IC-R15 squelch setting

[Air490]

I am loving everything about the IC-R15 except for the squelch setting. I am finding for the first time ever on an Icom receiver (this includes the R6, RX7, R20 and R30) I am having to wind the squelch up to 4 or 5 to block out noise and get the receiver to scan. The other Icoms I own all stay on "Auto", or at most 1 or 2, and have no problems with interference.
Is anyone else experiencing this or do I just have a defective unit?

 

[buddrousa]

Or is the receiver more sensitive

 

[footage]

I find 1 works quite well to block out the crud on UHF low-power and FRS freqs. I don't find as much AC-line interference on VHF air with the R15 as I do on all other radios, including the A25.

 

[eorange]

I am loving everything about the IC-R15 except for the squelch setting. I am finding for the first time ever on an Icom receiver (this includes the R6, RX7, R20 and R30) I am having to wind the squelch up to 4 or 5 to block out noise and get the receiver to scan. The other Icoms I own all stay on "Auto", or at most 1 or 2, and have no problems with interference.
Is anyone else experiencing this or do I just have a defective unit?

Interesting you bring this up. I don't own the R15. But I do have two R6s and an R30.

One R6 was bought new when they were first released, which was many many years ago. That R6 and my R30 (year 2020) exhibit normal squelch behavior.

The other R6 was bought < 1 year ago. That R6 exhibits the differing squelch behavior you're observing on your R15. That makes me wonder if Icom sourced newer parts with different squelch specs on those radios.

 

[KD9KSO]

Mine is normally set on 2.

 

[aprilexe]

I get this on my ID52 in auto squelch setting but only scanning AM air bands on both VHF and UHF. FM bands auto works as expected. Getting away from the Mac and other running radios helps but even then often a transmission will end and the squelch remains open until I start the scan again after which the offending frequencies pass by no problem. I agree Ive never had this issue on other icoms in the auto squelch setting, R30, R20, RX7, R6. In any case it is very sensitive and fast.

 

[xms3200]

I set mine on Auto or 1 if a certain freq has noise associated with it, seems like 1 is the best setting for mine. Very possible you could have a defective unit. Have you tried the scanner in other places besides your house, just to see if your squelch settings have to be that high.

 

[Air490]

After much experimenting and observation in a lot of different places I have come to the following conclusions:-

The IC-R15 is very sensitive. I mean very!

The R15 does not like electrical interference. I have a wall wart charger I travel with for charging a number of devices. When this unit is plugged in and turned on, the R15 will suffer noticeable interference. Turn it off, and all is good.

It has no problem with an external antenna, which was a bit of a surprise but makes sense if the issue is electrical interference.

It performs very well on airband, even with antennas that are not airband specific.

Auto squelch isn't much good. I am finding the need to set the squelch to 2 most of the time.

I really love this little receiver. It is a great unit, even more sensitive than the R6 on airband.

 

[xms3200]

I think the Icom IC-R15 is the new gold standard for Airband.

 

[kb8q]

I use the R-15 to monitor all services from 120-500 MHz that are still analog. Works great for aviation, military, railroad and marine. It’s compact and easy to program via software if needed. I’ve also discovered it to be relatively noise free when charging via the desktop charger using the cable that comes with the charger. Unlike many other radios of this type, the stock antenna seems to work well enough that I haven’t been inclined to try a different antenna. YMMV

 

[xms3200]

I fully agree…as far as mileage varying, I found that using a Smiley Ducky, 6” 125 - 132Mhz made a tremendous difference, the stock antenna was very mediocre.

 

[SigIntel8600]

I usually keep mine at 2. I have not tried auto.

 

[aprilexe]

I took a look in the service menu and there are some adjustments labeled sq that I personally will not tackle but possibly someone with experience in Icom service mode settings could analyze. To get there use a mono headphone plug in the jack and power on holding squelch and quick. Up down arrow keys will step through the adjustments, tuning dial changes values, enter saves changes. Remove the plug and power off/on to exit the service mode. There is no reset to return to defaults so write down any changes made. Very important; most of these settings are to adjust the frequency alignment. I only wanted to see if there exists any squelch parameters.