eorange
♦RF Enabled Member♦
Yep. Icom has the best chance of BT compatibility. It's a crapshoot with Yaesu and Unication in my experience. There are no BT guarantees.
palmerjrusa
Member
It's arrived😀...
I use whatever off brand (inexpensive) BT headset and BT earplug with my different Yaesu, Kenwood and Icom gear. I prefer pairing a particular headset per device versus one for all. I use BT speakers as well and don't have trouble. I also use a non-Apple earplugs just for my iPhone and Android phones. * Wonder if it is just an AirPods issue
@palmerjrusa - Let us know what your RF gain is set to as well on the devices during testing. I personally do not run my R30 RF at Max as it raises my noise floor resulting in no audible benefit. I typically run it at "7" and adjust as necessary on different bands, or with different antennas, etc. I would also like to know how the speakers sound to you.
I see you posted one minute ago that it arrived. Why haven't you provided test results yet?
@palmerjrusa - Let us know what your RF gain is set to as well on the devices during testing. I personally do not run my R30 RF at Max as it raises my noise floor resulting in no audible benefit. I typically run it at "7" and adjust as necessary on different bands, or with different antennas, etc. I would also like to know how the speakers sound to you.
I see you posted one minute ago that it arrived. Why haven't you provided test results yet?
palmerjrusa
Member
I use whatever off brand (inexpensive) BT headset and BT earplug with my different Yaesu, Kenwood and Icom gear. I prefer pairing a particular headset per device versus one for all. I use BT speakers as well and don't have trouble. I also use a non-Apple earplugs just for my iPhone and Android phones. * Wonder if it is just an AirPods issue
@palmerjrusa - Let us know what your RF gain is set to as well on the devices during testing. I personally do not run my R30 RF at Max as it raises my noise floor resulting in no audible benefit. I typically run it at "7" and adjust as necessary on different bands, or with different antennas, etc. I would also like to know how the speakers sound to you.
I see you posted one minute ago that it arrived. Why haven't you provided test results yet?
Initial impressions of the audio are fine...
eorange
♦RF Enabled Member♦
Don't do the water submersion test until later 😃
devicelab
Whacker Extraordinaire
The AM airband audio could be improved. Too much treble. The FM audio sounds good so far. I need to try an external headphone or speaker.
I'm ordering the Butel software today so I can start programming. ICOM needs a digital download solution.
I probably missed it in this thread, but has anyone directly compared the R15 to the R6 as far as performance goes?
palmerjrusa
Member
I can do that, own three IC-R6s, red, blue and black...
palmerjrusa
Member
I actually like a lot of treble, it makes for increased intelligibility on weak signals. You're never going to get a lot of the bass audio frequencies on this type of small speaker anyway.
devicelab
Whacker Extraordinaire
Well, I've had more time to play with the R15 today. VHF AIR sounds better with BIG signals. I was gifted a TID Radio H3 and it sounded similar to the R15. After attaching an external antenna, both radios are drastically improved.
(FWIW, I'm VERY impressed with the H3. I just updated to the June 25 firmware and it sounds fabulous. The default March firmware sounded pretty bad on VHF AIR.)
Sadly, the R15 is suffering under RFI. If you have bad AM RFI then you're going to slit your wrists with the R15. Its squelch is having major issues. If the H3 can handle the same RFI then surely ICOM can figure out how to make the R15 better.
IMHO, they both are still behind the Yaesu FT70DR and FT60R as far as VHF AIR audio quality is concerned. My FT60R also suffers from the RFI issue as its squelch is hyper-sensitive. The FT70DR seems to handle the RFI without issue.
palmerjrusa
Member
Just purchased that here as well.
G7RUX
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2021
- Messages
- 632
Can you identify what is causing the issue? My bet would be that you have either broadcast transmitters or pagers causing intermodulation. Even the best receivers can suffer from this to some degree and often benefit from suitable filtering, even if it doesn’t seem to cause a notable issue.
palmerjrusa
Member
Initial impressions of the IC-R15.
Typical of Icom gear, the build quality is great, the radio has a very robust feel to it.
It also looks great, again typical of Icom.
The radio is slightly smaller than I'd expected (not a criticism) and fits comfortably in your hand.
Being slightly broader than the IC-R30 it's more stable, that's one thing about the IC-R30, it's tall and has a narrow form factor making it easy to knock over (I bought one of those 3-D printed stands on ebay to help stop this happening).
The color display is sharp with excellent contrast and illumination, clearly a step up from the IC-R30, making the IC-R30's display looking kind of drab by comparison.
The audio is crisp and there's a decent amount of it. I agree with another poster that it is a little trebly. This is really apparent when the radio is just sounding static with no signal. But it sounds fine when monitoring a transmission.
The one issue I've noticed so far is a leaky squelch in a high RFI environment which I think another poster mentioned making it difficult to set the squelch so it only opens on a signal. This also happens with other radios I own. Interestingly, this issue is almost absent with my IC-R30.
The IC-R15 scans fast!!
