Not too knowledgable on Icom receivers but....

[N4UYV_Al]

I'm a Icom ham but not too knowledgable on their receivers... I ran across a whole pageful of these on Ebay...Is this a deal?? Or is my ham brain missing something here ta cause this price to be this low?...
Sorry if I'm just 'outa the loop' guys...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ICOM-IC-PCR-100...92QQihZ015QQcategoryZ4673QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Turbo68]

The ICOM-PCR100 is a computer controlled receiver and its been around for a while.

Regards Lino.

 

[jonny290]

They're great fun if you have PC's running and have serial ports on those.

I bought two a couple of weeks ago and have them buzzing away, good little rigs. Superior at AM broadcast listening - I'm amazed at what they'll pull in that my 735 won't cut through (although as mentioned earlier, that's due to the BC band filter in commerical HF rigs)

 

[franz]

What's missing is the wall wart, software and DB-9 cable. I've seen the PCR-100 going for around the same price including all the accessories.

Franz

 

[iMONITOR]

This guy currently has 52 of them @ $50.00 each. Bare radio, no accessories, but that's not a big deal. It is a new eBay account however.

PCR-100
http://cgi.ebay.com/Icom-IC-PCR100_W0QQitemZ200078201684QQihZ010QQcategoryZ4673QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[bagmouse7]

Check this rig out.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Icom-IC-PCR100-...oryZ4673QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It is a cool 8 PCR100 "monitoring" station.

I have a feeling a big federal or state contract must have just ended, because there is another guy listing 7 PCR100s for $70.
These are good little radios and are a great value for these cheap prices.

 

[iMONITOR]

Most of these currently on eBay came from consolidated rack mount units designed to monitor, and record local AM/FM broadcast to insure that customers paying for air time commercials were getting what they paid for.

 

[KC1UA]

This guy currently has 52 of them @ $50.00 each. Bare radio, no accessories, but that's not a big deal. It is a new eBay account however.

PCR-100
http://cgi.ebay.com/Icom-IC-PCR100_W0QQitemZ200078201684QQihZ010QQcategoryZ4673QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

For $50 I figure I'd take a chance. I need another receiver....right....but that's a great price for a knockaround. Why not? I'll report on receipt.

 

[iMONITOR]

I ordered two myself. Here is some of the contact info I've obtained since:

Cell Waves
681 Linden Ave
East Pittsburgh, PA 15112
412-829-6960
cell-waves@worldnet.att.net

 

[kb9tyc]

For $50 I figure I'd take a chance. I need another receiver....right....but that's a great price for a knockaround. Why not? I'll report on receipt.

Looks like someone has left positive feedback for this auction. I have ordered 2 myself to mess around with.

 

[N_Jay]

Is $50 a steal for these or only OK?
Might get myself 1

 

[jonny290]

i gave 76 a pop for my pair last month, they usually sell on ebay for 79 to 99 per, with adapter, or 69 to 89 without. So yeah, $50 per is a smoking deal.

If i wasn't so tapped out from buying $700 of Icom stuff in January and over Christmas, I woulda got a sixpack of them.

 

[KC1UA]

By comparison to what they normally sell for on eBay it is indeed a good deal. I normally have seen these for $125 to $175, which is a bit steep. Very good deal and a very good performing little receiver if you don't mind being tethered to a computer. No SSB but it does an admirable job on VHF/UHF/800.

Edit: Recently I've seen some as cheap as jonny290 suggests, but only recently. Once this stock goes bye bye I expect that they'll go back up to "normal" again. There are other dealers selling off this surplus as well, it seems, but none as cheap as the subject of this thread.

 

[N_Jay]

I am thinking of maybe getting one as a toy, and maybe getting a second to build into a coverage test set.

Is the control protocol well documented?

 

[KC1UA]

Icom doesn't let their protocols loose without charging an arm, leg, and a firstborn. Anything on the web is probably reverse engineered, but those that have done so have done a very good job of it. I can't direct you to a list but I know they're out there. I concluded that there were some differences between the 100 and the 1000 when I did some beta testing with my original 100 for Perry Joseph of Probe fame. It wouldn't work at all with the 100, so something's different.

 

[N_Jay]

Icom doesn't let their protocols loose without charging an arm, leg, and a firstborn. Anything on the web is probably reverse engineered, but those that have done so have done a very good job of it. I can't direct you to a list but I know they're out there. I concluded that there were some differences between the 100 and the 1000 when I did some beta testing with my original 100 for Perry Joseph of Probe fame. It wouldn't work at all with the 100, so something's different.

Is the control software readily available, or do you have to buy it?

Has anyone here used one of these for data collection (Signal strength, etc.)

 

[KC1UA]

The Icom software is free. I thought it was downloadable but I haven't found it yet...haven't looked overly hard either. A better solution is TrunkPCR, available at http://members.cox.net/fiftyone.50/TrunkPcr/TrunkPcr.html . I'm searching for my copy of the Icom software, and I believe another poster in this thread may have it available. If I find mine I'll attach it to a message here.

 

[KC1UA]

Just found this link for Icom's software.

http://www.thiecom.de/ftp/icom/icpcr100/software/win/

There was an issue with XP compatibility but I thought that was with the 1000 software, not the 100. Hopefully the above will work.

 

[N_Jay]

Just found this link for Icom's software.

http://www.thiecom.de/ftp/icom/icpcr100/software/win/

There was an issue with XP compatibility but I thought that was with the 1000 software, not the 100. Hopefully the above will work.

Thanks.

Anyone use one of these for coverage drive testing that anyone knows of??

 

[jonny290]

Tidbit: My PCR100's came from an ad auditing agency shutdown - basically they had racks and racks of these tuned to various radio stations and were contracted by ad clients to ensure that radio ads were being played commensurate with their advertised rates.

TalkPCR (mentioned below) lets you tune in a station and then disconnect the serial line, so they could walk down the rack with a laptop and then have them all buzzing away without PC's connected (of course you can't change any settings like this).


If you want to get bold, check this out. It's a conduit that basically fakes out PCR1000 software to make it think that your PCR100 is actually a PCR1000.

http://hamster.ivey.uwo.ca/PCR100/

I use talkpcr, freeware with a nag screen. solid app, i haven't tried trunkpcr yet but i want to.