 Icom IC-R2
It has been around for a few years now but judging by the messages I see on
the yahoo groups this must be one of the most favourite scanners around.This
little scanner took off right from the start due to its appealing size and
its appealing price!
I first saw the Icom in Monitoring times magazine a US version of short wave
magazine and instantly took a shine to it OK it's so little it must be a bit
on the deaf side I thought but it has ctcss decode as standard (I had to pay
extra for that luxury on my AOR 8200) but imagine all the places I could take
it without being detected or feeling like every CCTV camera is looking at me
as I look in my jacket to see what that channel was I heard something interesting
on.
A quick call to my local dealers to check when it would be available in the
UK (or even if it would be available in the UK) and I was pleasantly surprised
to find that they had them already in stock and would I like to order one? "Errr!
Yes indeedy" a quick take of my card details and I resigned myself that
it would probably take a week or so to come but no It was on my door the following
morning! What a lovely size it was minute compared to anything else I had previously
used.Now I have seen many ads saying that the Icom is so easy to use, well
either I am very thick or this is not easy to use.. At first! The instruction
manual is very poor (I believe this may have been updated on later models)
so poor at first I thought I would try and use it without the manual like you
can with most scanners, it can't be much different.Wrong! This scanner uses
a totally different way of operating compared with your normal push button
scanner. I was so used to just turning the thing on and pushing the correct
buttons to enter a frequency and then pressing enter usually gets you started.
Well the Icom does not work this way it is all done with the rotary knob at
the top of the unit, sometimes simultaneously holding down a button on the
side.Boy this was going to take some getting used to.
Description
The Icom I have in front of me is black I have seen reviews which described
them as grey in colour but mine is definitely black with little speckles which
give it a metallic effect.There are 7 buttons of which most of the functions
have been covered already in this review and the rotary Knob. The unit is furnished
with a long SMA as opposed to BNC aerial which I thought was a little over
the top for a unit of this size sort of defeating the object. The aerial has
the word Icom and also FA-S270C which I suspect stands for 2Meters and 70CMS
so giving a rough idea to its receiving capabilities. After using the unit
for some time I would say this is about right and the aerial most probably
is the same one used on its stablemate Icom IC-Q7A transceiver which I suspect
the R2 basically is without the ability to transmit. A full examination of
the aerials receive range runs roughly like this.VHF airband=Very good.VHF
Police (152-155)=Very Good. VHF PMR (165-170)=Very Poor. All UHF worked very
well including up into the nearly dead Analogue Cellular 900Mhz area. As this
is a SMA type connection the amount of aerials at your disposal are limited
(I always like to chop and change for different frequency bands) but there
is a SMA-BNC connector that is available to make connecting a BNC type possible
for a couple of quid.There are a few SMA aerials that are out there I have
experience with two other types, one is the diamond SRH-805 which appears to
work best at around 446MHz with reception tailing off above this and below.This
aerial is really small and is ideal for discreet and close up monitoring it
also has a style which when fitted can give the Icom to the uninitiated a look
of a small mobile phone. The other is the same model fitted on top of the Maycom
AR-108 airband receiver.This works great on UHF probably having the edge on
the supplied unit here, and appears fine on airband but on 152-166 area it
is nowhere as good as the supplied unit. This is also very small in comparison
with the supplied aerial but it still gives the Icom the appearance of a radio.For
good wideband monitoring then a telescopic is ideal, types vary but the ones
I use with good success is one I kept off my Yupiteru 7100 and a Watson W-889
I have been told that you can adjust the size of these to suit different frequencies
but to be honest if you just leave them fully extended then you can't go far
wrong.
Getting started
Okay you have your Icom powered up (Incidentally all the models I have seen
have come with Alkalines supplied, a nice touch as there is nothing worse than
having a new toy and can't use it until the batteries have charged) and you
are ready to go.
TO ENTER A FREQUENCY.
This is quite different to what I had been used to, as previously mentioned
there is no button pressing to enter a frequency here. To enter a frequency
into memory there are a couple of ways to do it from the search facility or
from manually "Dialing in" with the rotary knob on the top of the
unit. Its this option we shall explore first.
Power up the Icom and there will be a random frequency displayed, (Make sure
you are not in memory mode and that you are in search mode by pressing the
v/m mw button if you can see a ch number in the bottom right corner you are
in memory mode) now you can just keep turning the knob until you come to the
required frequency in which each click will take it up one step depending on
what you have set the increments to be options are 5.0khz, 6.25Khz, 10.0Khz,
12.5Khz, 15.0Khz, 20Khz, 25Khz, 30.0Khz, 50.0Khz and 100Khz steps.(We will
cover the adjusting step sizes later). But there is a quicker way of zooming
to the required frequency and that is to simultaneously hold down the little "Func" button
on the side of the unit this will now force each click of the knob to go up
in 100Khz increments.Once you have located the desired frequency you will want
to add it to memory. To do this again there are two options with the desired
frequency displayed first press the "Func" button and keep it pressed
(or depressed if all is not going as it should) then press the v/m mw button
briefly.You can now let go of both buttons and see a channel number flashing
now it is just a case of deciding which channel you want it in to do this turn
the knob on the top of the unit to "dial in" to the required channel
once this is selected then again press the little "Func" button whilst
keeping it pressed now press the v/m mw button (MW=Memory write) keep both
buttons held until you hear a "beep beep".That's it frequency is
in memory! When I first got my Icom I found this a bit tricky because if you
do not release the v/m mw button almost immediately then the frequency will
be added to the frequency you last used regardless of weather you have a frequency
already stored thus losing any information I had stored in that channel.
The other method works exactly the same but can be done from the search banks
or scan edges as Icom call them. To set up a search bank (We'll call it that
for this review eh?) I found most frustrating at first and even today If I
don't do it for a while I have to do some serious thinking. (Even now I'm wondering
how to do it!) First of all decide what frequency range you want to set up
to search. For this review we will search the CB band. Now I don't follow CB
much but I believe there is now 80 ch sets to compensate for the European CB
units that operate on 26Mhz whereas UK is on 27Mhz so we want to search between
these frequencies 26-28Mhz. First of all "dial in" to the first required
frequency of 26.000Mhz (making sure you are not in memory mode) press "func" then
v/m mw button a channel number should be flashing. Press"func" then
turn the dial (whilst still holding func button) until you see ch numbers like
0A 0B you can now release the "func" button and just use the knob
to select. If you wanted to put the search range in the first available bank
when 0A is selected (It will be flashing just like the memory ch did) press "func" then
(whilst still holding "func") v/m mw until it beeps twice.now dial
to the other end of the search in this case it's 28.000Mhz and repeat the procedure
only this time placing it in 0B that's it! Now to test it works, press the
func button a couple of times to get you back in memory mode,then press Band
button then"func" Band there are 25 search banks you want to find
the first bank so as we added the search bank to bank 0 dial down with the
knob to "PROG 0" then press "func" and then (Whilst still
holding down "func") one of the arrow keys and it should search between
26 and 28 Mhz. If it does not then I suggest you smash it up as that always
makes me feel better!
Now is a good time to mention step increments (If you did not smash it up)
different users use different step increments in the case of the CB band 6.25Khz
is a good bet. Most UK radio bands UHF and VHF use 12.5Khz increments (but
there are a few that don't) to change the step sizes in your search bank simply
select the search bank press search if you want then press v/m mw twice to
stop the search (press once and you are in memory mode) then simply press TS
skip button once and set the step size with the dial once you have the step
selected simply carry on with the search and it is done, you don't even have
to stop the search just press TS Skip button whilst searching and it will automatically
stop it thus allowing you to set up the step increments.
CTCSS
A lot of people new to the hobby of "Scanning" are unsure of what
ctcss is or does, I will try to explain as best I can. Ctcss is an abbreviation
of Continuous tone coded squelch system.(Also known as Private Line or PL in
the US) Basically how this works on a radio is these tones are set up to run
with each transmission on a network of radios, for example a local woodyard
are operating on frequency 461.3875 and a neighbouring DIY store are using
also 461.3875 now the problems that arise here are obvious, they will both
pick up each others conversations.To avoid this the radios are set up with
ctcss tones say the woodyard on 67.0Hz and the diy store on 167.9Hz now unless
this tone is sent along with the transmissions then the squelch will not open
on the radios, as they are using different tones then only the radios using
67.0Hz will open on the woodyard radios, therefore no more interference from
the DIY store radios and vice versa.
