Short review R20
There’s an old saying that you pay for what you get. ICOM scanning radios are designed and built in Osaka, Japan. Their range of equipment is well known globally and they are considered to be among the best in this field of the electronics industry.
The latest and long awaited radio for me is the IC-R20 Communications Receiver. It first came out in 2004, but it has had some modifications over the years. This radio has not waned in popularity over the years and continues to sell well. To call it a scanner is selling it short in my opinion as it has a lot of features that are not included with a basic UHF/VHF scanner. I’m fairly sure that the R20 is the only hand held that has a built-in recorder and a dual watch system. The dual watch is fascinating to monitor, in fact it’s like having two scanners operating side. It also has a massive frequency range from 0.150-3304.999mHz. The R20 has 1250 memory channels with 26 banks. Alphanumeric labelling on both banks and memories consisting of upper case and lower case, numbers and signs and even small icons for plane, ship, truck, fire pumper and patrol car. Dial display shows frequency and name. Nice relaxing soft green illumination adds a professional look at night. It has illumination of dial and keypad with 3 options; OFF, AUTO and ON.
I purchased my R20 in Australia on line and it arrived safely and undamaged just 20 hours after I paid for it. It was well packed and once I got past the bubble wrap to the familiar ICOM radio box, I got the usual increased pulse rate that scanner hobbyists seem to get when the new radio arrives. The box inclusions were as follows:
• ICOM IC-R20 receiver
• Supplied telescopic antenna 18cm to 60cm extended with an articulated joint just above the BNC connector.
• Belt clip with screws
• Carry strap
• Vanson plug in charger, centre pin positive. Model SMP 1000A – AS set for 6v (Supplied by the Australian dealer)
• NimH battery drop in cradle for 3 X NiMh AA cells as an alternative power source
• ICOM Battery pack (BP-206)
• Instruction manual 94 pages in English
I decided to fit the BP-206 battery and charge it up, which took about 6 hrs.
The radio is about 4cm thick, 6.5cm wide and a length of 15.75cm including the top control knobs. The all up weight on my kitchen scales is 330gms which is not a brick.
BASIC OPERATION
The R20 is not a beginner’s scanner. For anyone not previously owning an ICOM scanning radio its operational features can be puzzling and setting it up manually may be frustrating. It need not be, provided the user does three things.
• Operate the features and programming in consultation with the instruction manual, step by step.
• Try not to learn it all in a single session.
• Consult each feature by the manual until it’s in your head.
Programming memories and using features becomes simple once you have it learnt.
The R20 has a ’Main’ memory into which all frequencies are first programmed. Initially all you do is enter the known frequencies of you receiving area into the main memory. Later on you can categorize each frequency into a selected memory bank. You can name each bank; e.g. AIR, FIRE, MEDIC, SES and so on. Then you can scan these banks one at a time or all of them, or link them. These procedures are similar to the R20’s little brother, the R6 and are made a little easier as there is a full keypad whereas with the R6 you have to use the CONTROL/FUNC to locate the band and particular frequency.
DUAL WATCH
Two frequencies can be entered and monitored simultaneously. Each one has it’s own volume control so if both are transmitting at the same time, you can reduce the volume on one in order to listen to the other. This is a great feature and can be set up for incident monitoring so you don’t miss anything.
SCAN TYPES
There are 7 scan types and 4 resume conditions to suit your operating needs. The scan speed is 100ch/sec. (approx) for VFO scans and 20 ch/sec for memory scan.
COMPUTER OPERATION
Page 81 to 91 of the instruction manual deals with PC CS-R20 cloning software. It can be operated using CS-R20 software and an OPOC-12382 cloning cable. The radio is compatible with the following operating systems:
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows 2000
• Microsoft Windows 98/98SE/Me
Regrettably the radio will not work directly with Apple Mac. My knowledge of PC operated radio is very limited and I have little desire to hook up a hand held scanner to a computer, which to my old mind seems a pointless exercise. The satisfaction I get from using the R20 is setting it up myself, which to many seems a slow process and finally the end result gives me great monitoring pleasure.
AUDIO
I have read other reviews on the R20 where the reviewer considers the audio to be ‘weak’. I can only disagree. The audio isn’t screamingly loud, but the sound quality is better than many. For private listening I have bought a DSE set of ear buds which work fine. My only criticism is that the earplug socket is mono and requires a mono/stereo adapter for bi-aural listening. I have a slight hearing impairment and besides my wife finds the audio of a scanner irritating to say the least.
IC RECORDER
The R20 has an IC recorder of up to 32 tracks with a maximum time length of 260 minutes. It has variable playback speed settings and recording quality and nicest of all, has an automatic recording function, which will record automatically when receiving a signal and pause when the signal ends. This function is very useful when you wish to record an uncontinuous signal or monitor a frequency through the night while you’re asleep.
Having only owned this model a short time, I am yet to fully explore its capabilities below 30mHz and the SSB feature for HF aviation monitoring. I briefly visited Radio Australia and Radio Japan which was quite clear on just the supplied telescopic.
I consider The R20 to be one of the best handheld analog communications receivers that I’ve owned. The BP-206 is still operating on its initial charge and I’ve been using it daily for a week.
Cheers
