Just picked up one of these little suckers and I am impressed! Having previously owned an R2 and R5, as well as a Yaesu VR-500, the R6 seems to fix most, if not all, of their shortcomings. While doing this Icom even managed to increase battery life (running Sanyo Eneloop NiMH cells in mine).
Sitting side-by-side with a Uniden BC346XT and scanning the local aviation frequencies, the R6 is easily pulling the signals out of the sky, followed by the 346XT. Local broadcast AM / FM reception is no problem, although that's a given being in a metro area. The unit does suffer a little from selectivity issues on the FM broadcast band, but that's pretty much expected.
A quick scan of the pre-programmed SW frequencies turned up quite a few weak hits, which is great for a tiny radio running a Diamond SRH815 "rat tail" antenna, sitting inside next to a powered-on computer. Even snagged WWV on 10 MHz. A quick scan of the civilian VHF aviation band (full 108-136 MHz) didn't turn up a single birdie -- impressive!
The display is nice and clear, with a yellowish backlight as compared to the green on the R2 and R5 series. Audio on the R6 is crisp and loud; amazing for such a small speaker. I have not tried to interface the R6 with the computer for programming, but it's nice to know that ARC has some software available. (Supposedly you can also control the R6 from a computer with add-on accessories from Icom.) The linked bank scan is great; finally Icom has fixed this! No more "scan all or nothing" approach.
Overall, I would rate the IC-R6 as a 9 / 10. Definitely a great purchase on its own, while also fixing the quirks of previous models. This is an excellent radio to throw in your bag while traveling or in your pocket around town.
Sitting side-by-side with a Uniden BC346XT and scanning the local aviation frequencies, the R6 is easily pulling the signals out of the sky, followed by the 346XT. Local broadcast AM / FM reception is no problem, although that's a given being in a metro area. The unit does suffer a little from selectivity issues on the FM broadcast band, but that's pretty much expected.
A quick scan of the pre-programmed SW frequencies turned up quite a few weak hits, which is great for a tiny radio running a Diamond SRH815 "rat tail" antenna, sitting inside next to a powered-on computer. Even snagged WWV on 10 MHz. A quick scan of the civilian VHF aviation band (full 108-136 MHz) didn't turn up a single birdie -- impressive!
The display is nice and clear, with a yellowish backlight as compared to the green on the R2 and R5 series. Audio on the R6 is crisp and loud; amazing for such a small speaker. I have not tried to interface the R6 with the computer for programming, but it's nice to know that ARC has some software available. (Supposedly you can also control the R6 from a computer with add-on accessories from Icom.) The linked bank scan is great; finally Icom has fixed this! No more "scan all or nothing" approach.
Overall, I would rate the IC-R6 as a 9 / 10. Definitely a great purchase on its own, while also fixing the quirks of previous models. This is an excellent radio to throw in your bag while traveling or in your pocket around town.