ICOM IC-V8 Radio Questions

[jjmdimunno]

Hey guys,
Just picked up an ICOM radio, model IC-V8. First, a little background: I run an online radio stream for railroad radio activity in the area of my home. I picked this radio up on a recommendation that it would be much more sensitive than any scanner I'd ever use for this feed. However, I'm finding this is apparently not accurate. I'm wondering if you guys can help me determine if I need to tweak some settings on the radio, or if you believe the radio to be defective?

First, for some reason, the when scanning using memory scan, when the radio stops on a frequency, the audio sort of "fades in", shall I say...in other words, the radio is scanning...when it detects a signal, it stops on the frequency, but there's a slight delay before I can actually hear the audio, and when I do begin to hear it, it sort of fades in as if someone were turning the volume control up from zero. Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced this with the IC-V8?

Secondly, it doesn't seem to be nearly as sensitive as my scanner that I was using prior to this. I was using an older Uniden BC30XLT-1 handheld to run the stream. Let's just say there's plenty of stuff I can hear if I have the Uniden plugged in to the setup, that I simply don't get on the ICOM. Is there an optimum squelch setting I should be using on the ICOM that might be screwing something up? I have it set at a squelch of 2 right now...as far as I can tell, on this radio, 1 is a loose squelch and 10 is a tight squelch. So...2 should allow most of the weaker transmissions to get through, right?

Any suggestions you might have to improve the performance of this radio would be greatly appreciated...I'd hate for this to turn into a fairly expensive (for myself) paperweight...

Mike DiMunno
SJRA / SJRail.com

 

[radionerd13669]

The biggest problem is that the v8 is a ham radio so it may not preform like you want it too.You would have to go in the programming software and look at all the settings for the radio.

 

[rescuecomm]

Unfortunatly , the Icom V8 receiver specifications are only for the 144-148 mhz band. You may try a different antenna as the stock antenna is centered on the afore mentioned frequency range. Did you buy the radio new? If not, it might have had a problem if it came from EBay. I run my V82's squelch on setting "2" and it seems to be good for most everything. Have someone check the radio on a service monitor for receiver sensitivity or maybe check some distant ham repeaters and see if the audio does the same. If it is okay on the ham bands, you may have to get something else for your RR monitor.

Edit: Does this radio have a narrow/wide setting for the frequency? Railroads still using wideband if I am correct. My V82 has a narrow/wide band setting per channel.

Bob

 

[n6med]

I have and use a V8. Great radio. Is optimized for the Amateur 2M band as previously said. I've opened mine up and have found its sensitivity to be as goo ad my IV-IC30GT commercial VHF radio when tuned to the commercial "mid-band" VHF (above 148MHz). I frequently scan the public safety/fire and USFS (160MHz) channels I have programmed into it plus weather channels (160's MHz) with absolutely NO problem. So, I surmise you might have a problem with the radio itself.

BTW: the V8, unlike the V80, has wide band channel spacing v. an option for the narrow banding. I suppose that might make my V8 woefully obsolete in the future if we reconfigure our 2M channels.

Best regards --

Jim / N6MED

 

[jfmctlaw]

BTW: the V8, unlike the V80, has wide band channel spacing v. an option for the narrow banding. I suppose that might make my V8 woefully obsolete in the future if we reconfigure our 2M channels.

Jim / N6MED

What part of the IC-V8 spec tells you that it's not narrowband compliant? I'm not disagreeing, just want to understand.

 

[Duster40]

I just checked both my V-8 & V-82 programs.
The V-82 program offers FM (wide) & FMN (narrow) choices on each channel.
The V-8 program does not offer any choice.