R8600 Icom R8600 Thoughts On ?

[fasteddy64]

I agree on the value aspect, but for many of us the transition is difficult, if not impossible! My little SDR (NESDR with a Ham it up converter) sits idle but my 8600, R100, AOR DV-1 and assorted scanners are on almost all of the time.
Some of us just cant let go of our boxes with knobs!

 

[palmerjrusa]

Hope your able to keep it. It’s a fantastic receiver. With prices of everything going higher, I decided to spend the money on the 8600 as I will be home more. Haven’t spent allot of time with it yet but it’s similar to the IC 705 I used to own. But, you have to do what you need to do to survive. Good luck.

The price of the AR5700 from HRO has risen recently from $4,799.90 to $6,089.95😮

 

[vince48]

i

As I am not much into HF, I really can't comment so much on performance of the 8600 in those bands.

but.

I use my Airspy (not HF) units a LOT more than my 8600.

The stars that are missing from all those reviews and comparisons is simple. it's VALUE.

$169 for the Discovery+ or $2000 for the 8600.

I'd say that for about 95% of the monitoring crowd - the Discovery is a MUCH better VALUE.

the other thing that these reviews don't mention is flexibility. The 8600 is a "closed end" machine. Firmware updates are rare - and really only to fix bugs or minor tweaks. The Airspy is an evolutionary product. The software supporting it constantly evolves with new features - sometimes rapidly - over time whereas the 8600 pretty much does what it does - and that's it.

I'm not selling my 8600, but it's a great example of what "could have been" - iCom is just too stubborn to evolve.

I 2nd this. I have the 8600 and the Airspy Discovery and with all due respect to my 8600, my Airspy Discovery is better. I use my 8600 for scanning the fire and PD frequencies. Very fast as a scanner