R30 Searching Multiple Ranges & More

[letarotor]

I'm still trying to figure out on the R30 what the Group Link and Program Link options under the Scan folder do?

I can't remember which one I used, but I created three search ranges. One for 225-380, one for 138-144 MHz, and one for 148-150.75 MHz. I've gone through the manual and it sounds like I should be able to scan all three of these as one consecutive search. Can I do that? And what am I not understanding in the manual that's keeping me from being able to do it? I can search between any of the frequency ranges individually but not all three or even two at the same time.

I have to admit, as cool as the radio seems to be, I might have gotten a lemon? It is not receiving good, decent strength signals that all my other scanners receive with no trouble. And I have a ton of scanners going back through the last 40 years. And why did Icom leave out the 7.5 kHz step size which is needed in the VHF PS band for the modern digital signals. I can go down to the .1 kHz step size and manually tune up to a frequency I want to put in. But that takes a long time and then there's no way to search that VHF band accurately for any users on the frequencies like XXX 9875, etc.

Anyhow, if anyone can help with any of these issues I'd appreciate it. I'm going to call tomorrow and send this unit back for an exchange because it is doing horrible on VHF and UHF reception and I'm not even getting stations I can get on any radio around the house. And I'm not even getting into the intermod issues right now.

Thanks for any help.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[JANFINE]

XXX.9875 is a 12.5 khz split

I'm still trying to figure out on the R30 what the Group Link and Program Link options under the Scan folder do?

I can't remember which one I used, but I created three search ranges. One for 225-380, one for 138-144 MHz, and one for 148-150.75 MHz. I've gone through the manual and it sounds like I should be able to scan all three of these as one consecutive search. Can I do that? And what am I not understanding in the manual that's keeping me from being able to do it? I can search between any of the frequency ranges individually but not all three or even two at the same time.

I have to admit, as cool as the radio seems to be, I might have gotten a lemon? It is not receiving good, decent strength signals that all my other scanners receive with no trouble. And I have a ton of scanners going back through the last 40 years. And why did Icom leave out the 7.5 kHz step size which is needed in the VHF PS band for the modern digital signals. I can go down to the .1 kHz step size and manually tune up to a frequency I want to put in. But that takes a long time and then there's no way to search that VHF band accurately for any users on the frequencies like XXX 9875, etc.

Anyhow, if anyone can help with any of these issues I'd appreciate it. I'm going to call tomorrow and send this unit back for an exchange because it is doing horrible on VHF and UHF reception and I'm not even getting stations I can get on any radio around the house. And I'm not even getting into the intermod issues right now.

Thanks for any help.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[letarotor]

XXX.9875 is a 12.5 khz split

I'm talking about VHF but maybe I put an incorrect ending on those numbers? 151.0125 will enter as 151.012. I changed to the 6.25 kHz step size, and of course it's still going to receive a close frequency, but it's not going to be on the right (splintered) frequency as it searches the VHF range until you hit the federal band.

I realized just a little while ago that I did program up the three search ranges and gave it the name MILITARY like I thought I had done. I don't see very well and I needed to scroll up further because I was on the second screen where it only showed the three frequency ranges that I had created. It worked fine searching all three ranges once I realized I was on the second screen/page I had wondered what happened to the ALL option when I would press the Scan button and now I know.

One thing of interest is that when I'm on VFO B, I can't enter a frequency in the 800 MHz range. Is that normal? I can do it in VFO A. I need to go back through the advanced manual and the basic manual and I'm sure I'll find some answers. But they definitely left the 7.5 kHz step out of the receiver and it also is not receiving transmissions that it should.

Also, I haven't received/ decoded one digital signal yet. It's either not decoding or me having it set to ALL under RX Digital isn't doing what I think it's supposed to do. It doesn't help either when I do choose Digital. It's stopping on the digital signals but it's not decoding them, and I set it to P25 in the menu, but it's still doing the same thing.

The radio was pretty easy to understand even without the manual. But I really think something is wrong with it since it's supposed to be a really sensitive/selective receiver and do a much better job than a regular scanner. So far, it's the worst receiving scanner I have. And the attenuator is not on at all on any channel. I really think I got a lemon because I know this radio should do much, much better. I just keep hoping there's something I missed that I need to do...

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[N4DJC]

Concerning the 800 frequencies, if it's a digital mode the R30 will only allow programming digital modes on one VFO not both.

Which service types are you monitoring in digital mode? Mine would decode P-25 and NCDN better than my SDS200.

If I recall correctly the VFO-A is the more sensitive of the two. The R30 I owned was the hottest VHF reciever I've owned. It would RX rail band signals that would not even break squelch on a BC125AT.

Digging deep into the Advanced Manual is a good idea. Some of the features are not as intuitive as the basic stuff.

