R30 Searching Multiple Ranges & More

[bearcatrp]

Am thinking the down conversion could be the culprit since it’s only on A VFO but not sure. Seems weird I put same frequency in A and B and A VFO had a hard time staying at max signal, (fluctuated allot) and B was solid at max signal, (no fluctuation). Will be testing more with further signals. Will be using VFO B for air scanning for the near future. Also plan on making a video of my finding showing the difference to Icom to see if they can explain why A seems to be weaker than B. Am all ears if someone can explain this to me. Thanks.

 

[letarotor]

Yes, that's a good idea and I'm going to contact Icom also tomorrow. I'm going to contact them, or at least try, before I even contact GigaParts for the return again. I think I'm going to call that 800 number and talk to the tech support people again with an update. And I will also contact them through the website. Hopefully we can find out what's going on and get the issue resolved. I'm really curious what the problem may be on these two brand new radios. If I find anything out, I'll definitely update this thread. Too bad I can't go back and change the title of this thread now

Thanks to everyone who has helped and is still helping! I really appreciate it...

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[bearcatrp]

Here is a quick clip of my R30 showing the same issues as Brian. No audio but can tell you VFO A is scratchy and VFO B is crystal clear. The freq is from an airport about 18 miles as the crow flies and can only be heard using my out door discone. Still testing other freqs. Sent IcomUSA this video as well asking for an explanation.

 

[letarotor]

I just talked to Icom and GigaParts. Icom has been as useful as tits on a boar. I got the same gentleman that I spoke to on the first radio that was bad and he was absolutely no help and with no ideas other than to send the radio to Washington DC to be tested. I told him I couldn't do that because I a had limited amount of time to return it to GP and I couldn't wait on Icom. I asked the guy if he had any recommendations or if he had had any reports of this issue. He didn't have any recommendations and he kept saying that there must be something in my house causing the interference. It's not an appearance I told him, it's the signal is not being received.

I went ahead and walked down the street, with the stock antenna on the radio, and compared it at various places. The same exact issue is still occurring in VFO A is useless. I very easily could pick up NOAA WX radio in Dallas, and I'm in Fort Worth, on 162.4 on VFO B. On VFO A, I couldn't even get it at all. I moved the radio around and never lost signal, a good strong signal, on VFO B. But on VFO A I never could even get it to break the squelch or receive anything. I did the same thing with the ATIS frequency at Navy Fort Worth which is 3 miles away.

I called GP and a real nice lady said that Icom approved sending the second radio because the first one was bad when they tested it. But she said that she didn't know if they would okay the second radio being bad. The tech support guy at Icom had told me I had a better chance of winning the lottery than getting two radios in a row that were bad from them. He didn't have any interest in seeing my videos either. I was getting a little perturbed with Icom and they're lack of support. But right now, I'm waiting on GP, GigaParts again, to check with their supervisors and see what to do. I told them I wanted a refund because I did not want to get another bad radio. I also told them that there are other people that seem to be having the same issue but then there are others that don't seem to have it. I talked to them about the serial numbers also.

I found it interesting that Icom did say the first radio was bad according to the notes that GP had from them. I'm sure they'll have to take this radio and put it on a bench and do some testing.

I don't know what I'm going to do in regards to trying another R30? I would like to have one but I'm worried that if I get one, from a different vendor, it will still be from the 16002... Serial number lot and have problems. While this hasn't been confirmed by us to be a problem lot of radios, I'm nervous about it still. The one thing I'm not going to do is pay the $100 restock fee to GP if they try to make me do that. That was part of what the lady I talked to at GP was going to talk to the supervisors about today.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[letarotor]

Here's another update on my R30 VFO A issue. And actually, I tried it on VFO B as well. I've been reading through the basic manual and thought I would try the RF Gain setting witches by default set to RF MAX.

On VFO A, as I lowered the RF gain to somewhere around RF 6/7, the noise in the audio cleaned up a little bit and the signal sounded better. I went on down to RF4 and on down to RF1 just to check it out. RF4 was getting noisy again and of course RF1 lost the signal. But as I went back up, anything passed RF7 starts making the signal very noisy and choppy even. It doesn't do this on VFO bB however. It did seem to slightly clean up the B signal as I went down towards RF7 but it still sounded louder and better at RF MAX.

Either way, VFO A, no matter what the setting, does not sound as good or come in as clear as VFO B, again no matter what the setting is on B.

Also, on VFO A, I get an occasional static or interference coming across the receiver for a few seconds. It doesn't knock the received signal out but it becomes noisy. I don't notice this on VFO B on the same frequency with the same settings. And this is with me setting the radio to any of the RF Gain settings.

Have any of you had to turn down your RF Gain setting from the default setting of RF MAX to listen to radio traffic on just one of the VFOs or maybe even both?

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[bearcatrp]

You folks who state your R30 is not displaying this issues, could you post a quick video of your display? I want to see both VFO's showing a solid signal bar on both. As you can see on mine, VFO A won't stay solid like VFO B does. Am thinking this is a radio issue, which I hope can be fixed with a firmware update. Its a nice handheld receiver and don't plan on getting rid of mine. I use mine for camping and road trips. Thanks.

 

[vagrant]

Depending on the antenna I use, yes I turn down the RF gain. I typically run it at RF7 on either VFO. Max is just too much for me. If I run it at max I need to turn on Attenuation, so I keep it at RF7.

Hmm...the problem persisted while you were away from the house, so I agree you should buy a lottery ticket because that is wild to have two bad models. I wonder if it is a batch issue. You should really make note of your first and second serial numbers for yourself and others to compare.

I like the R30, as mine works, but rather than a refund I would have Gigaparts turn on the R30 they are going to send me and test it first. If a batch of them are bad, the next one may have the problem and it is better they view that directly. I figure Icom will pay attention if a vendor is sending their stock back due to defect.

 

[eorange]

I decided to take a closer look at my R30. Bottom line: still no VFO A issues as I pretty much knew.

Serial: 1600-19xx
CPU: 1.10
DSP: 1.03
GPS: 11613
BT: 1.12

NOAA Wx:
Signal strength was exactly the same on both VFOs, full strength. With both VFOs at the same volume of 15...VFO A sounded slightly louder. But no real difference in performance.

KCLE Approach on 124.0
I am ~18 miles away from KCLE and cannot hear the ground side unless there's extraordinary conditions. Signal strength was exactly the same on both VFOs, full strength. With both VFOs at the same volume of 15...VFO B sounded slightly louder, but also a little noisier. VFO A had less noise and a cleaner-sounding signal which of course is expected due to the triple conversion.

All my AM/FM channels have RF Gain set to max. I only experiment with RF Gain, ATT, and NB when listening to HF.

 

[bearcatrp]

I decided to take a closer look at my R30. Bottom line: still no VFO A issues as I pretty much knew.

Serial: 1600-19xx
CPU: 1.10
DSP: 1.03
GPS: 11613
BT: 1.12

NOAA Wx:
Signal strength was exactly the same on both VFOs, full strength. With both VFOs at the same volume of 15...VFO A sounded slightly louder. But no real difference in performance.

KCLE Approach on 124.0
I am ~18 miles away from KCLE and cannot hear the ground side unless there's extraordinary conditions. Signal strength was exactly the same on both VFOs, full strength. With both VFOs at the same volume of 15...VFO B sounded slightly louder, but also a little noisier. VFO A had less noise and a cleaner-sounding signal which of course is expected due to the triple conversion.

All my AM/FM channels have RF Gain set to max. I only experiment with RF Gain, ATT, and NB when listening to HF.

Any way you can post a short video of your screen eorange?

 

[eorange]

There's not much to see. The S meters are always the same.

NOAA: Both are pegged.

124.0: same.

111.100 nearby CW beacon ID: signal strength periodically varies but both meters vary the same way at nearly the same time. B meter lags A by a tiny fraction of a second.

125.250 KBKL AWOS: Both hold steady at 2 bars, can barely hear the automated voice on both equally.

 

[bearcatrp]

There's not much to see. The S meters are always the same.

NOAA: Both are pegged.

124.0: same.

111.100 nearby CW beacon ID: signal strength periodically varies but both meters vary the same way at nearly the same time. B meter lags A by a tiny fraction of a second.

125.250 KBKL AWOS: Both hold steady at 2 bars, can barely hear the automated voice on both equally.

Seems yours is running flawless. WTF is it that others have issues. Mine is not as bad as Brian but its still there. Did Icom use a different chip? Could the setting Icom set in the radio for Triple conversion superheterodyne + Down converter set different among radios? Why did brian get 2 brand new radios with the same issue?

 

[shanny19]

Have had mine less than a month.
Doing the NOAA test, for a broadcaster 30 mi away, I'd say that VFO A is just ever so slightly louder and ever so slightly scratchier.
VFO B a tiny bit softer and a tiny bit more clear.
All settings as per factory.

 

[eorange]

Seems yours is running flawless. WTF is it that others have issues.

Indeed it's strange. I thought maybe firmware rev but others with 1.10 are having issues. It could be a bad batch related to a supplier...?

Maybe they subcontracted manufacturing out to Uniden for a very short while😃

 

[letarotor]

There's not much to see. The S meters are always the same.

NOAA: Both are pegged.

124.0: same.

111.100 nearby CW beacon ID: signal strength periodically varies but both meters vary the same way at nearly the same time. B meter lags A by a tiny fraction of a second.

125.250 KBKL AWOS: Both hold steady at 2 bars, can barely hear the automated voice on both equally.

Thank you for the report! How long have you had your radio? I'm just wondering if it's one with the serial number starting with 16001 or maybe 16002? Mine is the latter And I'm wondering if the newer ones are the ones having worse issues? Thanks again.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[letarotor]

Seems yours is running flawless. WTF is it that others have issues. Mine is not as bad as Brian but its still there. Did Icom use a different chip? Could the setting Icom set in the radio for Triple conversion superheterodyne + Down converter set different among radios? Why did brian get 2 brand new radios with the same issue?

Yes, that's what mystifies me. How I got two in a row with the same exact problem? And the fact that using the RF Gain control, and not on HF, actually helps a little bit, that mystifies me too. BTW, I tried receiving some HF today on VFO A and I could not get a single signal. Of course I tried the 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz WWV stations expecting I'd get something from them. I also tried tuning through the 20 meters, 14.175 - 14.350 MHz, amateur radio band and the same happened. I tried the regular AM BX band and I was picking up the local Dallas/Fort Worth radio stations. I did turn on the bar antenna inside of the radio and that's what I used. I know that's not exactly the best antenna but for what I was trying to get it should have received at least one of the WWV broadcasts I would think.

Like the old Journey song says, "It's been a mystery, but still they try to see, why something good can hurt so bad...". This is killing me having a great radio that just isn't working... twice...

GigaParts never did call me back today either. I'll wait until lunch time tomorrow and then call them back.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[letarotor]

Indeed it's strange. I thought maybe firmware rev but others with 1.10 are having issues. It could be a bad batch related to a supplier...?

Maybe they subcontracted manufacturing out to Uniden for a very short while😃

You know, I was wondering if that big plant fire in Japan that happened back in October of last year might somehow have something to do with this exact issue. I wonder if somebody else has been contracted to make some of the chips or other parts and it could be causing the problem?

I believe I mentioned that fire in another reply here earlier. But just in case I didn't, word is that there was a huge fire with the company that makes the quality chips for the three big companies, Yaesu, Kenwood, and Icom. They're saying that it may be 6 months to a year before the factory is rebuilt. And they're also saying that parts for the radios as well as manufacturing of the radios, and therefore price spikes, will be hard to come by if they can get them at all. So that does have me wondering if it could be related? I meant to ask the Icom representative about that today. But it totally slipped my mind as I was talking to him.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[eorange]

Mine is in the very high 1600-19xx's. Bought it from GigaParts in June 2020.

 

[tumegpc]

I did the NOAA test, I can receive 162.400 & 162.475, the last being the weaker one. I was able to receive both on VFO A&B without a problem.

CPU1.11
DSP1.03
GPS 11613
Bluetooth 1.12
Serial # 160013XX

 

[letarotor]

Thank you for the report! I need to do the same report on mine. I've got it charging right now but I do remember seeing an info portion of the menu which is where I guess the information will be.

Thanks to everyone sharing their feedback/info.

Brian
COMMSCAN

 

[bearcatrp]

Got my reply from Icom


Thank you for contacting Icom America.

Your results are typical.

The 2 VFO's arent the same. VFO-A has a huge spread... .1 to 3.3 Gig and, as such, is very desirable but wont have the same receive perfection as a VFO that is designed for a smaller frequency range.

VFO B is a 800 meg range, and as such, in this small package, can be engineered to be a bit more precise.

Sincerely,
Gregg
Technical Support Representative
Icom America, Inc.
12421 Willows Road NE
Kirkland, WA 98034