-p)
2200.000 - 2290.000 DoD
2300.000 - 2310.000 Amateur
2390.000 - 2450.000 Amateur
2450.000 - 2500.000 Radio location
2500.000 - 2535.000 Fixed SAT
2500.000 - 2690.000 Fixed Point-to-point (n-p), Instructional TV
2655.000 - 2690.000 Fixed SAT
2690.000 - 2700.000 Radio Astronomy
2700.000 - 2900.000 DoD
2900.000 - 3100.000 Maritime Radio Nav

The only interesting would probably be DoD, but I doubt it is going to really be that active.

[Dubbin]

Originally Posted by dustin486

The only interesting would probably be DoD, but I doubt it is going to really be that active.

DoD I love that game
There's not much to listen to up there in those ranges. I think it's becoming more of a sales gimmick then any real use.

[Trifit65]

Thanks fellows. I very much appreciated your incites. I've decided on the Uniden BC396 verses the ICOM R20. In Los Angeles, the APCO police scans would be cool, and the R20 wouldn't provide that. Most of you seem to feel the higher frequency bands supported by the R20 may not be so interesting.

Thanks!

Tom C

[Air490]

You can't really compare the IC-R20 with the BCD396T. They are designed with different end-users and requirements in mind.

[Tweekerbob]

Originally Posted by Air490

You can't really compare the IC-R20 with the BCD396T. They are designed with different end-users and requirements in mind.

This is very true.

Tom,

Also, one major thing to keep in mind is that LA is grossly oversaturated with RF. It's capitalism at its best.

With that in mind, you may want to post this in the CA forum, not to be be redundant, but to find out how others in that area are coping with the RF problem in the valley.

I feel a Uniden may be the wrong choice, simply because the receiver in my opinion ranks poor in intermod rejection/front end overload. Also ranks poor in adjacent channel selectivity. These problems will be compounded as soon as you want to "hear" more, i.e. hook up the little guy to either a good mobile or outside antenna. You will end up actually hearing less of the desired signal and more products of undesireable signals.

A lot of folks in LA are buying commercial radios (almost always single banded, i.e. VHF hi, UHF, etc.) because their receivers are tuned to a specific band and can better reject unwanted signals (still not PPERFECT in LA). Even products like the R-20 are at some point succeptible to overload/intermod problems, but they are much better receivers and will have a much larger capacity for resisting these problems than the Uniden.

However, the Icom products or commercial grade radios (at least w/o proper programming) cannot trunk or do digital. What does that mean? If Uniden was willing to make a GOOD recevier, they would would have access to a huge market, LA NY, other large metro areas. Heck, I live 40 miles away from Sacramento in the sticks and the one Uniden I have still gets overloaded (even with 152 paging filter), while my unfiltered Icom receiver and motorolas NEVER have experienced overload from any pagers. So I guess that means I would buy one too.

Ryan

[Al42]

Originally Posted by Tweekerbob

If Uniden was willing to make a GOOD recevier, they would would have access to a huge market, LA NY, other large metro areas.

A really tight front end tuning from 25 MHz to 1.2 GHz? I don't think I could fit the numbers on the check I'd need to write to buy it. Or to pay the team that designed it.

Many front ends, switched in and out, without much leakage around each one? In a portable scanner? Maybe in 25 years.

I think we'll just have to put up with overload and intermod for a few more decades if we want small DC-to-daylight scanners that Joe Everyman can afford.

[Tweekerbob]

I said GOOD not GREAT. There are a lot of GOOD not GREAT wideband receivers out there and Uniden didn't even make the list.

[Trifit65]

Thanks for the assist guys, but I'm somewhat a novist at this ...

I assume 'overload' means too many unwanted signals drowning out the signal you want ... and intermodulation is unwanted signals interfering with the waveform of the signal of interest? ...

Is this true?

My primary interest for the handheld is listening to air traffic communications and in listening to the police broadcasts. I think I'm still leaning towards the UNIDEN beacause ICOM doen't have the APCO. And I can get a huge amount of police comm in Los Angeles via the APCO. And I probably won't be pushing the capabilites of the UNIDEN very much because just listening to Air Traffic frequencies is probably a pretty basic function for both the UNIDEN and the ICOM.

Thanks again for all your advice ...

Tom C

[Al42]

Originally Posted by Trifit65

I assume 'overload' means too many unwanted signals drowning out the signal you want ... and intermodulation is unwanted signals interfering with the waveform of the signal of interest? ...

Is this true?

Close.

Overload refers to some signal not on the frequency you're listening to being so strong that it gets into your receiver even though it's on a different frequency, or even a different band. (Living right near an FM or TV transmitter can cause this.)

Intermod and crossmod are two forms of the same thing - 2 signals mixing together forming 2 new signals, their sum and difference. (And sums and differences of their harmonics and all combinations of these.) If an intermod product happens to be on the frequency you're listening to it'll interfere with the real signal on that frequency. The 2 terms just differentiate where the mixing is taking place - in the receiver or somewhere outside it.