| K7WCE |
Rating:      |
2006-05-04 | |
| Outstanding |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
Hands down the best wide range receiver. Excellent coverage on all bands with plenty of tricks for tweeking: RF gain, noise blanker, automatic noise limiter, ATT, AFC.. There's CTCSS and DTCS squelching/search, voice squelch.
Dual band, band scope (2 if you like!) Plenty of memory, great battery life...
So you could buy the IC-R20 and software for less that the AR8200; and to get the 8200 even comparable you'll need to spend another hundred for the propritary software cable, and 70ish pa pop for plug in cards, for tone scan, recording (20 seconds compared to Icom's 4hrs!), etc.... I could go on about construction quality, Icom's dot matrix display.. etc. |
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| K0WJH |
Rating:     |
2005-12-05 | |
| Great Receiver |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I love this radio. Receiver is sensitive, audio is excellent and the SSB is clear. I was disappointed to find out I can not receive all of the 800mHz public service frequencies with this unit. Icom mistakenly blocked 868.6125 and others when they blocked for cell phones. Called Icom and they told me they didn't realize the error during manufacturing and that nothing could be done about it now. Hope someone can figure out how to open this unit up, then I'll be a very happy camper. |
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| 1HENRY300 |
Rating:     |
2005-06-23 | |
| Great performer, but could be more user friendly |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've been using this receiver in public safety for a couple of months now, and overall I'm pleased.
The first impression is excellent... the R20 feels more like a professional radio than most of its counterparts. It lends a feel of quality and durability.
It is clearly engineered with the HAM or shortwave hobbyist in mind in both programming and operation. The display provides large characters for frequency, with much smaller ones for the alpha tag. There is no option to swap the freq and tag size, and the tag is limited to 8 characters, almost as though it was an afterthought. The keypad make public safety-type monitoring functions more complicated than necessary, in favor of changing settings like band and mode.
Programming the R20 is no picnic, and anyone who tries to do it without the manual close at hand is guaranteed a frustrating experience. The programming is step-intensive, and I found the key labelling cryptic and counter-intuitive. It's important to distinguish between a short keypress and a long one, and the manual doesn't always make clear which should be used. Some experimentation will probably be necessary for most users. Unfortunately, the user manual is both inaccurate and incomplete in places.
Do yourself a favor... use a PC, interface cable and Butel's free software (www.butelsoftware.com) for programming. Some digital camera-to-PC cables will do, and are much less expensive than the Icom cable.
Once programmed, I found the receiver's performance excellent in the areas of 42, 155 and 463 MHz. It has plenty of audio volume and clarity, and lots of genuinely cool functions, including the DualWatch feature and internal recorder (which, unlike AOR's, is both included and can record for a useful duration).
The R20 does a fine job, although even routine operations require multiple keypresses. Some demand simultaneous keying, making one-handed operation cumbersome or impossible.
Beware... it is painfully easy to inadvertently overwrite programmed channel information. Users might want to periodically check programmed channels to make sure another frequency, band, mode or some other element hasn't replaced the desired information.
In operation, as in programming, key labels are little help.
I suspect ICOM knows all this... the manual includes a cut-out pocket reference guide. In 25 years of using two-way and receiving radios I've never needed one before, but I'm glad to have it for the R20.
The R20 is not a beginner's scanner, and isn't marketed as one. Even for the experienced user it is more cumbersome to use than necessary. That said, it's a terrific little receiver.
The good: Great performance, lots of useful features and a feeling of quality build. Once you get it figured out you'll probably love it.
The bad: Poor user interface and manual.
The silver lining: Lots of new owners seem to get overwhelmed by the programming procedures, so barely-used R20s seem to be plentiful.
My advice: Download the user manual, and see for yourself if programming and operation procedures make sense to you. If you're patient you'll be rewarded by solid performance and lots of features to please any user.
I look forward to seeing Icom's next handheld offering... if they keep the performance and features, and make it more user friendly they'll have the receiver to beat. Are you listening, Icom? |
|
| AIR490 |
Rating:      |
2005-05-07 | |
| The best you can get! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
The Icom IC-R20 has to be one of the best receivers I have ever used. It is very sensitive across the spectrum, particulary in the VHF airband. It gives crisp, clear audio, although the volume could be better from the internal speaker.
The Dualwatch feature is basically two scanners in one. It is a positively brilliant feature, which has endless uses. The built in recorder is also a good feature. The only problem here is that the audio files need to be played back on the R20.
It is hard to program for those people used to the Uniden/GRE style of programming, but once you get used to it you really appreciate the flexible nature of the its programming.
The more I use this receiver the more I like it. There is nothing available (in this segment of the market) that comes anywhere near the R20. |
|
| K2KOH |
Rating:      |
2005-02-12 | |
| Great Portable |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Heard a lot of hoopla about this radio, so I went out and picked one up. I chucked the telescopic whip for an Austin Condor, and prepped for the first test. I connected the radio to my computer and started AirNav ACARS decoder. I normally use an Icom R10 for this...well, noise floor was a lot lower, and I was getting better decode rates.
