I did a quick test this afternoon with both the R15 and the R30. Both were hooked up to the NMO mounted Larsen NMO150/450/758 antenna on my vehicle as I sat along the Hudson River. These are the .wav files recorded directly from the receiver. Didn't have the multicoupler up & running yet for a truly fair comparison, but you get the idea:
I can definitely say that I recommend the R15 at this point. The audio quality sounds better than the R30's does, the range is right there with the R30's, and I also noticed that the R15 appears to do better with regard to selectivity & adjacent channel rejection. There is plenty of VHF traffic in the area, and I could distinctly hear the desensing occurring in the R30, whereas this effect was not nearly as pronounced on the R15.
I had my Kenwood NX-5700 on as a control subject, although it goes through its own NMO mounted 1/4 wave VHF antenna. It didn't have any signs of desense like the two Icom receivers did, but the two Icom receivers both seemed to pull in signals just a little better.
I can definitely say that I recommend the R15 at this point. The audio quality sounds better than the R30's does, the range is right there with the R30's, and I also noticed that the R15 appears to do better with regard to selectivity & adjacent channel rejection. There is plenty of VHF traffic in the area, and I could distinctly hear the desensing occurring in the R30, whereas this effect was not nearly as pronounced on the R15.
I had my Kenwood NX-5700 on as a control subject, although it goes through its own NMO mounted 1/4 wave VHF antenna. It didn't have any signs of desense like the two Icom receivers did, but the two Icom receivers both seemed to pull in signals just a little better.
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nickwilson159 and xms3200 I appreciate and agree totally with your positions…that’s what makes this hobby great..we all have individual interests and priorities in the hobby, but understand and support everyone…Since I am not as involved in air and rail, I enjoy hearing about groups and clubs etc who have much more understanding of radio needs than I do..please do enjoy your radios!
@nickwilson159 - What was the gain set to on the R30? Does the R15 have gain adjustment and what was it set at?
The gain was set to Max on the R30. The R15 doesn’t have a gain setting, but does have built-in attenuation - which was not used for this test, so effectively Max gain on the R15 as well.
Note that this test is just for the A receivers - the B receiver on the R15 didn’t record for some reason (probably a mistake on my part).
KB2GOM
Active Member
Informative recording. I realize that "DXing NOAA weather radio stations" is not the subject of this thread, but FYI, an ICOM R6 with a telescopic antenna set to 20 inches appears to be a sensitive setup for hunting weak NOAA channels. Thanks for doing that test.
eorange
♦RF Enabled Member♦
Just making sure - was the "B" receiver active on the R30?
I only used the 'A' receiver for both in light of this.
It's been proven on the R30 that receiver B is a bit more sensitive. Supposedly receiver A is triple conversion and B is double conversion.
Cool comparison but I do wonder if there is an difference in reception quality between the A and B receiver on the R15.
Cool comparison but I do wonder if there is an difference in reception quality between the A and B receiver on the R15.
palmerjrusa
Member
IC-R15 is now listed at HRO at $559.95:
palmerjrusa
Member
Yeah, but a few hours ago it was only listed for pre-order with no official price given.
$100 bucks cheaper in Europe…unless you are worried about warranty stuff..
palmerjrusa
Member
I'll take the hit and buy my unit from HRO for those reasons.
Had mine on pre-order for weeks now.
eorange
♦RF Enabled Member♦
Only $40 less than what I paid for my R30 in 2020. I'm waiting until I see some empirical & trustworthy reviews on how it does on VHF and especially UHF airband compared to the R30. If only slightly better...I technically don't need 2 of the same $$ radio, but TBD.IC-R15 is now listed at HRO at $559.95:
I have two R2s and two R6s but that's different
palmerjrusa
Member
Currently monitoring ARINC at 8846 kHz (USB) on my old AR8200 MkIII...
That's.....hugely overpriced jeez.IC-R15 is now listed at HRO at $559.95:
