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Reviews For: ICOM IC-R100

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : ICOM IC-R100
Reviews: 10MSRP: 400 US, $1090 Can, both in 1990
Description:
Wide Band Mobile Communications Receiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.icomamerica.com/support/archive/receivers/ic-r100.asp
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00104.2
K5SOP Rating: 2020-05-03
Great Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased this little radio new back when it was first introduced and is the non-blocked version. My purpose was to monitor industrial plant communications in the Vhf and Uhf and industrial frequencies as I traveled to many manufacturing facilities across the eastern United States. It was occasionally used for V/UHF ham band repeater monitoring but that was not its intended purpose. The radio performed flawlessly and I had many commercial business frequencies programmed. I also monitored farm and ranch hand communications. I retired in 2007 and the radio went back into its box and set on a shelf until last year. I have been restoring old ham receivers off an on for many years and always enjoyed listening to the broadcast band and swl dxing. I never gave this receiver a second thought until last year. I was cleaning out and selling my unused rigs and thinking about selling it. I began looking at its spec's for advertising when I realized that this little radio also covered down to 100 khz. I didn't think it went below 30 mhz as so many scanners of the day didn't cover frequencies below 30 mhz. It has 100 memories but the back-up battery died long ago I'm sure. I connected this little jewel of a rig to a quarter wave 40 meter vertical and discovered broadcast band DXing all over again as well as the short wave listening between 8 and 14 mhz. This little radio has become a favorite and I'm glad that I have kept it all these years. It is not perfect and the internal speaker is only good for voice but connect an external speaker and it sounds as good as the other portable receivers I've used. Great sensitivity and adequate selectivity. If you want an AM/FM all band radio for SWLing and find a clean used one buy it as they sell for about the same as the portable radio's of today and it performs many times better even with just a 30 foot wire up in a tree. For me, it is a keeper.
PA4F Rating: 2016-04-26
GOOD Job Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Do not compare this radio with an IC-8500. Thats no use just look at the differance in price! It Has a great performance on airbands. Don't look for a scanner but buy a good second hand R100 and I am sure you will be delighted. I have a NOS and it won't leave my shack ever!
KI6RSE Rating: 2015-06-26
GREAT LITTLE RECEIVER Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Ive had dozens of receivers and this one for me is the most convenient..Small package..extremely sensitive... Works excellent in the shortwave range it offers...Picking up stations I didn't know existed that were deaf to my Grundig 750...I,m not so sure the problems others state about this range but on a 205 foot G5RV this thing smokes... Front end handles everything quite well and the ATT is there if need be...adjacent channel rejection is excellent in my opinion.rock solid no drift..I,ll check the higher frequencies sometime but actually My Uniden 536 is for those......Tiny speaker stock is a bit soft on audio tho easily rectified with an external speaker plugged in..This does scan tho if your buying it to be a scanner you will be disappointed..Doesnt support SSB tho I didn't buy it for that so I,m not worried..Excellent to sit and seek channels for listening next to the chair.Built like a tank..Good price. I picked one up for 190.00 shipped in almost new old condition..Pleased as can be..
W0LVJ Rating: 2013-11-12
very good Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I got this unit used, and abused, but hooked it up to use for a 75m AM net, shortwave listening, and to monitor the STL for a station I do work for. I give it two thumbs up for very good performance. I have used it for amateur, shortwave, fm, etc., and it has always done a great job. It even has video output as well.
The downside was the abuse it took, and the buttons would decide when they would work. Not the rig's fault.
This became my favorite "go to radio" but alas, it is showing its age. I suspect the audio section has gone away, as levels change, oscillations come and go. The front end is still rock solid. I am now in a quest to find a replacement for a grand little radio. R.I.P. old friend.
G8KHS Rating: 2011-03-22
Spurious Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had one of these on loan for a while and was quite disappointed with the number of internally generated spurii in 2 meters and other bands. Even though the R100 was an attractive package I recommend the larger ICR7000 as a better buy than this receiver. I really wanted to like the R100 but in the end it gets the thumbs down.
DXTUNER Rating: 2009-05-03
A lot of receiver for the price. Exceeded my expectations. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just bought an R-100 second-hand from R&L Electronics -- $295. Man, this IC-R100 is far better than I expected it would be. I'm a previous owner of several Yaesu, Icom & AOR widebands, as well as numerous consumer scanners (e.g. Radio Shack, Uniden and Bearcat).