So I loaded up about 100 UHF military aviation frequencies into my IC-R15 and started scanning alongside my IC-R30 with the same frequencies. Same antenna both radios = Signal Stick 2M/70cm (thought I had two Signal Stick 220's, but alas I don't).
Just with casual listening I'd say the IC-R15 is at least as sensitive as the IC-R30.
Also, forgot to mention no intermod issues detected (which my ARD10 suffers from in this part of the RF spectrum).
Still getting to know all the IC-R15s features though!😁
Lots of USAF activity this morning😁
One pilot reported a burning smell in the cockpit and was requesting landing permission. They were going through his checklist (I picked up both sides of the conversation) and the the "jettison cockpit" option was mentioned. They asked him if he wanted emergency services on hand when he landed which I think he declined but then the transmission tailed off...
Typical of Icom gear, the build quality is great, the radio has a very robust feel to it.
It also looks great, again typical of Icom.
The radio is slightly smaller than I'd expected (not a criticism) and fits comfortably in your hand.
Being slightly broader than the IC-R30 it's more stable, that's one thing about the IC-R30, it's tall and has a narrow form factor making it easy to knock over (I bought one of those 3-D printed stands on ebay to help stop this happening).
The color display is sharp with excellent contrast and illumination, clearly a step up from the IC-R30, making the IC-R30's display looking kind of drab by comparison.
The audio is crisp and there's a decent amount of it. I agree with another poster that it is a little trebly. This is really apparent when the radio is just sounding static with no signal. But it sounds fine when monitoring a transmission.
The one issue I've noticed so far is a leaky squelch in a high RFI environment which I think another poster mentioned making it difficult to set the squelch so it only opens on a signal. This also happens with other radios I own. Interestingly, this issue is almost absent with my IC-R30.
The IC-R15 scans fast!!
So I loaded up about 100 UHF military aviation frequencies into my IC-R15 and started scanning alongside my IC-R30 with the same frequencies. Same antenna both radios = Signal Stick 2M/70cm (thought I had two Signal Stick 220's, but alas I don't).
Just with casual listening I'd say the IC-R15 is at least as sensitive as the IC-R30.
Also, forgot to mention no intermod issues detected (which my ARD10 suffers from in this part of the RF spectrum).
Still getting to know all the IC-R15s features though!😁
Lots of USAF activity this morning😁
One pilot reported a burning smell in the cockpit and was requesting landing permission. They were going through his checklist (I picked up both sides of the conversation) and the the "jettison cockpit" option was mentioned. They asked him if he wanted emergency services on hand when he landed which I think he declined but then the transmission tailed off...
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After looking for a while, I have finally found a rubber ducky for the IC-R15 that blows my mind...with full scale deflection from inside my house...The Smiley VHF aircraft antenna. It comes in three different freq ranges, but for scanning only, they work the same according to customer service (very knowledgeable person). After trying the Comet AB-35WS, Watson 901 SMA, signal sticks and even the Icom FA-BO2AR, this beats all of them hands down, only $22. It is 2 to 3 times better than the Icom FAB02AR antenna
palmerjrusa
Member
I will check this out, a good antenna makes all the difference!😁
Will definitely blow your mind!!!!
palmerjrusa
Member
I use whatever off brand (inexpensive) BT headset and BT earplug with my different Yaesu, Kenwood and Icom gear. I prefer pairing a particular headset per device versus one for all. I use BT speakers as well and don't have trouble. I also use a non-Apple earplugs just for my iPhone and Android phones. * Wonder if it is just an AirPods issue
@palmerjrusa - Let us know what your RF gain is set to as well on the devices during testing. I personally do not run my R30 RF at Max as it raises my noise floor resulting in no audible benefit. I typically run it at "7" and adjust as necessary on different bands, or with different antennas, etc. I would also like to know how the speakers sound to you.
I see you posted one minute ago that it arrived. Why haven't you provided test results yet?
Unless I'm missing something the IC-R15 doesn't have an adjustable RF gain function.
I usually have my IC-R30 at the max setting here.
KB2GOM
Active Member
To your point, I've had good luck using this --
Comet Original BNC-W100RX 25MHz-1300MHz Handheld Scanner Antenna Extended Length: 40": Collapsed Length: 8" BNC Male -- and tuning it as needed. (Sorry about the huge type; don't know how to fix that.) -- and tuning it as needed.
KB2GOM
Active Member
I look forward to that.
palmerjrusa
Member
So I've continued to let the IC-R15 and IC-R30 scan as stated above (forgot to mention the squelch in both radios = auto).
I wouldn't put too much stock in it (there may be subtle differences in the squelch circuitry in each radio) but I'm occasionally seeing the IC-R15's squelch open on very weak transmissions where the IC-R30's squelch remains closed.
I'd add, those transmissions that are on the very threshold of intelligibility, or below it.
I wouldn't put too much stock in it (there may be subtle differences in the squelch circuitry in each radio) but I'm occasionally seeing the IC-R15's squelch open on very weak transmissions where the IC-R30's squelch remains closed.
I'd add, those transmissions that are on the very threshold of intelligibility, or below it.
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