One of the nicest touches of the Icom R2 is the facility to find and store
these tones into ch memories. To search for a ctcss tone Find an active frequency
(Don't bother with police UHF- VHF as they don't use them, (No one else should
be on channel in the first place) try a PMR frequency such as a taxi co. for
example.Right you've got the ch selected (Remember to stop the scan or search
first) now press the "Func" button and whilst still holding it down
press and hold one of the arrow keys until you hear a "Beep" you
should now see the ctcss tones being scrolled through when it finds the correct
tone it will stop on it. If you have done this from search mode rather than
memory then the tone should be stored ready for you to put in memory. To add
it into a memory Channel select the frequency (Best done whilst not in memory
mode. Boy this is harder than I thought!) press and hold down v/m mw, and you
should see one of the options available use the knob to scroll to "TONE" make
sure that the tone that was found in the search is there for example 67.0Hz
if the correct tone is not displayed then you can scroll through to find it
by holding down the "func" button and simultaneously turning the
knob until the correct tone is displayed. When you have the correct tone selected
click the knob one turn to the left (You have let go fo the "Func" button
now haven't you?) and you should see "T SQL" and it will say whether
it is on or off select on now press v/m mw once and you should see the frequency
and above it "T SQL" in the display now just enter the frequency
as normal and the frequency will be stored along with the ctcss tone and will
only open when the correct user uses the frequency. There are a couple of other
things you can do with the ctcss but this review is looking like more like
a user manual so you will have to find this out for yourself.
The Icom takes two AA size batteries and seem to last a good while I use Ni-Mh
batteries which give very good longevity.When the batteries are exhausted there
are two segments in the lower left of the LCD only one will be seen when they
are running low.Eventually an audible alarm tone will sound and shortly after
the batteries will die.I found it important to catch the Icom before it gets
to the final stage as when the batteries are fully exhausted the LCD will keep
blinking and beeping not allowing you to power off, the only thing you can
do at this point is to let the batteries go through their death throes or remove
them.
Audio Is very good for a unit of this size especially good for noisy environments
(Many a time whilst out driving with the missus she has tried to drown out
the sound of the Icom with the car radio, to hit back I turn it up to full
volume and the icom gives a good account of itself in a fight with Britney
Spears.) There is a backlight which uses a pleasant green illumination this
can be set to on which gives continuous illumination auto which will activate
at any user activity and off. Remember here that using a scanner with lights
increases battery drain.Which brings me to my next point.The R2 comes equipped
with a battery saver circuit, which can be set to on or off.
In Use
So how well does this unit fair when it comes to using on UHF and VHF? Well
all I can say is I have owned a number of scanners over the years and If they
don't make the grade then they go west. I have kept my icom longer than any
other scanner it's size is ideal and I take it just about anywhere and everywhere.
For on site events any of the smaller aerials will suffice whilst staying discreet.
For indoor use then the supplied aerial will work fine on UHF but to excel
at VHF you really do need to use something a bit more useful for this frequency
range. I have not done any technical tests (they are listed below for the more
tecchies amongst us)but I found the Icom receives very well across most frequency
ranges you are likely to encounter.
Final Thoughts
I have never regretted buying this scanner it has not got the features of
some scanners like the AOR8200 but then it is about half the price.The ctcss
I have put to good use.There are a couple of things that I don't like with
this receiver.One being the Priority ch (Or memory scan watch as Icom call
it) you can not set it up to scan and "listen" out for an active
channel whilst scanning you can only do this when in search mode or in VFO
mode.
My other dislike being that you can not search selected memory banks, it's
one bank or all banks.
Resources You can join the UK mailing list for the Icom R2 at UK-Icom-ICR2
Specs
Channels 400
Banks 8
Coverage 495 kHz - 1309.995 MHz
Scan 10 chan/sec
Search 30 steps/sec
Steps 5/6.25/9/10/12.5/15/20/25/30/50/100 kHz
Modes AM, FM & WFM
Sensitivity
AM : 0.63 - 1.3 µv
FM : 0.18 - 0.45 µv
WFM : 0.71 - 1.0 µv
Conversion Triple
IFs 1=266.7 2=19.65 3=0.450 MHz
Priority 1 channel
Search limits 25
Search skip 400
Auto-store No
S-meter Yes
Delay Global, 0 - 20sec or hold
Lockout Yes
Attenuator Global
Lock Yes
Tone codes Yes
Computer intf Optional
Rotary control Yes
Channel count No
Timers Yes
Light Display
Power 2 AA
Audio 100mW
Size 2.3" W x 3.5" H x 1" D
Weight 6oz/170g
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