This little rig receives Airband than my beloved AR-2002 -- I honestly didn't think that could be possible! Actually, VHF/UHF reception is unparalleled overall; last night I listened to 4 Divisions of State Police. Basically I covered the whole state loud & clear. (With most comm.receivers/scanners only my local SPD Division will come in strong). And I received strongly almost every NOAA station in the Mid-Atlantic region.

On shortwave the R100 is better than I thought it would be also, and it isn't bad on MW. For the SW & MW sections I used an MFJ-956 preselector. This really perked up MW reception. I could get Radio Rebelde in Cuba (570 kHz) with no problem. Do yourself a favor and put an MFJ-956 to the 0.5-50 antenna jack. It ain't difficult to do that.

No, AM sound quality isn't fantastic < 30 Mhz. Down here its audio is on the level of those pocket-sized Kaito portables (the Kaitos that everyone raves about). On Airband, though, the AM-mode sound is just fine -- better than the muffled fidelity that Uniden scanners give them.

But yes, the volume & squelch knobs have a cheap Radio Shack-ish feel to them. But they work just fine. And no, the R100 does not scan at the speed of light -- But I've had much slower scanners than this! It scans fast enough for limited ranges (e.g. 462 - 463 MHz using 12.5 kHz steps).

Bottom line: For $200-$400 price range the R-100 is a whole lot of receiver. Far better than I was expecting, and far better than some reviews give it credit for. Its reception on VHF/UHF is unparalleled.
VE3SUB Rating: 2008-01-12
Nice receiver Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The ICOM IC-R100 is an older communications receiver 1990. It is a very compact unit 5.9(W)x2.0(H)x7.1(D)inches. The same size as a car stereo. 13.8 Volts too. Excellent receiver for 29-1856 MHz mode. OK for 0.100-28.995 MHz. Modes AM/FM/WFM. Slow scan speed, lack of memory 100 Channels, 10 programmable limit scans, and 3 antenna connectors. 2 N-type and 1 SO-239. I use it at the cottage. It is one of the better receivers of the past.
AF4KK Rating: 2002-12-27
Good all-around rx'er! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had my Icom R-100 (the original, not the computer-based) since 1992 and I've enjoyed it very much. The bandwidith is a bit wide but for general SW listening, it works quite well. It really sinces above 50 mHz or so. While it's not tremendously fast in the scanning department, it seems quite sensitive hearing signals some of my other radios miss. I also enoy using it to recieve beacons below 1 mHz.
N1RSR Rating: 2002-04-30
Okay, but not worth the money unless you have specific uses.... Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This review is for the R-100, the original one, not the new PCR-100.

I acquired an unblocked R100 some time ago and played with the unit from time to time, and here
are some observations....

First of all, -forget- about using this unit
as anything to replace a scanner; as it has
a few shortcomings in this department. First of all is the clacking of the relays when the radio switches from one band to another; sure you could run it like this, but it gets annoying very fast, and it cant possibly be any good for the relays
themselves. Also scan modes are difficult to
understand, and quite frankly, it's slow.

As far as reciever performance is concerned, I'd say its close to worthless below 29 mhz, because
the AM reception is subpar; doesn't sound very
good in AM mode. FM is good through the upper
end of the freq range. I noticed the radio had especially good RX in 800-950 mhz area, so if what you're interested in is up there, this might
be the rig for you; but for general ham or
scanner enthusiast use, I'd leave it alone
in favor of something else.

On the upside of this radio, however, I did notice it had good intermod immunity and high
sensitivity above 30 mhz, so if you need to "sandbag" on one frequency, or a group of frequencies close together, this might just
be the radio for you. It's good for that but
not versatile for doing much more than that; and with the funny sounding AM, it's debateable as to wether you would want to use it to listen to
aircraft comms.
W1BKZ Rating: 2001-07-05
Great for what it is!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I own a pre-'94 R-100 (not cell-blocked, for what that is worth!!), and from 50 MHz up it is a slick receiver. It works on HF but nothing to write home about. If it could receive CW/SSB, this would be a definite plus. Overall, it does exactly what I want, with a high degree of reliability.