R20

[mw_uio]

I live in Quito, Ecuador. High in the Andes Mountains. Right now I have a Bearcat 246T my first scanner....some monies came my way....should I go for a R20. I like to listen to Airport/aircraft to tower....I do not really like the functionality of the bearcat. I am a junior to scanning....should I be looking at another model of Icom, or just go for it.
Here in Quito the Icom official dealer has them for around $720 USD plus 12% tax..for the R20.

Just lay me the hard turth and no sugar on your responses..

thanks

mark

 

[MacombMonitor]

ICOM's are quite different in their operation from Uniden scanners. There would be a slight learning curve, and it may always feel a little awkward in how it operates, causing you to refer to the manual from time to time.

I owned numerous ICOM's, but not the IC-R20. I was interested myself until I heard of the frequencies that were blocked in the U.S. version. More than what was required just to block cell phones. In addition to that, another "RR" member said it's a little weak in the 300MHz range. I'm also not sure what might be different in the version available to you where you are located.

If you can go to the dealer, and have him demonstrate it, or better yet, have a hands-on trial in the store, that would be your best bet, to be sure.

 

[pfish]

I owned an R-20 and I ended up selling it. It is not a good radio if you have alot of frequencies that you scan. It has a fairly slow scanning speed.

If all your wanting to do is scan aircraft, then you should check into some of the cheaper scanners that are being phased out of places like radioshack. You can get them for dirt cheap and they will do what you need them to do.

An R-20 is more for an advanced user. It has some features built in that a normal listener isn't going to use, and thats why the price is so high. As odd as it sounds, its not really made for just putting some frequencies in and scanning.

 

[safetyobc]

The Pro-97 from Radio Shack is a good scanner for Aircraft, Mil-Air and more. I really like mine. Fast scan speed and not too hard to learn. With Win97 software it is a breeze. It has alpha tagging so you can add 16 characters of text to each channel, trunking (if you guys have over there). The Pro-97 was on sale for $149.99 at Radio Shack but I think they may have gone back up. Keep an eye out in the for sale section here and on ebay adn you can find one fairly cheap, around $135 or so. Also go to www.strongsignals.net and on the front page you can go to www.scannersunlimited.com and mention strongsignals and get a great deal on one.

Pick up a Diamond RH77CA antenna and you'll really pull in those air freqs. http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/scanants/2368.html

I was interested in the R20 for a while but for the money it just wasn't worth it to me. Very slow scanning compared to the Unidens and GRE scanners. It is neat that it has the audio recording feature but there are ways to get audio recording that are less in $$$.

I'd go with something cheaper. Save your money. Maybe buy 2 scanners instead of 1?

Also the Pro-2055 is a good base type scanner.

 

[mw_uio]

Should I look at a Icom R5?

Would this be a good alternative to aquire?

Mark

 

[Air490]

The R-20 is a communications receiver that scans, rather than a scanner. It is an excellent VHF airband receiver, but as has already been mentioned, it is a little bit complicated to operate.

If you only want to listen to VHF airband then the R-20 would be overkill. If you want to listen to other things like shortwave, HF airband and so on the the R-20 would be a good choice.

 

[mw_uio]

R5?

What about the Icom R5

Mark

 

[safetyobc]

I can't comment on the R5 but here are several reviews of that receiver http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3098

 

[maalox]

The R-20 is a communications receiver that scans, rather than a scanner. It is an excellent VHF airband receiver, but as has already been mentioned, it is a little bit complicated to operate.

If you only want to listen to VHF airband then the R-20 would be overkill. If you want to listen to other things like shortwave, HF airband and so on the the R-20 would be a good choice.

yes it is very hard to program. i could never figure out how to program a pl tone into the bank channel. so i traded it for a 296d

 

[Hamradiostuffing]

The R20 is more radio than what you need for what you are doing. The radio is really exspensive for the what you will get.