@Fast1eddie
Firstly, if you're a long time AOR owner/user such as the AOR 8600 Mk2, getting to learn the wording terminology and operational use of an Icom receiver is a tough one, mind boggling in my opinion -- others may beg to differ but it's all a matter of opinion. I'm still 'struggling' to learn how to do the 'basic' operations; such as searching between two frequencies i.e. between say 118MHz and 136MHz (which is typically the Civil Aircraft frequency range). Icom call this a 'SCAN' or 'PROGRAMMED SCAN EDGE' whereas AOR simply call it a 'SEARCH'. In time it will become easy to do all the basics but right now I know what I want to do like I would do when using the AOR 8600 Mk2 but the IC-R8600 isn't doing what I'm used too with the AOR. Storing frequencies into memory and recalling them is complicated unlike the AOR but again, in time I'm sure this will become as easy as 123.
I bought the highest megabyte sized SD Card for my IC-R8600 which according to the manual is 32GB. I went for a SanDisk Ultra 32GB SDHC (80 Mb/s)
The option to backup everything to the SD card including memories is great. The file created by the IC-R8600 isn't that big -- I backed up everything although the backup only had a few test memory channels stored on it, the size of the file on the SD card was about 300 bytes and that is like one grain of sand on a beach 100 miles long! What was disappointing was although the file can be opened using a simple text editor such as Notepad or Microsoft Word, there is nothing in the file that you can manually reword or change -- Icom seem to have used some weird way of writing the way in which the data is saved on the SD card. I have 2 Banks of active aircraft frequencies on my AOR (approx. 85) and thought it be easy to manually manipulate the file once opened using Notepad -- that didn't work so it looks like it's a case of sitting down for a few hours manually entering every frequency and alpha tagging them all one-by-one or as Icom probably want me to do and that is buy the programming software for it -- roughly £75 GBP or approx. $90 - $110 USD.
One thing I'm glad I did before I had my IC-R8600 in front of me -- and I strongly recommend this to anyone considering buying the IC-R8600 is to buy a stylus pen -- and in particular, the type where the tip of the stylus is a soft spongy tip. You can use this stylus with the spongy tip on the touch screen and also use it to press any of the buttons on the IC-R8600. With the use of a spongy tipped stylus pen, the only finger touching/physical contact you really have to do is when you use the the A, B, C Dials and also the Main Tuning Dial -- that's the only time you actually need to physically touch the IC-R8600. The stylus pens which have a more pointed tip such as the stylus pens supplied with phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Note range like the Note 4 or larger screen phones, Tablet/Phablet etc. I tried my stylus from my Galaxy Note 4 -- it worked fine but I felt the tip was too pointed and sliding it across the screen if it had a spec of dust on it could leave a smudge or worse a hair-line scratch on the screen of the IC-R8600.
The IC-R8600 Manual is great for telling you what each feature / setting does but what it doesn't tell you is what the setting is for. For example -- the Priority feature. That single frequency you want to monitor say every 10 seconds for activty. We all know how Priority works and what it does but IF you didn't know what Priority was; the manual doesn't tell the user what Priority is or does -- it just tells you how the feature works. Isn't that typical of any manual though?
Your AOR 8600 Mk2 is like a golf ball on your desk -- the IC-R8600 next to it is like a football. It's huge! And it weighs huge too -- and as you'll know it'll leave a huge dent in your wallet if you have one -- BUT -- I can't speak for anyone else and others will have their opinions/views but so far for me, as annoying but exciting at the same time learning my way around this Rolls-Royce of receivers; I have absolutely no regrets buying this IC-R8600.
*Update*
Again, this is my opinion -- the sound from the built in internal speaker is great. You have the option to alter the Bass/Treble to produce a deeper/clearer sound if you want. I won't be looking to buy the fancy matching speaker (SP-39AD, SP-23 or the SP-41). The reviews on these matching speakers aren't convincing for me to buy any one of them.