 

[letarotor]

Thanks for the reply. I've been working with the radio each day and have definitely come to the conclusion that it is just a bad unit that I got. I even talked to Icom America and they told me it could very easily be that it is a bad radio.

We're getting some snow where I live and I just went outside and had the TXDOT frequency used in my area on my BC125AT on one hip and in my R30, with the more expensive Diamond antenna many recommend, on my other hip. It never even broke squelch on the R30 and I was picking up everything perfect on the 125AT. I even switched over to FMN mode to try and pull it in and no joy.

Some of the not even mentioned issues I'm having have really confirmed for me that my radio arrived damaged or at least not properly functioning/manufactured.

I noticed what you mentioned too on the VFO A and VFO B sides of the radio. In fact I'm getting so much interference from those two receivers being in the radio that I'm going to switch it over to the mode where it's just one VFO being used. I'm curious to see if that changes anything. I kind of forgot about that until looking in the advanced manual again last nightAnd then talking with a friend through PM that's been trying to help me check some things the last few days.

Thanks again for the reply and hopefully something will work out, get fixed, or somehow make the radio usable for me

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[N4DJC]

Brian, sounds like a defective unit. Mine was very sensitive on VHF and above with the stock antenna. Hope Icom resolves it for you...

 

[DudleyG]

Brian -- I just sent you a PM !!!

 

[letarotor]

Brian -- I just sent you a PM !!!

I'll be able to check it just a little bit later and I will get back to you Dudley. Thanks for the notification.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[letarotor]

I determined today what was wrong with my Icom R30. I knew that when I got it from GigaParts something was wrong with it right out of the box. I just couldn't figure out what it was. My VFO A was completely fried.

Since the radio has two receivers, only one of them is functioning properly and I was still in the mindset of it being one receiver even though I knew better. I didn't think of it as having two receivers for the last week of trying to figure out what was going on with it. And periodically I would be able to listen to something on VFO A that sounded good and clear. So it never really crossed my mind that a receiver might be bad.

After talkinging with GP today, I was a little frustrated and decided to try something different. And when I put the same frequency in both VFOs and compared, I realized what was going on.

I uploaded this video to YouTube if anybody wants to see what I'm talking about. I've never heard of this happening before but it obviously can.

And one more thing that is kind of strange is that whenever I would turn on the attenuator, ATT, on VFO A on and use it on Level 1 or 3, the signal would get a little better but still not sound great. Keep in mind the transmitting tower is about 45 miles away from me and not something you would ever think of attenuating. In fact, attenuating it would normally cause you not to receive it. But as I was going through and doing this today, even at a 45 dB attenuation, the signal would sound better than with the attenuator off.

I'm not sure what all was messed up in VFO A but the settings are identical in A&B and A was problematic right out of the box.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[JANFINE]

VHF used 5 khz steps except for Federal Govt, which uses 12.5 khz steps.

I'm still trying to figure out on the R30 what the Group Link and Program Link options under the Scan folder do?

I can't remember which one I used, but I created three search ranges. One for 225-380, one for 138-144 MHz, and one for 148-150.75 MHz. I've gone through the manual and it sounds like I should be able to scan all three of these as one consecutive search. Can I do that? And what am I not understanding in the manual that's keeping me from being able to do it? I can search between any of the frequency ranges individually but not all three or even two at the same time.

I have to admit, as cool as the radio seems to be, I might have gotten a lemon? It is not receiving good, decent strength signals that all my other scanners receive with no trouble. And I have a ton of scanners going back through the last 40 years. And why did Icom leave out the 7.5 kHz step size which is needed in the VHF PS band for the modern digital signals. I can go down to the .1 kHz step size and manually tune up to a frequency I want to put in. But that takes a long time and then there's no way to search that VHF band accurately for any users on the frequencies like XXX 9875, etc.

Anyhow, if anyone can help with any of these issues I'd appreciate it. I'm going to call tomorrow and send this unit back for an exchange because it is doing horrible on VHF and UHF reception and I'm not even getting stations I can get on any radio around the house. And I'm not even getting into the intermod issues right now.

Thanks for any help.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[letarotor]

No, not really. Analog VHF signals below the federal band that were used for public safety and business used to use 15 KHz step sizes. And those were cut in half to 7.5 kHz step sizes. When digital made it s way into the radio frequency spectrum, the step size went to 7.5 kHz. The scanners used to Just search in 5 kHz step sizes but the public safety agencies had to be 15 kHz apart from each other so they would n't bleed over with the wider bandwidth analog signals.

That's why I'm surprised that Icom didn't put in the 7.5 kHz step size for searches between around 151 and 161 MHz. You can enter a frequency, like 155.7375 for instance, in manually but you just can't search between that frequency range accurately on the R30 unfortunately.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[letarotor]

I wish I had seen this thread prior to buying the R30. I may have tried it anyway thinking it was just one person with a problem? But it isn't. It seems to be the radio. And whether everyone has the problem or not, I have no clue. But I hope some of you will check your R30 receivers and let me know if you're experiencing this same issue. Here is the post from 2018 about the problem I'm having in 2021.