Next test was on HF. With the telescopic antenna, it pulled in quite a few SW broadcast stations...audio was OK. I then connected the radio to my Cushcraft R6000, and listened to the NAT Aircraft frequencies. The receiver immediately overloaded; not a problem, just lower the RF gain and everything was fine.
All in all, a good DC to daylight portable receiver. Nice to have selectable bank scanning, and CTCSS/DCS decode. |
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| MI0BPB |
Rating:    |
2005-02-12 | |
| Parts good, parts poor. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| When using an external antenna it suffers badly from pagers breaking through and desensitising on the rx, particularly on VHF/UHF and on shortwave it overloads the rx. If it was not for this it would be excellent. This is my first scanner, maybe I am expecting too much from this tiny radio? 73 Andrew |
|
| WT3844 |
Rating:      |
2004-11-05 | |
| super receiver |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I HAVE HAD THIS RECEIVER FOR EXACTLY ONE WEEK AND I AM VERY IMPRESSED.GREAT SENSITIVITY THROUGHOUT THE SPECTRUM.YOU CAN HOWEVER TAKE THE STOCK ANTENNA AND THROW IT AWAY AND USE ANOTHER ANTENNA FOR THE FREQS YOU ARE LISTENING TO.I USE A GOOD 2METER 70 CENTIMETER ANTENNA BECAUSE I MONITOR A LOT OF VHFHI AND UHF.I HAVE 15 RECEIVERS OF THESE 6 OF THEM ARE HANDHELDS AND THIS RECEIVER BLOWS THEM ALL AWAY.SCAN SPEED IN MEMORY MODE IS ABOUT 30 CHANNELS PER SECOND NOT BAD MUCH BETTER THAN MY R10 R5 AND R2.GOOD JOB ICOM.THIS RECEIVER WILL CERTAINLY BE A KEEPER. |
|
| W2DI |
Rating:      |
2004-09-22 | |
| Previous post, R-20, Not R10 |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
My error. Early in my previous posting I referred to R-10. Should be, of course, R-20.
----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by W2DI on 2004-09-22
I've had this radio for about a week now and am very impressed. I've had many scanners and HT/scanner combos but the R-10 is, IMO, the best overall. Sensitivity, even when inside with the supplied whip is very good. Signals on the 118MHz air band, ham repeaters on 2m & 440, and 500 MHz public service bands are all stronger than other scanners I've had. The air band sensitivity is especially good with many more signals and volume. In addition to my local NOAA station, which comes in full scale, I can receive others near Harrisburg and NYC - both about 100 mi. away. I could not do this with other radios.
Scanning speed is very fast for both the VFO band settings and memory channels. Memory channel management is well thought out.
With the supplied internal bar antenna, I can hear a good number of stations on the AM BC band.
As far as HF, I've also been impressed. With the supplied antenna, and inside my home, SW broadcast stations are numerous and strong. Ham CW and SSB signals can even be even heard on 80 & 40 meters, but the signal level is low to moderate. I tried a 60" whip and this did improved reception. So, I would guess a length of wire - 8' or more would do even better, especially outside. It's really tough for radios of this size with short antennas to hear anything on HF, but the R-20 gives you plenty to listen to.
I haven't noticed intermod or splatter even though I'm in a metro suburb. In fact I live within a mile of a 50KW AM station and get no overload of the front end at all!
So far, the Li-ion battery hasn't needed recharge and the 3AA cell option is good to have. Other users have reported excellent battery life. The Li-ion recharges overnight (8-11 hours depending how far down you run it) and the radio indicates when full charge is reached (I assume too the charge is stopped at this point, but I'm not sure).
In summary - for a handheld scanner, with the supplied whip antenna, I think the R-20 is the best all-around unit I have used. I personally don't see the point having a handheld scanner and using a big outside antenna but others may feel differently and I'm sure the R-10 would do well. This radio gives you good full-spectrum access -- AS-IS, and that, along with the good battery life, is what I like most about it. I may try some aftermarket ducks and whips for specific frequencies. Also, I haven't used the recorder yet but I'm sure it will be another plus for the R-20.
Best to all. Joe -- W2DI |
|
| WS4BS |
Rating:     |
2004-07-17 | |
| 4 1/2 STARS |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Most of my listening is done on a radio shack discone (25-1300)at 30 feet. I am in Charleston SC and the supplied rod antenna works very well also. I have used most of the features and found them to be satisfactory. The sideband reception is far superior to anything comparable. I wanted a rig like this over a year ago and no one made one yet. I would not trade it for anything currently available to me in this price range. I would like to see an NTSC output. I was lead to believe that the audio files could be played back on the PC once saved. I purchased the cloning package and can load and save. Cannot play audio files on PC.
Battery life is excellent! I love the little plastic adaptor ICOM supplies to allow the use of AA batteries(3). I look forward to the day when I can purchase the Transceiver version of this rig.
Ha-Ha...
73
Lee |
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