R-20 or PCR-1500?

[Sjinndoawi]

I am in the market for another scanner/receiver.. I already have the BCD996T Digital scanner..Now I am looking to purchase a Icom. I like these two the IC-R20 and the PCR 1500.. The problem is I don't know which one I want but I do really like the IC-R20. I pretty much know the general information about them . I am hoping that maybe someone can shad more light one their personal experiences they have had with either of them... So if anyone can tell me the pros and cons about these two scanner/receivers to help me in my decision... Thanks for any help

 

[Turbo68]

I got the R-20/PCR-1500 and performance on both radios is excellent on VHF/UHF and i cannot say i have tried either on HF and the audio quality is nice and clear and i use the Icom-AH7000 discone.

Regards Lino.

ALINCO-DJX2000/AOR-3000A/AOR-8200MK3/AOR-8600MK2/ICOM-R3/ICOM-R5/ICOM-R20
ICOM-PCR1000/ICOM-PCR1500/ICOM-R2500/ICOM-R9000/ICOM-R9500/RADIO SHACK-PRO97
REALISTIC-PRO2035/UNIDEN-245/UNIDEN-396/UNIDEN-780/UNIDEN-996/YAESU-VX7R
YAESU-VR500/YAESU-VR5000.

 

[Junior08]

Icom R1500 owner here. I absolutely love it, and I have it connected to a roof mounted Diamond Discone fed with Times LMR 400. Reception is superb. I only wish I had the $$$ I would invest in a PCR2500 with the UT-122 digital card installed!

The R1500 is the same as the PCR1500, it just comes with a remote head. Same with the PCR2500/R2500.

 

[key2_altfire]

I have to echo Junior08's statement about getting the R2500 with the UT-122!! IF you can afford it, that is a lot of $$$$ for a radio (over $1,000).

I have an R1500 at the house and an IC-R5 in my daily-carry briefcase. R5's nice, but the new "Bonito" software that comes with the 1500 is awesome. You can decode weather fax, RTTY, the works on this thing. It comes with a bunch of pre-programmed HF freqs too.

If you want to run your PCR1500 on battery power the price diff between that and the R1500 is about $100. The R1500's remote head is sorta rudimentary with that six-character display.

 

[richp24]

newbie questions onIC-R20

Hi:
I just purchased my 2nd scanner, and I figured from what I read this is one of the nicest.
Wow, what a fancy unit. However I am really green to using it. I can figure some of the
controls but I have questions on some of its features.. Like
Scan edges- does this mean scanning all freq between 2 points for instance 440.00 to 480.000
How do I program my own near by freqs?
these are some of the questions I hope they are not silly
thanks
Rich

 

[corbintechboy]

Hi:
I just purchased my 2nd scanner, and I figured from what I read this is one of the nicest.
Wow, what a fancy unit. However I am really green to using it. I can figure some of the
controls but I have questions on some of its features.. Like
Scan edges- does this mean scanning all freq between 2 points for instance 440.00 to 480.000
How do I program my own near by freqs?
these are some of the questions I hope they are not silly
thanks
Rich

You questions are not silly but hijacking a thread to ask them might fit that bill!!!

 

[naSTI]

Icom R1500 owner here. I absolutely love it, and I have it connected to a roof mounted Diamond Discone fed with Times LMR 400. Reception is superb. I only wish I had the $$$ I would invest in a PCR2500 with the UT-122 digital card installed!

The R1500 is the same as the PCR1500, it just comes with a remote head. Same with the PCR2500/R2500.

Agreed, a great radio. I LOVE MY 25000!!!

*BUT*, I will share with everyone, some LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS:

** Unless you are serious about taking the receiver mobile, DON'T BUY THE R-2500 --

I bought it because you can't upgrade from a PCR-2500 to the R-Control Head later, so I forked over the extra 100 clams, but the control head is complete crap!!!! VERY difficult to use and crappy 8-character-only display forces Icom to use the DUMBEST abbreviations for the settings (very difficult to remember/decipher) while changing params on the radio. They were lazy and just borrowed the IC-2720H's control head instead of building a nice, useful controller. (The R-1500 borrows it's control head from the IC-208H/ID-800 Radios)

** One (of a couple) Design Flaws:
The radio has two receivers and two antenna connectors, right?
Since only the primary receiver does HF, it is useless to plug an HF/SWL antenna into it *IF* you also plan on doing DIGITAL VOICE MODES. Because there is no P25/D-Star in the lower HF bands, so you would need an antenna switch to use VHF/UHF antennas in that range. MEANWHILE the second receiver can't do either HF or P25/D-Star so it could only be use in the Analog VHF/UHF space.

They should have put a slot in for digital mode reception on the second receiver only, since it can ONLY receive the bands that most commonly use P25/D-Star. That way it can be plugged into a V/UHF antenna full-time and decode digital while the primary receiver flexes its wide-banded muscles.

** P25: Although you can filter on a P25 NAC code, you can't *scan* for the code. <- not a huge deal, but it can be super-easy to implement in software, assuming the chip is not programmed to tell you what the NAC code is, which I believe is the case.

Okay, the two first items are the things that bother me the most about this radio.

Otherwise it is a GREAT, super-sensitive receiver with almost NO intermod.


naSTI