Icom 221 Mobile Scan Problems

[wv8mat]

I have an Icom IC-221 UHF Mobile Radio. I have about 25 freq programmed in the radio. About half are in the scan list. My problem is that I can put the radio on scan and then put my Motorola HT beside it on scan and the Icom will never pick up what the Motorola does.

On the Icom, I can go through and manually delete and then add each freq and it still doesn't help.

2nd part of the issue I am having is.... We have 3 repeaters on the same freq with different DPL tones. When someone talks on those repeaters I see a icon on the screen show activity but the radio never stops scan and no audio is herd.

 

[Citywide173]

Do you hear audio if the radio is manually put on the channel?

Do you have each DPL programmed in channels on the scan list? (3 different channels in the radio)

Is your mic clip grounded?

 

[wv8mat]

If radio is off scan and I manually go from channel to channel, they work fine. Just wont pick up in scan.

Each has DPL that is correct.

Mic is grounded.

 

[Citywide173]

OK, simple fixes out of the way.

Is the scan stopping on anything?

 

[wv8mat]

Yes, it will stop on about 3 or 4 different channels and thats it. Sometimes those same channels wont even get stopped on the next time

 

[wv8mat]

very strange how this radio works. I thought it was something I did, I even moved the squelch all the way up and still the scan does stupid stuff , lol

 

[parnass]

I'm not familiar with that model. Do you have the channels programmed with the proper mode? (e.g., NFM vs FM).

Some receivers contain a "window detector" circuit which prevents the receiver from stopping on a frequency if the signal is deemed being too far off frequency. If the receiver is misaligned, it will think many signals are "off frequency" and won't pause the scan to listen to them.

Check to make sure your ICOM is accurately aligned.

 

[wv8mat]

I propgram Motorola and Kenwood all the time, first commerical Icom so I know everything is correct with the freq/mem settings.... this is a scan issue on this radio. This is another reason why Icom sucks as a commerical radio.

If this was a Kenwood or Motorola radio, this would no be a problem. Scan on those radios are simple.

 

[jeatock]

Have you aligned the radio? F221's haven't been built in about five years so this one is due for a tuneup. Has someone hacked the Maker Reserve out of shape? How out-of-date is the firmware version? Check all of those and put it on your service monitor before you trash the brand. At least Icom didn't build whole series' of radios with Easter-Egg capacitors and bad out of the box narrow band ceramic filters.

I also work on M's, V's and K's on a daily basis, and have I's. V's and M's in my own fire fleet. They're all different to program and align, but all fine radios. One of my customers has a partial fleet of GE/Macom/Whoever-they-are-now. They are problematic for me to work on, but that doesn't automatically make them junk. I just give them to someone who speaks their language and they come back perfect.

You will not find a front end with better sensitivity and selectivity than Icom; that is one reason the F121/F221 is used for voting receivers. 'Other' manufacturer's proudly state that their sensitivity is -119db. I typically see Icom's open at -124 and go 90% full quiet at -119.

A properly aligned, programmed and tuned F121/F221 will scan a dozen channels accurately and reliably. There are also a few tweeks that improve the performance over out of the box configuration. I have one of each staring at me right now, performing perfectly.

 

[MTS2000des]

What is the scan resume and stop timers set at? It's located under the scan setting tree in CS-F100.

If the radio receives fine while parked on a channel, it sounds more like a resume timer setting. Also, what scan mode (type) are you using? Mode 1, 2 or 3?

 

[MTS2000des]

You will not find a front end with better sensitivity and selectivity than Icom; that is one reason the F121/F221 is used for voting receivers. 'Other' manufacturer's proudly state that their sensitivity is -119db. I typically see Icom's open at -124 and go 90% full quiet at -119.

A properly aligned, programmed and tuned F121/F221 will scan a dozen channels accurately and reliably.

I'll agree with this 100 times over. These little low cost radios have superior RX performance as do the 5021/6021s (which are the current production replacements). I have a 6021 in my shack that will receive things far far away that even my Astro Spectra with a pre-amp won't unmute on. About the only bad thing about the radios is they generate quite a bit of heat on transmit, even on L1 or L2, but then they aren't intended for ham radio "gas bagging".

Made in JAPAN not China and never had the bad IF filter problems that countless Kenwood and V-S radios suffer from from the same time period.

 

[jeatock]

Blatantly off-topic, but it upsets me greatly when anyone bases their engineering opinion on the marketing of the brand logo instead of what's really underneath it.

Google Tokuzo Inoue (founder of Icom). Aside from being #73 in The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame for his practical contributions to commercial and amateur radio (somewhere between Nikola Tesla and James Maxwell), he founded and is still chairman of the third or fourth largest and most fiscally sound 2-way radio manufacturer in the world.

Icom was one of the first radio folks to exceed MIL-Std 810F durability - others do now, but had to play catch-up.

All Icom products are entirely Japan-built in wholly owned (and debt free) Icom plants by Icom employees, not farmed out to the lowest bidding subcontractor. Quality control is insane! In ten years and thousands of radios I have only seen one out-of-the box defect, and that was minor. Can anyone else say that?

 

[MTS2000des]

I agree. I wish Icom would produce some 700/800 subscriber radios on the 9011 platform. They build a seriously high quality radio and the fact that they don't shill out to China shows they care about the company long term. I would love to be able to have such radios on our system but Icom does not seem to be interested in 700/800 which is the dominant US public safety band. Imagine a multi-band portable on a 9011 chassis.

I use Icom LMR for my personal ham stuff and it knocks other manufacturers' proverbial "EF Johnsons" in the dirt every time.

Some of my fellow techs called Standard (now owned by Ma M) the "Motorola of Japan". I disagree. Icom holds that title. Except they don't do slimy things to get contracts lol.

You don't see 30 year old Yaesu/Vertex radios, and Kenwood LMR prior to the 730/830 series was a pathetic joke. But good God people still have Icom IC-H16/U16 and V100/U400s in service! They won't die!

 

[mmckenna]

Asked Icom several times about them getting into the 800MHz market, but they really don't seem to be interested. Was buying a new 800 trunked system and talked to them quite a bit.

I had a couple Icom F320's that were used as receivers. That sat in a rack powered up 24x7 for about 13 years with never a hiccup.
I took them out of service when we moved the dispatch center and mounted two of them in some UTV's. They've had the crap beat out of them for about 5 years now with no issues, including rain, mud, dust, hail and constant vibration/pounding.
Only weak point was their low end microphones. I replaced a lot of PTT buttons on those over the years. Finally replaced them with the higher end mic.
I agree. I find that people that are violently brand loyal usually haven't used anything else.