[URL R30 - Is VFO A far less sensitive than VFO B or my IC-R30 is broken]

This is unbelievable that the radio is still being sold and VFO A is all but useless. I bought my R30 from GigaParts a few weeks ago. I knew out of the box something was wrong. But I'm legally blind and I had the fool with it for a few days before I realized VFO B works great but VFO A is horrible and not receiving worth a darn. And at this point, I highly recommend staying away from this expensive receiver!!!

I thought I had just gotten a bad radio the first time, and after dealing with the return and paying for that, I got my new one, the brand new replacement, today. I got home and started looking at it and the same exact problem is occurring on this radio! I'm so put off that I no longer want to try another radio, even from another company, because this model has had this problem since at least 2018 and probably before that.

I'm not going to repeat all of the issues and how VFO A doesn't work. If you saw my earlier post on YouTube in this thread, with the link, well; that's the same problem I'm still having on the second radio. I made a new video, using a local simplex frequency, to show exactly what's going on.

The fact that I talked to Icom about this at their toll-free number and to the tech support guys, the fact they told me there was nothing they could do and they didn't even mention this known issue, well that really upsets me with Icom.

A lot of people have enjoyed using this radio to monitor Phase 1 trunk systems successfully. I tried it out on a VHF P1 system in my area and it worked great on VFO B. No, it's not a TrunkTracker nor does it work like my SDS100 or SDS200 or any trunk radio that I have. But on VFO B I was able to do what others talked about doing. But there's a problem. You cannot enter an 800 MHz frequency on VFO B and it has to be entered on VFO A if you want to listen to anything in the 700/800 MHz range. So even if there is a P1 system I want to use this radio on, 99.9% of them are not going to be VHF and they're going to be 800 MHz systems and have to use VFO A. So I can't use it for that either.

I really would like to know if anyone else has had this issue. And please, check it out if you own an R30.

My first video in this thread was on a repeater that's about 45 miles away from me and that I can pick up on most of my handheld antennas on other scanners. This second video is of a simplex frequency we often use in the ham band and I wanted to use something that wasn't a repeater and that I could program in so that it would not be an exact replica of the same, first video.

If anyone knows of a fix or something that will cause VFO A to work, please reply or PM me letting me know what you did. And if you don't have any problems and this same thing is not occurring on your R30, please let me know where you bought it. The radio would be great if it worked for me. But two brand new ones have had the same problem so I'm not expecting that all of them don't have this problem right now.

I want to mention one last thing. I've noticed that putting in the NOAA WX radio Dallas frequency, 162.400, I can hear the transmitter on VFO A.But it does have some noise in it over here in Fort Worth. But when I enter the same frequency and VFO B, it comes in crystal clear. So if you do check with your R30, be sure to notice whether or not the signal is cleaner on be than it is on A. You might not realize that you can still hear things on VFO A but VFO B is where it really comes in and any weak signals you might be hearing on A will likely boom in clean on B. Plus it seems like the UHF band does not receive as well as the VHF band does on these two new radios I've had. Do a little experimenting with some different frequencies and I'm sure you will find you're having the same issues most likely.

Here's the video I just shot of the issue still occurring on the second new, just received today, radio. And again, thanks for any helpful replies or feedback you might be able to provide...

New video by Brian Scott

photos.app.goo.gl

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[bearcatrp]

I will be testing mine. Thats BS from Icom. I never use VFO B but will check mine out. If this is the case, time for ICOM to address this issue!!!! You can see in your video how VFO B has a stronger signal than VFO A on the same signal.

 

[DudleyG]

Brian, I just sent you a PM....

 

[vagrant]

I reviewed your concerns and I am not experiencing the same problem with my R30. I do not remember noticing anything odd with the last firmware, nor the current one.

I tested using my local NOAA and the airport ATIS, which has a reduced signal. I tested one VFO at a time at the same volume level and then tested like you did with both on and then adjusting the volume for each. I did notice that VFO A seemed like it was slightly more filtered to my ears, but absolutely no distortion. VFO A actually had slightly less noise, with a hint of reduced audio. I adjusted the volume up and down to see if I could replicate the issue, but I could not. When listening to the ATIS I tried AM and narrow AM modes.

Honestly, without performing this test with the same settings and switching back and forth, I am unsure I would have perceived the sight difference I hear between the two. Now that I have tested, I may switch to VFO A if I need to reduce the noise a bit on a weak signal.

Ahh...okay, I saw this on the Icom web page and this coincides with what I'm hearing and the improvement.
Triple conversion superheterodyne + Down converter (A band except WFM)
Double conversion superheterodyne (A band WFM, B band)

Hmm...have you tested this at a different location? Test outdoors and then test at another location. Also the first five of my serial numbers are: 16001. I am unsure if mine is an older or newer device. I purchased mine used last fall for $400 with zero identified issues from the previous owner.

 

[letarotor]

I reviewed your concerns and I am not experiencing the same problem with my R30. I do not remember noticing anything odd with the last firmware, nor the current one.

I tested using my local NOAA and the airport ATIS, which has a reduced signal. I tested one VFO at a time at the same volume level and then tested like you did with both on and then adjusting the volume for each. I did notice that VFO A seemed like it was slightly more filtered to my ears, but absolutely no distortion. VFO A actually had slightly less noise, with a hint of reduced audio. I adjusted the volume up and down to see if I could replicate the issue, but I could not. When listening to the ATIS I tried AM and narrow AM modes.

Honestly, without performing this test with the same settings and switching back and forth, I am unsure I would have perceived the sight difference I hear between the two. Now that I have tested, I may switch to VFO A if I need to reduce the noise a bit on a weak signal.

Ahh...okay, I saw this on the Icom web page and this coincides with what I'm hearing and the improvement.
Triple conversion superheterodyne + Down converter (A band except WFM)
Double conversion superheterodyne (A band WFM, B band)

Hmm...have you tested this at a different location? Test outdoors and then test at another location. Also the first five of my serial numbers are: 16001. I am unsure if mine is an older or newer device. I purchased mine used last fall for $400 with zero identified issues from the previous owner.

Thank you for testing and for the report Dudley! I haven't tested mine on another outside antenna but I have tested it on the one I primarily use as well as with the stock antenna and a whip antenna I bought for it. I wonder if there could be a bad batch of radios possibly? It's such a drastic difference and distortion on the two that I've gotten brand new and I was wondering if I spent the extra money, $50 last time I looked at DX Engineering, and got a refund from GigaParts, if I might not have the problem. I wish I knew for sure what the issue was or had some name to call it. I've already spent an extra $50 having it shipped with UPS and not USPS as well as the shipping cost sending it back to GP. At least I will have spent that extra $50 by the time I send this one back. But I don't want to take a chance on getting another bad one if they do have some that might be having this issue either at GP.

I really like the radio and I wish that VFO B would scan and search more than the 118-520 MHz frequency spectrum. But since VFO A is the only side of the radio that will search all the way up to 3.999 GHz, that's a lot of frequencies if I don't use VFO A that I wouldn't be able to do anything with.

This issue has obviously affected people as far back as December 2018 according to the other post I put the link to. So it should be something Icom would know about. I'm going to talk to them one more time on Monday when they're open just to see what they say. It's just unfortunate that this issue has affected both radios I have gotten and I'm hoping it's a rare kind of problem.

I'm going to try what you mentioned and hook up to some of the other outside antennas on different masts just to see if it makes any difference. I was thinking about that earlier and thought it would be a good idea to at least test the problem like that. I don't think it's going to make any difference on the new radio but I don't want to leave any stone unturned either.

Thanks again for checking yours and getting back to me so quick. I hope I can get an R30 that doesn't have this problem. It's definitely an easy radio to pick up and just start using. Especially compared to many of the other Icom radios that I have bought through the years. This one seems the easiest to use and I do like it. I just got to get one that works though

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[DudleyG]

I got my R30 from DX Engineering so maybe there is a "batch" problem with the ones at GigaParts. DX Engineering sells a bunch of ICOM equipment so their stock should be ones that were recently manufactured.

 

[letarotor]

That's good to hear Dudley. I've bought radios from DX Engineering also and had great service and received great products. I've also bought other radios from GigaParts and had no problems. DX Engineering was $50 more but I wished I had gone with them right now. I can't say for sure that I wouldn't be going through this but maybe I wouldn't?

I've been hearing about a large fire in Japan back in October where they make chips used in all three of the major radio maker's radios. Supposably, it's going to be hard to get Icom, Yaesu, and Kenwood radios for a while. This plant that burned down made the high quality chips and some other parts they use and it may be more than a year before they can resume business. That's supposed to also drive prices up from what I've heard. In fact, I have a friend that's real big into Kenwood and he said that Kenwood is saying they're getting out of the business of making ham radios and radio equipment. I don't really know but it could be all of the current radios that are newer, providing mine is newer, may be on hold for a while? I also saw a YouTube video about the same topic just last night. So who knows what will be available before long or maybe even now?

 

[letarotor]

Also Dudley, I just looked at my serial number and mine is a 16002xxx.x model number.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[vagrant]

Before you send it back, get a block or more away from the house and test it again using whatever antennas you have that attach directly to the R30, or even the stock one.